"Apparently Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, put in a good performance at last night's VP debate.
I have a feed full of Christians posting or tweeting that Pence was
resoundingly pro-life. My question is then not only why does he run with
Trump (a question that can be answered somewhat legitimately perhaps -
strategically preventing the ticket from being a total moral car crash,
for example) but why does he defend Trump, a man who consistently denigrates human life and advocates its destruction?"
I was then asked "Does Trump denigrate human "life"? Or does he just give some rude comments about women? Yes, he cheated some people in business - not good.
Hillary, on the other side, is a promoter of abortion..." And on the comment went.
Though somewhat baffled that this is a matter for debate among discerning, professing Christians I think now is my opportunity, against a tide of recent pro-Trump endorsements, to be very clear in saying "Yes, he does denigrate human life (as though I would have said it if he didn't!) and I cannot nor will I lend him my support any more than I will support Hillary Clinton."
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Donald Trump denigrates life by objectifying and abusing women.
It is not as simple as "he can be a bit crass", or "he is sometimes too crude in the way he puts things", or, "he sometimes says rude things about women". Donald Trump does not respect the image and likeness of God in created woman, degrading them, demeaning them, and dividing them into subjective categories based primarily on physical objectification. I don't need to build a case against him. He has already done that very well for himself.
See for example the regularly updated Donald Trump sexism tracker from the Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/
Only a handful of things on this list shouldn't be here. For example, if his position on Planned Parenthood and abortion really has changed, then that should not in itself be equated in any way to sexism but to a valid and commendable, if self-contradictory, policy change. Given his lack of any public office track record, however, it is impossible to measure the legitimacy of his conversion to the pro-life cause beyond his appointment of Mike Pence as his running mate. Any warning flags do not concern his alleged newfound views but rather his potentially unhinged application of them.
As for the rest of the list...
Here you can be reminded of how Trump would never buy his wife Ivana decent jewels or pictures because they are "negotiable assets" and what he looked for in female journalists ("a beautiful piece of ass"). His consistent objectification of women is on full display right up to this week's The Apprentice controversy in which we learn that he reportedly rated female contestants on breast size and which ones he would like to have sex with, measured them according to the beauty of his daughter Ivanka (who he once joked he would date if she weren't his daughter - everyone loves a good incest gag!), requested that female contestants wear shorter, cleavage-revealing dresses, and remembered one female contestant not by name, occupation, or skill, but breast-size. Relive the penis and oral sex jokes, and all the times he called women "gold-diggers", "disgusting", "slob", "fat", "ugly", "unattractive", "extremely unattractive (both inside and out)", sexually unsatisfying (apparently Hillary was this, forcing Bill to go elsewhere), "bimbo", "no longer a 10", "Miss Piggy" and "Miss Housekeeping" in reference to the Miss Universe winner from Venezuela, Alicia Machado. Read about that time he defended his hair by tweeting to a woman "I promise not to talk about your massive plastic surgeries that didn’t work." Or when he sent a female journalist a picture of her own face with a circle drawn around it accompanied by the caption "the face of a dog". Or when he called a woman "disgusting for breastfeeding her three month old daughter". Or when he pointed to a woman in the boardroom and asked a colleague "You'd f... her, wouldn't you? I'd f... her. C'mon, wouldn't you?" There's more of course.
You can also find a nice photo of Trump with his daughter Ivanka (of the aforementioned incest gag) sitting in his lap while posing with a statue of copulating parrots.
Missing are the times Trump poured wine down a female reporter's back for not liking her story on him, the time he said of some women "You have to treat them like s***", his bragging about having sex with "top women in the world", his multiple adulterous affairs and marriages, his strip and lap dancing clubs...If you need another reminder of the sleaze that surrounds Trump, here you go: http://townhall.com/columnists/rebeccahagelin/2016/02/28/meet-donald-trump-the-king-of-sleaze-n2126157
I note that pro-Trump, anti-Clinton people love to talk about Bill Clinton's sexually predatory behaviour, highlighting particularly cases of alleged rape and Hillary's role in silencing the victims. For the record, I believe that these allegations are, at least by and large, true. But if we are going to talk about Clinton, we must talk about Trump.
When he abusively had sex with his first wife, Ivana. She initially referred to this as "rape." (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/27/ex-wife-donald-trump-made-feel-violated-during-sex.html)
When he chatted up Rowane Brewer Lane at a party and asked/intimidated her to change out of her clothes into a swimsuit before parading her in front of guests at a party (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/us/politics/donald-trump-women.html?_r=0)
When he allegedly harassed, groped, and attempted to rape Jill Harth (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/20/donald-trump-sexual-assault-allegations-jill-harth-interview)
And the ongoing case that no one is talking about: the alleged rape (on multiple occasions) of a child sex slave, aged 13, by Trump and his friend Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire pedophile and Level 3 registered sex-offender.
For Trump's ties to Epstein: http://www.dailywire.com/news/5556/7-things-you-need-know-about-trump-and-sex-slave-amanda-prestigiacomo.
For analysis of the importance of this case: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/why-the-new-child-rape-ca_b_10619944.html
For why this is not being talked about: http://qz.com/730433/theres-a-simple-reason-donald-trumps-opponents-are-ignoring-his-rape-accusations/
Donald Trump denigrates life by rejecting refugees.
Allow me to quote myself and rip off the totality of a recent article I produced - ("A Losing Candidate and the Cry of Liberty", http://ryanburtonking.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/a-losing-candidate-and-cry-of-liberty.html)
'Donald Trump's first general election ad begins: "In Hillary Clinton's America, the system stays rigged against Americans. Syrian refugees flood in."
Question 1. Which Americans? The Americans whose ancestors were massacred and driven from their lands, many of whom to this day live on reservations plagued by gambling and alcoholism? Or is it the Americans whose ancestors were kidnapped, chained and shackled, herded like wild beasts into great ships that transported them across the ocean to be sold into slavery, later to be freed only to live under decades of segregation, many of whom now live with distinct disadvantages in education, employment, and area ("the wrong side of the tracks") and get lured into crime to make ends meet? The system is rigged against them to be sure, and while Hillary Clinton and the Democrats certainly aren't the answer to their problems, neither is Trump.
Let's take the (white) Americans that Trump is appealing to though. Would those be the descendants of refugees from 17th Century religious state persecution in England? Or maybe of the refugees from 18th Century war, famine, and religious persecution in Palatine (Germany)? Or could it be those of the 19th Century refugees fleeing famine and abject poverty in Ireland, or the wars of the Risorgimento in Italy? 20th Century refugees from Hitler's Western Europe, Stalin's Eastern Europe, Franco's Spain? basically I'm wondering which group of people descended from refugees Trump has in mind when he says "Americans".
Question 2. Which Syrians does Trump fear will "flood in"? Syrians affiliated with ISIS (the Islamic State in Syria)? Syrians linked to the al-Nusra Front (sometimes called al-Qaeda in Syria)? Or maybe the Islamic Front Syria (Saudi-backed Sunni Islamists)? Possibly jihadists linked to Jaish al-Islam (Islam Army) or Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar? Or people connected to the secular, ideologically Marxist PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party)? The brutal Ba'athist Assad regime? Surely it is not people tied to the US and UK backed but thus far rather ineffective Syrian Free Army, is it?
In the second half of the video we are told that "Donald Trump's America is secure. Terrorists...are kept out." Clears that up! Or does it? It is not Syrian "terrorists" that we are apocalyptically warned will flood in. Rather, "refugees." That is, not those who belong to the aforementioned jihadist groups nor even those other secular governmental and rebel factions, but those everyday Syrians not too different from you and me who are tired of the fighting and bloodshed, and don't even have a side they can fight on, but have survived the crossfire and are fleeing for their lives from the pain and sorrow of the present, in pursuit of a more peaceful and successful future. Not the terrorists, but the people running from the terrorists. Trump does not see the distinction - he sees only the people's region and religion, and they are not welcome to the human pursuit of happiness of American soil.
Trump says "Give me your vote. I'll keep them out. Let's make America great again". He forgets that, if it is appropriate to say that America really was "great", a key ingredient to any greatness was when it acted consistently with the invitation of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."'
Donald Trump denigrates life by advocating personal revenge and glorifying a culture of death and violence
On the surface, I don't have a problem with Trump committing to bomb the whatever (his choice of scatological and cosmological term varies) out of ISIS. If anyone has it coming to them, they do. But Trump has advocated the killing not only of terrorists, but also of terrorists' families, insisting that the military would obey him if he illegally ordered such a hit (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-reiterates-desire-to-murder-terrorists-families-a6912496.html). Trump also celebrated the use of enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding and gloatingly commited to reintroduce torture into the justice system when he promised to "bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/06/donald-trump-waterboarding-republican-debate-torture
I am convinced that at the heart of Trump's bombast is a generally vengeful spirit that disregards consequences. This is the man that wrote, after all, "When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can" (How to Get Rich, 2004). There are people spending their life in prison for following the same line of thinking.
One has only to look at his campaign rallies and the stream of consciousness stump speeches he delivers for further evidence of Trump's glorification of violence. A wild, undisciplined mob spirit may often be found. Racial epithets are hurled, people sell and wear crude T-shirts with Clinton's likeness that say things like "Trump that Bitch" and "Hillary Sucks...But not like Monica", and the man himself - when he is not fulminating about Mexico, China, or refugees - will encourage harm or violence against protesters and might even issue a cleverly veiled invitation to supporters of the Second Amendment to assassinate his opponent.
Donald Trump has and continues to denigrate life in countless other ways
Trump is a gambling giant, a king of casinos. For my American friends in the Southern Baptist Convention who are falling under Trump's sway, perhaps a reminder of the 1984 Resolution on Gambling made in Kansas City, Missouri provides a needed jolt back to reality (http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/564/resolution-on-gambling). It describes gambling as "an immoral effort that creates deliberate risks not inherent in or necessary to the functioning of society" and resolves among other things that the SBC "engage in vigorous programs of education for adults, teenagers, and children about the moral tragedies wrought by legalized gambling." A bit difficult to continue in that good work while throwing support behind one of the big names in the industry. Trump's casinos ruined lives and destroyed livelihoods. http://uk.businessinsider.com/trumps-casinos-were-failures-2016-6?r=US&IR=T
Trump not only has a knack for drawing support from racists and xenophobes. He has a history of being one himself. Trump supporters are quick to explain away the hateful rhetoric, shameless stereotyping, and ethnic profiling as misunderstood. Did the Department of Justice misunderstand in 1973 when they sued Trump and his father Fred after finding conclusive evidence that they were discriminating against black families, refusing to rent or negotiate rentals on the basis of race and colour, violating the Fair Housing Act of 1968 in the operation of 39 buildings? The first story about Trump in The New York Times is dated October 16 1973 and carries the headline "Major landlord accused of antiblack bias in city"
(https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2186612-major-landlord-accuse-of-antiblack-bias-in-city.html).
Trump has documented Mob ties. Investigative journalist Wayne Barrett began a 2011 piece with a bullet-point summary of some of his findings:
" • One associate who was an "unindicted co-conspirator" in a massive 2000 stock swindle—and escaped prison only by helping to convict 19 others, including six members of New York crime families
• Two associates who served prison time on cocaine charges
• Another partner prosecuted for trafficking underage girls after a dramatic helicopter raid on a yacht off the Turkish coast
• A pending lawsuit against Trump Soho that alleges daughter Ivanka, among others, made fraudulent misrepresentations"
(http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/26/inside-donald-trumps-empire-why-he-wont-run-for-president.html) For more on his alleged mafia ties: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,155417,00.html
I am wearying of detailing the depressing misbehaviours of a man Christians have no business rallying behind. Trump's consistent denigration of life is evident in much more than what I have covered: abusive treatment of undocumented Polish workers (linked to the aforementioned mob-ties), the scam that was Trump University, tenant intimidation, withholding wages in countless instances (read James 5:1-6 to see how seriously God takes this)... Some of these are covered here: (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/donald-trump-scandals/474726/). My wife is Ukrainian and I have a desire to see the spread of the gospel in that country so I must also highlight that Trump has an unsettling admiration and respect for regressively Soviet demagogue Vladimir Putin, and stripped the GOP platform of its strong pro-Ukrainian language at a time when Putin's Russia is eating away at their borders (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/sports/ukrainian-americans-gop-donald-trump.html and http://qz.com/736394/trumps-gop-platform-voiced-strong-support-for-ukraine-until-it-didnt/). Oh, and how could I forget the oft-repeated stories of him mocking the military service of war-hero John McCain (and every other soldier who has been captured, imprisoned, and tortured in the line of duty) or making fun of a journalist's disability?
Conclusion
Trump is the sort of oppressive, violent, irrational narcissist who says things like: "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?!" I am beginning to believe him...
I can imagine the scenario. I post the news on Facebook that Trump has shot someone. In the comment thread I could easily have a redneck celebrating his gun-slinging machismo, sparking a side debate between American and British friends about the wisdom or foolishness of gun control. Someone would be sure to point out "But we have to remember that Hitlery will be really pro-abortion". An unhinged red faced angry polemicist would fume "you might as well join your buddies in the SBC and endorse Killary" sparking another side debate about Russell Moore, Al Mohler, The Gospel Coalition, and - unrelated but just because - Lifeway. A self-anointed ethicist would theorise about Supreme Court nominations. And we must not forget the elderly lady typing one word in all caps: BENGHAZI!!!.
The much mocked and maligned gentleman-politician Jeb Bush used to speak of creating a culture of life in America. Donald Trump will only contribute to America's spiraling descent into a culture of death. I could say the same about Hillary Clinton, but I do not see the need to do so in quite as much depth, as she does not have a groundswell of enthusiastic evangelical followers, some of whom act as though she is a foreshadowing of the returning Christ. It seems that many American Christians, perhaps in their insularity from global norms, have forgotten how to stand apart as salt and light when wickedness reigns on all sides and the only righteous choice is to refrain from seeing one or the other as "the right choice." In so doing, I fear they are exchanging their unique position as the distinctly set-apart, resoundingly prophetic people of Christ for the pathetic pandering of the newly inaugurated party of Trump. I cannot and will not join them.
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