www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Donald Trump and Christian conservatism

Is The Donald U.S. Christianity's "Great White Hope?"

Or do you look for another?

On a scale of one to ten, what would you say he is?

Don't be shy now . . . I'm sure he doesn't visit this Forum so he won't come after you if you say something critical . . .

Alex

He is an experienced businessman, but running a country is not the same as running a business. What he has going for him is that he is an outsider. The public is tired of career politicians who do nothing after being elected.

An embarrassment.

The US has suffered for seven years under a President who never did anything in his adult life other than attend higher education, "community organization" (whatever that is), and run for public office.

We are hiring the chief of executive of the United States.

We need someone with executive experience, be it a state governorship, military command, or business administration.

What I find distressing is Trump's admission that the seeks to make ammends for his errors without confession to God...in the words of Frank Sinatra, "I did it my way."

OK, so he's not very pious . . .

Is the current U.S. leader any more pious, given the causes he has espoused?

That he isn't a perfect candidate - no one can dispute. Would he be the best in some sense given what you Yanks have to work with?

Alex

Alex,

As a US voter I approach the 2016 election, as mentioned before, with the mindset of hiring a commander-in-chief, not the theologian in chief.

So while Trump's self made piety makes me personally uneasy, that really is irrelevant to the matter at hand.

It would be refreshing to have a President who has not been a professional politician--haven't had one since Eisenhower.

Very well-articulated position, Sir Thomas!

Alex

Alex:

After the past 7 years, Trump can't be all that bad. After all, we've had a man without any governing experience and look at the mess he's made. We are weak at home and laughed at abroad. It can't get much worse. Our present chief exec ran as someone with fresh ideas and not a lot of political depth.

BTW, "community organization" = "rabble rouser" or "shake down artist" whichever fits. Essentially one goes around to businesses and accuses them of being racist, capitalist, or the current evil d'jour and they pay him off to go away. The mafia was accused of extortion when they did it, but they were a different race.

Bob

Truer words were never spoken. I never thought I would ever see a president worse than Jimmy Carter in my lifetime. I was wrong. Carter was and is a good man, but not a good leader or manager.

AMEN to that! I am in total agreement.

He also is not beholden to certain big money powers that be, and whose influence (read: 'money') influence everything we do, from foreign policy to the food we eat.

Trump himself named a few of them and said he would not be beholden to them.

Here is what he said today that shows that he can refreshingly think clearly, logically and for himself:

http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/trump-middle-east-would-be-more-stable-hussein-gadhafi-n438156

I agree that Jimmy Carter was a good man, but bad president. His views of Christianity are on the liberal side for me, but I admire the way he is handling his illness with grace.

The U.S. certainly does have a bad record of being on the wrong side of things - probably because of basic ignorance of cultures, including social and political, other than its own.

The U.S. has been complicit in various take-downs of Middle Eastern monarchs, including the Hashemite king of Syria who was shot in 1959, and, of course, the Shah of Iran.

Americans still have the old Revolution of 1776 buzzing around in their bonnets . . . And I, for one, don't believe for a minute that that war was initially fought to separate the 13 colonies from the Crown.

Having helped gotten rid of the legitimate and immemorial kingdoms of that region, what was left in the aftermath has been despotic and truly evil rulers - yes, including that reprehensible fellow Assad, one of Putin's few international allies - who have become the "best of the worst" in terms of stabilizing forces.

That is the unfortunate legacy of U.S. international policy in the first instance and from my POV.

Alex

Re: Trump, our country is already run by billionaires, I guess we might as well be completely honest with ourselves and put one in office.

I will vote for Bernie Sanders if he wins the primary. If Hilary wins, I'm not sure what I would do... maybe vote for whatever nobody the Greens put up.

Obama was in many respects far too conservative. There was much more I suspect he could have done. His foreign policy has been generally along the same lines as previous presidents, ie disastrous.

That said, considering the alternatives, I gladly voted for him twice and would do so a third time if that were possible.

I'm critical of Trump (rate as 5.5) because he is pompous and will have a difficult time negotiating with Congress. his is used to a dictatorial style of management.

On the plus side, he sure doesn't appear to be owned by anybody. I was pleasantly surprised by his foreign policy views with regard to Putin and Syria (Except for Rand Paul and recently Marc Rubio, the other Republicans are only tweaking Obama's failures). It's time we put the miserably failed Mid-east policy to bed and get realistic. We have been trying to make the mid-East a colony for two decades.