"You shall worship the Lord your God
and only Him shall you serve."
As a religious woman, truth is naturally important to me, but truth is in short supply these days when considering the state of our government. I feel compelled to speak out, because it appears that some of my fellow Christians have abandoned devotion to truth, giving a pass to a corrupt businessman who was made president through the machinations of enemy foreign powers and who lies continually, unreservedly, shamelessly and unrepentantly.
Apparently, they expect a completely amoral, dishonest and corrupt businessman to act in the best interests of Christians. Why?
Every day, some fresh horror is revealed, and Trump blithely lies his way out of it, destroying the reputations of good people and institutions as he smashes his way through the halls of government, firing anyone who disagrees with him or does not accede to his every demand.
Given his craven dishonesty, complete lack of ethics, barely disguised corruption and personal financial gains, why do my Christian brothers and sisters defend him?
According to modern psychology, their brains have no chance against the constant, daily onslaught of bologne. All presidents lie. But "Donald Trump is in a different category. The sheer frequency, spontaneity and seeming irrelevance of his lies have no precedent." [See Politico Magazine link, below.] "A whopping 70 percent of Trump's statements that PolitiFact checked during the campaign were false, while only 4 percent were completely true."
Links to articles about Trump's lies:
Politico Magazine - Trump’s Lies vs. Your Brain - Here’s what psychology tells us about life under a leader totally indifferent to the truth.
Washington Post - In 466 days, President Trump has made 3,001 false or misleading claims
Metro - The number of Trump lies just hit 3,000
CNN Politics - President Trump lied more than 3,000 times in 466 days
CNN - Toobin: Rudy's interview and Trump's lies create a crisis
Fact Check: Trump Blames His Own Border Policy on the Democrats
Politifact - False Statements Involving Trump
Factcheck.org - Trump's Phony "Fake News" Claims
2016: Politico Magazine - Trump’s Week of Errors, Exaggerations and Flat-out Falsehoods
Despite his authoritarian methods and constant falsehoods and misleading comments, Trump's supporters continue to cheer him on. I used to think that they were just lacking information or that they were shielded from the truth by outfits like Fox News and EWTN Nightly News that deliberately omit information that does not flatter Trump. That isn't it. Americans are not stupid. I believe that most of them can easily see just what kind of man he is. They just don't care. They dismiss it as irrelevant, or not as important as something they feel they are gaining by having this barbarian in charge of our country. They do not mind risking the stability of our government. They do not care if other countries hate us.
By supporting the man of lies, Christians become the people of the lie. Satan is "the father of lies" and anyone who supports the lies are supporters of Satan. Non-Christians are watching this and their opinion of Christianity has plummeted. Who knows how long it will be before the reputation of Christ and his people recovers? I am having to defend the Christian faith against the hypocritical acts of Christians on a daily basis these days, and this is a very odd position to occupy, considering the fact that I am a relatively new convert to the faith.
"When we are overwhelmed with false, or potentially false,
statements, our brains pretty quickly become so overworked
that we stop trying to sift through everything."
Maria Konnikova
Politico Magazine
Politico Magazine
Trump supporters have said that all politicians act this way - they all lie. That excuse, itself, is a lie. First of all, I've never seen anyone lie this much. The sheer volume of lies is almost overwhelming. It is a daily scandal. Even if another politician HAD lied so much, so often about so many, the fact that they had done so is certainly not an excuse for the present case.
Others are quick to chastise us to "forgive" the President - a supposedly "baby Christian" - but they seem to forget that forgiveness is not given to the unrepentant. Someone who deliberately lies to get ahead in life, knows that he is lying and knows that it is wrong is not getting forgiveness from the Lord who is all truth and goodness. "Baby Christians" are forgiven for their former evil lives, but are expected to make an effort to improve. Instead, Trump doubles down and increases the number and extremity of the lies. It is a sin to presume upon the future forgiveness of the Lord for sins engaged upon today.
"There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his
own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from
on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy
(hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory
without merit."
Catechism of the Catholic Church
2092
In addition to the lies, some of the behaviors would have caused enormous public outrage, were they done by any other politician. For example, can you imagine what would have happened if Barack Obama had filled key government positions with unqualified family members and had given them offices in the White House, despite their inability to pass a background check or get security clearance? What if he had called White Supremacists "very fine people," and defended them against public outcry? What if Barack Obama had reached out to our national enemies to gain their help in winning the election? What would have happened if Barack Obama had bragged about assaulting women and grabbing them "by the pussy" and then later denied having done that and called the 2 dozen women who came to complain about him liars who were just trying to make money off of him?
Barack Obama receiving Nobel Peace Prize
Can you imagine if Obama had multiple sexual liaisons with other women and had to pay off porn stars, embarrassing his wife and causing her untold grief? Republicans went nuts when Bill Clinton had an affair with a staffer and then lied about it. They impeached him for it - but not a word about this MOUNTAIN of corruption we have now. Barack Obama, whom Trump tried (and failed) to label as an immigrant, was certainly not a perfect man. There are many things he did while in office that I wish had been done differently - but at least the man had some integrity and dignity. HIS entourage didn't get indicted. The world gave him the Nobel Peace Prize! Trump will not be winning that, I can guarantee you.
In addition to the mountain of lies, we have incontrovertible evidence of massive corruption of the worst kind, which is, in itself, a lie in action. Trump is benefiting financially as a result of his governmentally bestowed power. Multiple governments were promised favors in exchange for money paid into Trump businesses. It isn't just Russia. Oligarchs from countries around Russia are involved. Within the last few days, we learned that Trump's people also met with officials from the Arab Emirates for assistance in gaining the election. Now that Trump is in power, governments that do not benefit Trump personally and financially are punished governmentally, such as in the case of Qatar.
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani meets with President
Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia
Links to information about Qatar and Trump:
Slate - The Most Important Questions to Ask About the Kushner 666 Fifth Ave. Deal
TPM - Trump’s Lawyer’s Lawyer Is (Was) a Foreign Agent for Qatar
The Atlantic - What Trump's Qatar Tweets Revealed
In order to ensure that Trump's actions would not be reported upon, complained about, or worked against, he deliberately left hundreds of jobs unfilled when he came to office. He fired many people. Some resigned in anticipation of what was to come. The offices are mostly empty, except for the king's family and their servile lackeys. This type of organization is calculated to concentrate power with Trump, his family, and his sycophants. The fewer people that have access to him and his family, the safer he feels. He can conduct himself in secrecy.
What few positions he did fill were with people whose stated aim has been the destruction of the departments to which they were assigned. Betsy De Vos, for example, worked for years to eliminate the Department of Education, which she now heads. That is just one of many examples.
Over the last year, a long list of government officials have been fired by Trump. Anyone who doesn't treat him like the dictator he aspires to be, is fired. Few people left in power on The Hill have any spine and they will not stand up to him. Rod Rosenstein is about to be fired, apparently, because he will not kowtow to Trump's furious demands.
Rod Rosenstein
Read article and watch video here:
Background information about this matter:
Now that multiple co-conspirators have been indicted by the Russia probe, and the investigation is creeping ever closer to Trump himself, Trump's hysteria has reached epic proportions, and he has invented a spy scandal and is calling it "spygate," claiming that Barack Obama had a spy embedded in Trump's campaign. His lies know no bounds. He gladly skewers the reputations of honest people in service to his massive ego and, lately, to hide his crimes. Does anyone remember, "THOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOR?"
CLICK THIS LINK FOR BACKGROUND ON SPYGATE:
Leslie Stahl just revealed in an interview that when she asked Trump why he continually trashes the news media, he told her that he bashes the press to "demean and discredit" them so that, when they report on him, they will not be believed. This is the liar trying to ensure that the lies are swallowed whole, by giving false witness.
Leslie Stahl, discussing Trump's comments to her
SEE THIS LINK TO WATCH VIDEO
AND READ ARTICLE:
Christians cannot allow themselves to be aligned with this man of lies whose behavior and speech is in complete opposition to the Christian faith. There is no excuse for it. Nothing is worth allying oneself with Satan, the father of all lies.
It is time for Christians to re-examine all their beliefs around this president. There is too much at stake to do otherwise. Fortunately for us, we have the internet, without which it would be ever so much more difficult to conduct the kind of research that one will need to do in order to de-program themselves. Politifact, factcheck.org and snopes are good resources to check the reliability of whatever one does find on the internet. Stay away from inflammatory sources that are paid for by partisan organizations. Stay away from publications that are not strictly news news outlets. I love EWTN News Nightly, as a Catholic television program, but I don't rely upon it for all my news. If you are Christian, and if truth means anything to you at all, you must do this. Do it now, before the mid-term elections.
Silver Rose Parnell
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