“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they’ve been fooled” - Mark Twain
As someone who once considered himself a born-again Christian, who for years through my church ministered to Denton County jail inmates and managed a charitable effort to provide toys to financially disadvantaged families, I have yet been unable to understand Donald Trump’s appeal to evangelical Christians.
I’m sure it had a lot to do with Jerry Falwell Jr.’s 2015 surprise endorsement of Trump over what most thought would go to Ted Cruz. The Liberty University president’s influence over American evangelicals carries a lot of weight among orthodox Christians.
But we have recently learned what possibly led to Falwell’s endorsement then and his further encouragement in 2019 to give Trump an extra two years “as pay back for time stolen” by the Mueller investigation.
Back in May, 2019 news broke about “racy ‘personal’ photographs” of Falwell, his wife and a Florida pool boy - “the sort that would typically be kept ‘between husband and wife’,” according to Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who says he aided in helping those photos to disappear. That original story was released in early May, 2019 giving little details as to the nature of what those “racy” photos revealed.
Thankfully we have now learned that “a business partner of Jerry Falwell Jr has come forward to say he had a years-long sexual relationship involving Falwell’s wife and the evangelical leader.
Giancarlo Granda says he was 20 when he met Jerry and Becki Falwell while working as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel in March 2012. Starting that month and continuing into 2018, Granda told Reuters that the relationship involved him having sex with Becki Falwell while Jerry Falwell looked on.”
What consenting adults do behind closed doors is their own business. It’s the hypocrisy of Falwell’s that needs being called out. Liberty University’s own code of ethics states: “Sexual relations outside of a biblically-ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman are not permissible at Liberty University”
But even more seriously is how credible then and now is Falwell’s endorsement of Trump who he’s indebted to for aiding in concealing the evangelical leader’s shame? Why would any Christian today still be willing to throw their support behind someone whose own sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, says he has “no principles. None.”
Trump has cheated on all three of his wives, lied about his wealth, cheated people out of their money, exploited Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, has an alarming affinity for hateful white supremacists, and bald-face lied to his campaign crowds about how Democrats will bring about the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse
I am simply confounded when I see dear friends of mine who are professed Christian evangelicals plant Trump/Pence signs in their yard. I have to wonder, what part of Trump’s nature still entices them to align themselves with a person who has no moral compass. Surly the fact alone that he’s willing to appoint anti-abortion judges to the bench cannot be the sole reason to keep someone in office who lies prolifically and has clearly failed to serve his oath of office.
The gospels warn Christians about those who would be “ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding”. El presidente has been deluging his Twitter followers and Republican convention audiences with baseless claims about mail-in ballot fraud and ludicrous conspiracies, especially from the QAnon crowd.
If evangelicals don’t start shaking that tree now to find out how many nuts fall, they will have allowed themselves to become duped - again - into a campaign that offers little relief from what ails our nation. It’s the law of propaganda used by autocrats that affirms if you “repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth”. That in a nut shell is Trump’s 2020 campaign strategy.
Before voting this year I would implore my evangelical friends to consider Mark Galli’s words in his farewell op-ed as Christianity Today’s outgoing editor-in-chief, who encouraged evangelicals to, “Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior.”
