I assumed you were a Fox News Tea party freak and I am truly sorry for making that assumption. I do not like being misjudged and you deserve that same courtesy.
Are you going to stop misjudging the rest of us too?
I assumed you were a Fox News Tea party freak and I am truly sorry for making that assumption. I do not like being misjudged and you deserve that same courtesy.
Are you going to stop misjudging the rest of us too?
We had a meeting, oralloy. It was decided we would stop misjudging everyone. Except you.
Falwell introduced Trump as “one of the greatest visionaries of our time” and as a Central Virginia neighbor of Liberty, becoming the owner of Trump Vineyard Estates near Charlottesville last year. After reading a long list of Trump’s accomplishments in business, in the hotel and real estate industry, and his rise to celebrity status as a bestselling author with a No. 1 television reality show, Falwell, along with Dr. Ronald Godwin, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, awarded Trump an honorary doctorate of business in recognition of his “unwavering and public commitment to our nation’s founding principles of limited government, individual liberty, and the free enterprise system, and in further recognition of his iconic status as one of America’s most successful visionaries and entrepreneurs.”
Trump began by praising Liberty for its notoriety and honoring its founder, Dr. Jerry Falwell, Sr., whom he had met on several occasions.
“This is an amazing school. … All over the world they are talking about it — Liberty University, what they’ve done and in such a short time. You can be very, very proud of yourself and your leaders. … Your founder was a great man … so impressive, so smart, so tough when you had to be tough, but a man with a big, beautiful heart.”
Ever since a mid-July Washington Post poll confirmed that Trump is the leading candidate among white evangelical Republicans (20 percent supported him at the time, compared to 14, 12 and 11 percent for Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush, respectively), political observers have been trying to sort out the puzzle of conservative evangelical support for Trump.
This is, after all, a man who told the Iowa Family Forum that he can’t recall ever asking God for forgiveness (“I don’t bring God into that picture — I don’t.”) In a 2011 interview for the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trump characterized his church attendance as “always on Christmas, always on Easter, always when there’s a major occasion.” The Bible contains dozens of verses warning against the sins of pride and hubris and condemning those who exalt themselves — and Donald Trump is … Trump.
Trump’s unorthodox Christianity — not to mention his fairly liberal record of statements on social issues — seems to trouble evangelical elites, if not ordinary voters. In a World magazine survey of 100 prominent evangelical leaders, only three respondents named Trump as their preferred candidate. (Marco Rubio was the top choice, with 18 votes, followed by a tie between Walker, Cruz and Bush.) The Southern Baptist Convention’s Russell Moore has raised concerns over Trump’s immigration comments, telling reporters that “Mexican immigrants are far more likely to be Bible-believing Christians than to be criminals.” And some academics have tried to argue that many of those evangelicals backing Trump aren’t really evangelicals.
But while it’s easy to chuckle at the idea of Bible Belt voters rallying for a thrice-married real estate mogul who would never dream of turning the other cheek, Trump’s evangelical backing may not be that surprising. It’s been a long time since the personal morality of a candidate was a deal breaker for evangelical Republicans. They only reluctantly backed squeaky-clean Mitt Romney in 2012 as the GOP nominee, and yet voiced few concerns in 2008 when the divorced John McCain self-identified as a Baptist who has never been baptized.
All the best to you!
