On Trump and Morality

Hey, when you take a strong position on an issue, you're likely to get some feedback. Not all of it is going to be positive. Take Mark Galli, Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today Magazine. He recently published an editorial condemning President Trump and asserting that he was "morally unfit" to be President. Not a huge problem by itself…everybody’s entitled to their opinion…except that Galli unwisely invoked the name of Reverend Billy Graham, who founded the magazine. Oopsie! Turns out that Rev. Graham was a supporter of Donald Trump and voted for him for president. 

Anyway, now 200 or so "evangelicals" have come out in angry contradiction to Galli and his editorial.  You can read that article HERE.

President Trump surely is a controversial, polarizing character in modern American history. You love him or you hate him. We can say that he is not a "moral" or "ethical" man, and there is plenty of evidence to support that statement. Trump is also not a "good Christian" by any stretch of the imagination (although who am I to judge?). Luckily, the U.S. is not a Christian nation, per se. Our country may have been created with respect to certain Christian principles and values, but the founders went out of their way to ensure that the government would never be dominated by any one particular church or religion - like England.

Every voice needs to be heard - even Galli's. This is America, after all, where we fight and die for our First Amendment rights. Nobody should be shouted down or forcibly shut up, no matter how unpopular are their words.  Mark Galli may have taken a provocative stance among conservative Christians, but I admire him for doing it. Donald Trump is, to be honest, a pretty despicable person. Impeachably despicable? Ehhh, I don't know. People...*voters*...should seriously be asking themselves if Trump is really the person we/they want leading our country for another four years? 

For Christians, that's got to be a tough question. To them, morality comes from God.  But this is America; we cannot demand that all politicians believe the same things we do…or even that they be Christians for that matter.  We cannot even tell them what is “moral” behavior and what’s not, for morality is one of those ill-defined, subjective concepts.  Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said in 1964 when asked to define pornography: ”I know it when I see it!"  But how important is morality in a supposedly religion-free government that has worked so hard to expel God from our lives?  

Well, morality is about how we act towards others within the framework of society, right? Those generally-good feelings (and actions) toward one another are innate to most – but not all – of us humans.  You don’t have to be a Christian to be a moral person - but it helps. Still, as a Christian I cannot demand that a person adhere to the same moral standards as I do.  And so Trump is a dilemma.  I may not personally be able to stand him, but does that mean he can't be a good President?

For atheists, it may even be a harder question - because we know that morals (and their close friend, ethics) are "squishy." They change over time and are not generally set in stone, as it were. Things that were once seen as immoral don’t seem like such a big deal now. And so, should we even care about how "immoral" Trump acts in the present? Perhaps one day in the future, his current behavior, like that of unmarried couples living together, or pregnancy out of wedlock, both of which were once considered highly immoral, may seem perfectly acceptable and inoffensive. 

And wouldn’t that be some shit!