Tag Archive for: Trump

Is Trump an Unconstitutional Dictator? What About Corruption?

 

Ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing something unprecedented in American history! This week, we’ll explore how President Donald Trump is using the “shock and awe” strategy to shake up the political landscape – and more importantly, how Christians should navigate this new era without becoming complacent or too comfortable with the changing leadership.

With the recent transfer of political power, how has the current administration managed to accomplish so much in such a short time? And are these rapid changes more beneficial or more detrimental to the American people? Jorge Gil and John Ferrer temporarily take over the ‘I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist’ podcast to examine Trump’s bold political moves from a nuanced, biblical perspective, tackling key questions such as:

  • What is the “shock and awe” strategy, and how is Trump using it to reshape the political landscape?
  • How has the political left and legacy media lost the trust of the American people, and why have they failed to regain it?
  • What were Trump’s three biggest campaign promises, and has he followed through on them?
  • Is Trump acting like a dictator, or have the attacks against him only strengthened his influence?
  • What has Elon Musk and DOGE uncovered about government waste and corruption?
  • Why shouldn’t Christians put too much trust in the Trump Administration or any political party?

It’s a fascinating—and at times overwhelming—political climate, but in this conversation, Jorge and John will encourage Christians to stay engaged, keep up with current events, and analyze it all through a biblical lense. Tune in to learn how Christians can stand as beacons of light, restore civil discourse, and foster courage and hope in America. You won’t want to miss this fast-paced, thought-provoking episode!

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Resources mentioned during the episode:

Department of Government Efficiency: https://doge.gov/
2025 Donald J. Trump Executive Orders: https://bit.ly/4hN3gL2
24 Things Donald Trump Is Promising To Do: https://bit.ly/4hYdNCs

 

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Pastor Responds to Blowback from His “Vote Like Jesus” Sermon with Pastor Josh Howerton

Why do people remain shocked that a majority of Christians (and the nation) voted for Donald Trump? How is that voting like Jesus?

This week, Frank invites Pastor Josh Howerton of Lakepointe Church in Dallas, TX to talk about Josh’s recent (and somewhat controversial!) political sermon, ‘How to Vote Like Jesus‘. In it, Pastor Josh points out that when the government moves past things like building roads and teaching kids their ABCs, to redefining marriage, promoting transgender ideology in public schools, and reframing infant murder as “reproductive rights”, it should be clear that Christians need to be involved. But with so much confusion going around about “legislating morality” and “the separation of Church and State”, how can Christians (and their pastors) develop a proper theology of politics?

In this podcast, Frank asks Pastor Josh to answer questions like:

  • What kind of feedback did he receive after his politically charged sermon?
  • What are the three types of leaders that we find in the Bible and how do they relate to the recent presidential election?
  • Who is at the top of the Political Org Chart in America, and why do Christians have a responsibility to be involved?
  • What is the key difference between the current Democrat and Republican platforms that some Christians are overlooking?
  • Is the Church becoming more political? Or have politics become more spiritual?
  • Is it really necessary for Christians to vote if both candidates are morally corrupt?
  • How can pastors effectively disciple their congregations in the area of politics?
  • How do you respond when someone accuses you of trying to legislate morality as a Christian?

As Frank and Pastor Josh reflect on the overlap between Christian morality and government legislation, they’ll explore how a robust theology of politics can help Christians uphold moral standards that limit evil and support a flourishing society. Now that the election is behind us, will the American Church take advantage of God’s extension of mercy on our country? Or will we once again drift into complacency? All this and more will be discussed in this entertaining and educational podcast episode!

Did you enjoy this episode? HELP US SPREAD THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY BY SUPPORTING THE PODCAST HERE.

Resources mentioned during the episode:

Follow Pastor Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josh_howerton/
Pastor Josh’s sermon ‘How to Vote Like Jesus’: https://youtu.be/SitsLDo6X_Y
Lakepointe Church in Dallas, TX: https://lakepointe.church/
Calvin Robinson’s Oxford Union Speech: https://youtu.be/ymbTb2HS5Rc
George Barna article on 2024 Election Results: https://bit.ly/3YRHopn

 

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What If I Don’t Like Either Candidate?

If you’re like me, this upcoming election feels like a choice between which electric outlet to jab a fork into. I’m not a big fan of either candidate. It may be tempting to just sit-out this election. But we shouldn’t give up that easily. This November, you won’t be voting for a pastor, or a personality. You’re not just voting for a president either. You’re voting for a package deal. We’re going to get the president and everything that comes with them. So, we owe it to ourselves to look past their personality and consider the rest of the caravan that’s coming along with them. Here are eight reasons why you and I should still vote in this election even if we don’t like either candidate.

If You Won’t Vote for Either Candidate Then . . .

1. Vote Down Ballot

Besides the presidency, there are thousands of other elected officers to be determined this November. History shows that whichever party wins the presidency gets a boost in the elections down ballot. You can help your preferred party win those other elections by endorsing their party for president.

2. Vote For a Cabinet

The president doesn’t work alone. He or she has a cabinet of about 15 different department heads, 10 other cabinet officials, and the Vice President.[1] This cabinet of 26 people advise the president on a regular basis. The president has the authority to appoint all of those officers. If you don’t like either candidate but you would trust a conservative cabinet over a progressive cabinet, then you know who to vote for.

3. Vote For 4,000 Presidential Appointees.

Besides appointing all the cabinet members, the president also appoints 4,000 or so government positions. When people say, “The Trump Administration” or the “Biden Administration” that’s what they are talking about; it’s the president plus the cabinet plus 4,000 or so appointees. The president isn’t just a personality but also a gateway for overhauling Washington DC.

4. Vote For a Vice President

Besides serving as the next in line for president, the VP is the Chief officer in the president’s cabinet. Even if you don’t care for Trump or Harris, you can get a sense of the administration direction through their running mate. Plus, you might see something in a VP candidate to inspire your vote.

5. Vote For a Party Platform

I would say ‘vote for the party’ but there’s no telling what the party stands for without their platform (what they say they’ll do) and their policies (what they do). In the last 5-8 years, the “left” has pulled farther left. “Old-school” democrats are considered moderate or even Republican now. Today’s Republicans are tough to distinguish from libertarians. The point is, you can still read the party platform of the Democrats and the Republicans and vote for the one that best fits our beliefs and values.

6. Vote For the Policies

Beside the party platform, both candidates represents a set of policies. Now, you can expect politicians to make all sorts of campaign promises leading up to the election. But I’m not talking about those empty promises. I’m talking about the party policies that are likely to happen, once that party is in power. The president, of course, can’t just make a new law. Congress does that. But the president, VP, and his cabinet can throw a lot of influence behind their party policies.

7. Vote For the Power of Executive Office

The president has the power to make executive orders including creating or disbanding whole departments if they so choose. Now, you may not trust either candidate with that power. But someone will have that power regardless. I bet you distrust one candidate more than the others.

8. Vote Against the Other Candidate

There is no option to vote for two U.S. presidents in this election cycle. So, when you vote, you’re always voting against the other candidate. Maybe you don’t like either candidate. But you can still vote against whichever candidate you dislike the most.

A Final Warning

If you aren’t convinced yet, and you don’t follow my advice, then you have that right. It’s a free country, for now. It’s not like Christians will lose their salvation for voting third-party or sitting this one out. But I would urge you not to waste your vote. You can still exercise wisdom, love, and courage by voting not for the president but for the policies, platforms, and personnel that they represent. Yes, that means voting in the presidential election, but it’s not just about the president. It never was. It’s about competing visions of what American will become over the next 4 years. You can vote for the future of America by voting on the direction of this country right now.

Otherwise, if you sit this one out, then you’re muffling your God-given influence. You’re wasting a precious gift. And you’re telling all the rot and darkness out there rioting in the streets as we speak that you’d rather keep your “salt and light” to yourself (Matt. 5:13:16). Perish the thought. Let’s go vote!

References:

[1] This number can change with any given administration, whenever a new office or department is formed, or another one is shut down.

Recommended Resources: 

Correct, NOT Politically Correct: How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone (Updated/Expanded) Book, DVD Set, Mp4 Download by Frank Turek

You Can’t NOT Legislate Morality mp3 by Frank Turek

Legislating Morality (DVD Set), (PowerPoint download), (PowerPoint CD), (MP3 Set) and (DVD mp4 Download Set) 

Does Jesus Trump Your Politics by Dr. Frank Turek (mp4 download and DVD)

 

Dr. John D. Ferrer is an educator, writer, and graduate of CrossExamined Instructors Academy. Having earned degrees from Southern Evangelical Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he’s now active in the pro-life community and in his home church in Pella Iowa. When he’s not helping his wife Hillary Ferrer with her ministry Mama Bear Apologetics, you can usually find John writing, researching, and teaching cultural apologetics.

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CHRISTIANS SHAMING CHRISTIANS OVER VOTING FOR TRUMP: 3 STRAWMAN ARGUMENTS THAT NEED TO STOP

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By Natasha Crain 

There’s been a sad fallout among Christians now that the election chaos has (mostly) come to an end and a new administration is taking over: Christians are shaming other Christians for having voted for Trump.

It’s one thing to say, “As a Christian, I didn’t support Trump because (fill in the blank with disagreements regarding his character or the party platform).” But it’s entirely another thing to mischaracterize why many Christians did vote for Trump and then attempt to make that into a shameful thing. Not only is that uncharitable between brothers and sisters in Christ, but it fuels the flames of the resentment non-believers have toward politically conservative Christians.

When a person mischaracterizes another’s position on something in order to attack it, that’s called a strawman fallacy. And there’s a lot of strawmanning going on right now.

Here are three big ones.

Strawman 1: If you voted for Trump, you did so because you want Christians to have political “power.”

Ed Stetzer, a dean and professor at Wheaton College, published an opinion piece in USA Today this week titled, “Evangelicals face a reckoning: Donald Trump and the future of our faith.” The subtitle is, “We must live up to our calling as evangelicals: to proclaim Jesus Christ to the world, rather than betray Him to sustain worldly power.”

The subtitle is simply puzzling—if a person voted for Trump, they weren’t living up to their calling as evangelicals because they were chasing after worldly power? This is a strawman, but to understand why, we need to understand what it means to be a secular country—and what it doesn’t.

The United States constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This so-called Establishment Clause of the First Amendment is what people commonly refer to as the principle of “separation of church and state” (though that term is nowhere in the Constitution). The Establishment Clause ensures that the government will not establish a state-supported church and will not force individuals to practice a particular religion. That’s a great thing! It’s freedom of religion. But that says nothing about how individuals should or shouldn’t use their religious beliefs to inform their participation in public life. Secular doesn’t mean we’re supposed to create some kind of neutral, value-free society and keep our worldviews to ourselves. That’s impossible. Every society necessarily makes judgments about what’s good and bad, and ultimately those are worldview questions.

Now, with that in mind, does that mean Christians want power when they vote a certain way? If by power, you mean that they want to advocate for the values that are consistent with their worldview, then the answer is yes, and that’s not a problem. That’s what one should expect to happen in a secular country, where the state isn’t enforcing the authority of a single religion. Everyone is free to vote according to their conscience. If Christians supposedly want “power” because they vote according to their worldview and values, then every single person voting could be accused of the same thing.

One has to wonder, then, what Stetzer has in mind when he cautions Christians not to “betray” Jesus to sustain worldly “power.” Whatever a person thinks of Trump personally, it should be obvious that many Christians (if not the vast majority) were not voting for him as some kind of godly individual, but rather for the platform he represents—particularly over and against the Democratic platform. To suggest that Christians who chose the Republican platform over the Democratic platform are somehow betraying Jesus by voting for someone in the interest of “power” is just outlandish. Conservative voters aren’t chasing power any more than liberal voters are. They’re just voting for the platform that best aligns with their values, even if the candidate representing that platform doesn’t always embody those values. (Does any candidate ever?)

Strawman 2: If you think your faith should inform your political views, you’re a “Christian Nationalist.”

This phrase (“Christian Nationalist”) is getting tossed around everywhere lately. According to an organization called “Christians Against Christian Nationalism,” the term refers to “a cultural framework that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civil life…it carries with it assumptions about nativism, white supremacy, authoritarianism, patriarchy, and militarism.” You can see an image from the organization below.

Let me just say I have literally never come across a Christian who would be considered a Christian Nationalist according to this description—and I follow a lot of online groups/social media communities with Christians all over the spectrum of belief. That’s not to say such people don’t exist (there are always extremists), but that they certainly don’t represent a large number of Christians.

Here’s the problem: People are slapping a strawman label of “Christian Nationalist” on anyone who voted for Trump. If a Christian Nationalist is someone who meets these criteria, then it’s ridiculous to say that all those voting conservative are “Nationalists.” However, I don’t think most people have a specific list such as this in mind when they use the term. They’re simply accusing Christians of mixing church and state because they voted for a platform according to their (Christian) values. To them, that’s “Christian Nationalism.” But, as I explained in the prior point, that shouldn’t even be seen as a problem! Again, it’s what’s expected in a secular country. We have freedom of religion—no state church—and can use that freedom to vote based on our conscience.

This point is closely related to the first point, but comes with a fancy label for extra shaming.

Strawman 3: If you’re concerned about the future of the country given the election results, you’re putting your faith in a person (Trump) rather than in Jesus.

I have seen numerous reminders on social media that we need to put our faith in Jesus, not a political savior. Sometimes these are meant as a simple encouragement, but a lot of times they come with the implication that those who are concerned about the direction of the country under Biden are putting their hope in politics instead of Jesus.

This is the ultimate strawman!

No one I know “worships” Trump or thinks that the President is some kind of replacement savior (not that that means such people don’t exist, but those who do certainly don’t represent the average Christian). People who voted for him may believe that his policies will place the country in a better direction than those of Biden, but that isn’t a confusion about where our hope comes from. When Christians talk about hope in a biblical sense, we’re talking about the hope of eternal life. We may additionally have political hopes for our country’s direction, based on our worldview, but these are completely different kinds of hope. A person can have the hope of eternal life, the hope of a certain direction of the country, and deep concern about an election outcome all at the same time.

Christians are on the receiving end of all kinds of mischaracterizations by non-believers. When we strawman each other, we only add to those misunderstandings. Moving forward isn’t about how we fix our “reputation” for having voted for Trump (as some Christians seem to be concerned about); non-believers will never like our values, no matter who we vote for. It’s about having nuanced and charitable conversations about the best way to live out our faith in the public square…while accurately understanding and responding to one another’s views. Strawmen are easy to blow down, but the damage is hard to fix.

Recommended resources related to the topic:

American Apocalypse MP3, and DVD by Frank Turek

Correct, NOT Politically Correct: How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone (Updated/Expanded) downloadable pdf, Book, DVD Set, Mp4 Download by Frank Turek

Economics, Environment, Political Culture CD by Kerby Anderson don’t promote

Government Ethics CD by Kerby Anderson don’t promote

The Case for Christian Activism MP3 Set, DVD Set, mp4 Download Set by Frank Turek

You Can’t NOT Legislate Morality mp3 by Frank Turek

Fearless Generation – Complete DVD Series, Complete mp4 Series (download) by Mike Adams, Frank Turek, and J. Warner Wallace

 

 

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EVIL NEVER RESTS

Proverbs 18:17 says, “The one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him.”   Yet, there’s an expectation that you’re supposed to have an informed opinion on an event the second a story breaks.  And if you don’t say something, you’ll be accused of not caring:  Silence is violence!  Silence is compliance!

Frank applies this insight to a question about the riots and then addresses questions related to:

  • Is there ever a justification for using violence against your government?
  • Are biblical prohibitions about homosexual behavior really about pedophilia?
  • How can we be sinless in heaven if we have free will?  Won’t there be the potential for sin?
  • How can prayer work if God knows all things in advance?
  • Is recreational marijuana biblical?
  • If God designed DNA, then why are there birth defects?

If you want to send us a question for the show, please email us at Hello@CrossExamined.org.

Subscribe on iTunes: http://bit.ly/CrossExamined_Podcast rate and review! Thanks!!!
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Evangelicals, Trump and the Election with Dr. Michael Brown

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Evangelicals today are deeply divided over Donald Trump. Some see him as a savior figure, anointed by God to protect the church and make America great again. Others see him more like the antichrist, doing great harm to the nation and bringing embarrassment to the church.  Who’s right?  Might they both have good points?  What should we do to move forward?

Dr. Michael Brown, author of Evangelicals at the Crossroads: Will We Pass the Trump Test?  joins Frank as the 2020 election approaches.  Among the questions they address are:

  • Evangelicals have been known as the “values voters” who are always proclaiming, “Character counts! Morality matters!” Have we been hypocritical in our support of Trump?
  • Are Christians losing their ability to witness if they support Trump for president?
  • During the 2016 primaries, you strongly opposed Trump before voting for him vs. Hillary. What changed your mind, and why do you plan to vote for Trump in 2020?
  • Should we be voting more for personality or policy?
  • Jesus scolded the politicians of his day for “neglecting the more important matters of the law” (Mt. 23:23). What are the most important matters of the law upon which we should base our vote in this election?
  • How do the two parties differ on the most important policies?
  • What do you say to pro-lifers who say that health care and poverty and climate change are pro-life issues and they outweigh abortion?
  • You state that “Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my president.” Why is that distinction so important?
  • What should Christians be doing in this election season regardless of who ultimately wins the presidency?

If you want to send us a question for the show, please email us at Hello@CrossExamined.org.

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The Elephant in the Room isn’t Trump

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A couple of listeners wrote emails to express their disagreement with some of what Frank said in the show “Why Did Evangelicals Vote for Trump?” In this show Frank responds by investigating Jesus’s rebuke of the Pharisees (the politicians of Israel) in Matthew 23:23 and then by asking three questions:

  1. What is the purpose of government?
  2. What is your primary reason for choosing a president?
  3. Who, of the available candidates, will best fulfill that purpose?

As you’ll hear the elephant in the room isn’t Trump and his personality. The primary reason we choose a president has to do with a policy, not personality (although personality is still important). Frank responds to other objections from the emails, and also answers this question from a parent: How do I respond to a child who claims not to believe in God anymore?

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