Pastor Robert Jeffress, also a Fox News contributor, has suggested that if you don’t support Donald Trump, you can’t be a real Christian.
Right Wing Watch caught Jeffress on the radio show of conservative Christian Janet Mefferd this week:
JEFFRESS: I will admit there is a divide going on among evangelicals. President Trump didn’t cause the divide, but he has exposed it. It’s been a growing divide, Janet, between evangelicals who take the Bible seriously and those who don’t. I call them the “evangelical elite”—the “Christianity of the day” crowd.
And here’s where it comes down to — think about this. President Trump is the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty, pro-Israel president in history. So why do we have this resistance among the evangelical elite while the mass of evangelicals in the pews support him? And what it comes down to is the evangelical elite really don’t embrace these values.
Jeffress’ beefs with the non-Trumper “evangelical elites” are that they think bakers should have to bake cakes for everyone (i.e. gay weddings), they care more about “the plight of the poor Palestinians” than about “protecting the Jews’ right to inhabit” Israel. And my personal favorite, the “elites” care more about people than fetuses. Or as Jeffress put it, “They are more concerned about fixing the problem with DREAMers than they are about protecting the life of the unborn.”
As Patheos noted, usually when Christians accuse other Christians of not taking the Bible seriously, they are referring to its interpretation, either as too literal or else not enough in its broader context.
But Jeffress is dividing Christians by whether or not they agree with Trump’s politics.
Listen to Jeffress’ brand of Christianity below, from the January 3, 2018 Janet Mefferd Live radio program, via Right Wing Watch.
(H/T NewsHound Priscilla)
(Jeffress image via screen grab)
Christ was for the poor. GOP evangelicals are about transferring wealth to the rich. Christ healed the sick. GOP evangelicals have no problem kicking people off of health insurance to cut taxes (to benefit themselves?). Christ was the Prince of Peace. GOP evangelicals want to cut social programs to bloat the military budget.
Trump plays lip service to Pastor Jeffress’ moral beliefs but how deep does The Donald’s convictions go? Trump’s behavior certainly isn’t do under others as you would have them do until you or turn the other cheek. I see no movement on abortion, an issue Trump allegedly has flipped to Jeffress’ side. Moreover it is an issue which has no Biblical roots I’m aware of (unless you assume it’s murder).
Jesus wasn’t pro-Israel in the sense Jeffress is implying. Certainly Jesus was Jewish, his mission was to fulfill Jewish prophecy, and he hoped to reform the Jewish religion. However, he wasn’t a Jewish nationalist. He was all about saving the individual.
Gays? Certainly Paul rails against them but Christ never did. An example of Paul stuck in cultural norms of the time like his preaching women should cover their heads in church? I’m no Biblical scholar but I see no reason why gays in a society permitting marriage can’t live as moral of a life as heterosexuals (as outlined in the Bible).
Fox News likes to thump its chest it’s defending Christianity against heathen Democrats but about the sum of their efforts are over the faux ‘War on Christmas’ revolving around imagined restrictions on saying “Merry Christmas” by retailers during the holiday shopping season. 🤔
