How can evangelical leaders criticize homosexual activism in the Trump administration if they are involved in sex scandals?
By Julio Severo
A critical question, while the
administration of President Donald Trump is engaged in a global effort to
advance homosexuality, is “How can evangelical leaders criticize homosexual
activism in the Trump administration if they are involved in sex scandals?”
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| Trump and Jerry Falwell Jr. |
I do not know what is happening to these
leaders, because they are very silent. But I know what is happening to one of
the major evangelical supporters of Trump: Jerry Falwell Jr.
Falwell has been a prominent supporter of Trump,
initially becoming one of the first major evangelical leaders to back Trump in
the 2016 Republican primary and continuing to defend him throughout his
presidency.
“I was very successful in bringing evangelicals
to Trump in 2016,” said Falwell.
After Falwell’s presidential endorsement,
Trump said he was “one of the most respected religious leaders in our nation.”
The answer is shockingly simple and available
on all the media now: Amid a sex scandal, Falwell had to resign from his role
as president and chancellor of Liberty University — the noted Christian school
his father, a prominent Baptist minister, founded 50 years ago. In fact, Liberty
University is the most prominent conservative university in the U.S.
Liberty enforces a rigid moral code for
its students. Even though Trump’s personal life, including multiple divorces,
is at odds with Liberty’s evangelical morality, Trump gave a speech at Liberty on
September 2012. So Trump and Falwell’s relationship happened before the 2016 presidential
election.
Based on the moral code of Liberty, Trump should
never have been invited to speak at Liberty in 2012. Yet, based in the current
sex scandals of Falwell, which have allegedly spanned for several years, there
is no inconsistency between Trump’s personal life and Falwell’s personal life.
And there is no inconsistency in Falwell’s
silence regarding Trump’s moral scandals. He just cannot speak. I do not know
if this is the same problem of other prominent evangelical leaders who support
Trump but seem to have no courage to denounce the engagement of his
administration in the support of a global gay agenda.
Falwell
would be in a better position if he were John the Baptist, who had no life of
sex scandals and adulteries and was free to denounce the divorce and adultery
of the ruler of his time: King Herod.
John denounced it because rulers should
not be exempt to hear what God thinks about disobedience to his Law. Ruler,
kings and presidents are not exempt from God’s Law.
So if Trump is not also exempt from God’s
Law, why are evangelicals silent about his moral and sexual wrongs? Falwell could
not and cannot address this issue because he is no John Baptist. His life is not
free from sex scandals. But are all the evangelical leaders in America also
hindered from addressing this issue because they are also involved in sex
scandals?
It is not wrong for them to support Trump,
who is better than his Democratic contenders, who are socialist and immoral.
But these leaders should never forget to copy the good example of John the
Baptist.
If John the Baptist could in the past,
when kings had the power to kill citizens, rebuke the divorce and adultery of a
king, why cannot evangelical leaders today make the same rebuke to presidents
who have no power to kill them? If they have no courage today, how would they
have courage to rebuke Herod in the past?
Cowardice and silence were never a
characteristic of John the Baptist, and should never be a characteristic of
modern evangelical leaders, unless they are involved in the same problems as Jerry
Falwell Jr.
In 2017, Falwell said
about Trump, “I’m very shocked by how accessible he is to so many. He answers
his cellphone any time of the day or night.” If Falwell had no sex scandal, he
would be free to use this easy access to say what Trump needs to hear.
Trump
heard multitudes of conservative evangelical leaders supporting him, and this
is good. He received an estimated 80 per cent of
the evangelical vote. He was heavily supported by
televangelists.
Now
he needs to hear much more from the modern John the Baptists. Where are they? Is
there some John the Baptist around Trump, or all of them are Jerry Falwells?
If John the Baptist were risen today,
he would rebuke Falwells too.
Portuguese
version of this article: Como os líderes evangélicos podem criticar o ativismo
homossexual no governo Trump se eles estão envolvidos em escândalos sexuais?
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