Celebrity fundamentalist pastor, John MacArthur told Donald Trump this last Sunday that: “Any real, true believer will vote for him (Trump) over Biden.” The veracity of MacArthur’s assertion depends, of course, on what one means by the word “believer.” If it means a believer in selfish-ambition, greed, cruelty, racism, misogyny, narcissistic arrogance, violence, sexual depravity, material wealth, or sheer stupidity as a virtue, then, Trump is the obvious choice. However, if by “believer” is meant someone who follows the Jesus Way of love, compassion, humility, peace, kindness and justice––one who seeks to follow “the spirit” of Christ’s teachings; then, they will resist Trumpism as the hideous evil it is.

John MacArthur and his ilk––the debauched Jerry Falwell, Jr. and the amoral Southern Baptist preacher Robert Jeffress, wouldn’t recognize Christ if he came to their house for dinner (Luke 7:36-50). And neither would the so called “Christians” who have raised, as of today, $250,000 for the defense of the Kenosha shooter. “Woe,” said the ancient prophet, “to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn light to darkness and darkness to light” (Isaiah 5:20).

There is a great story about a little girl sitting next to her mother in church. When the pastor goes to the pulpit to preach she asks her mother: “Mommy, is that God?” And her mother answers, “No honey. He just thinks he is.” There is not much use in arguing with the Falwells, Jeffresses, or MacArthurs of this world who think they are God (Proverbs 26:4; Matthew 7:6), but for the sake of the innocent I would be happy to formally debate MacArthur’s assertion (with the addition of the word “Christian”) so as to either deny the proposition: “Any true Christian believer will vote for Donald Trump;” or to affirm: “No true Christian believer will vote for Donald Trump.”

I wish they didn’t make me so mad––these self-serving “clergy,” these media appointed spokes persons for God “who have gone the way of Cain, rushed into the error of Balaam for pay, autumn trees without fruit, waterless clouds, wild waves of the sea casting up shame, hidden reefs in the church, (Jude 1:11-13)––but they do. Rich (each is worth multimillions) and arrogant, and without what my mother called “human feeling,” they drive me into a kind of Kierkegaardian madness. And so I pray:

O Lord, arise, help us;
and deliver us from those who make a desert in your name.