Not My Pro-Life President
I considered sharing my observations about President Trump after attending the March for Life, but I held my tongue. I considered sharing my observations about President Trump after the death of John Lewis, but I held my tongue. This week, after a prominent religious sister gave a glowing endorsement of President Trump at the Republican National Convention- with the accolade, “the most pro-life President this nation has ever had” -I cannot keep quiet anymore.
My kingdom does not belong to this world. - John 18:36
There is a reason why Jesus made it very clear he was not a political king, and there are many pro-lifers that are flirting with blasphemy in their association of Christianty with Donald Trump.
To be a pro-life Christian is to have a radical dedication to Jesus that is manifest through the virtues of religion, chastity and ministry. God alone knows if Trump possesses these virtues. The Democrats have made President Trump out to be the anti-Christ, and he certainly isn't that. However Republicans revere him as the chosen one of God, and he certainly isn't that either. The truth has been obscured by political rhetoric.
It cannot be said enough that far too many Christians play the two party game.
The days of the pro-life Democrats are long gone. Catholics, with our tradition of robust moral theology, must be more vocal that we simply cannot vote for abortion advocates.
But does rejecting pro-abortion politicians necessarily require gleefully endorsing a morally reprehensible politician who uses unborn babies as political leverage?
Jesus challenges all of us to be radically transformed by the truth. Christians must follow this example by challenging political leaders in America. Christian leaders at the RNC missed a valuable opportunity. Instead of celebrating a president who upholds some Christian values while placing himself in direct opposition of others, Christian Republicans could have invited President Trump to open the Bible he carries around for publicity.
Donald Trump allowed over 250 infants and children of migrants in Texas to be separated from their families and trapped in inhumane living quarters. Even if moral theologians wanted to formulate a defense for that behavior, it is not accurate to declare President Trump is defending life at all stages. President Trump's actions towards vulnerable children is oddly selective at best and hypocritical at worse. But by no logical analysis may it be lauded as a consistent defense of life at all stages.
So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Does President Trump belong to the truth? Or does President Trump manipulate the truth for his own personal gain? The truth is that Donald Trump promotes conservative white values, so when those values happen to intersect with Christianity he tweets "GOD" in all caps or reaches for the nearest Bible. When Christians endorse this behavior it is a missed opportunity to lead a lost soul to the truth.