By Farooq Kperogi
There are Nigerian Christians who are prepared to put up with and explain away Donald Trump’s undisguisedly vile anti-black racism because they think he shares a common Christian identity with them. I’ve even read some Nigerians call him “God’s Chosen One”!😂 I hate to burst people’s bubbles, but Trump is decidedly NOT a Christian. In fact, he has stone-cold contempt for Christians, but he conceals this because he needs the votes of white evangelical Christians. I list only 7 proofs that he isn’t a Christian.
- On July 18, 2015, Trump told a gathering of socially conservative Christians in Ames, Iowa, that he doesn’t ask God for forgiveness. “I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t,” he said.
As a Christian theologian by the name of Michael Austin said in response to Trump’s comment, “Asking God for forgiveness is a central aspect of Christianity across… many traditions. This is not relevant to his political views, but it is curious that many Christians support Trump and believe his claims about his Christian faith.”
- During a speech at the conservative Christian Liberty University on January 18, 2016 Trump betrayed his lack of basic familiarity with the Bible when he quoted “Two Corinthians 3:17” instead of the “Second Corinthians” that observant Christians call it.
- On August 26, 2015, Bloomberg reporters Mark Halperin and John Heilemann asked Trump to mention his one or two favorite Bible verses after he called the Bible his “favorite book.” He stammered and said, “Well, I wouldn’t want to get into it because to me that’s very personal.” He was mocked.
- In order to compensate for this embarrassment, about a month later, he tried to prove that he did, in fact, have some familiarity with the Bible. So, during an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Sept. 16, 2015, he said his favorite verse in the Bible was, “Proverbs, the chapter ‘never bend to envy.'” Problem is, Christians say no such verse exists anywhere in the Bible.
- Again, on April 14, 2016 New York radio host Bob Lonsberry asked Trump to name his favorite Bible verse. After hemming and hawing and prevaricating, he finally said “an eye for an eye” was his favorite Bible verse. Even a non-Christian like me knows that Jesus repudiated that verse in the New Testament. Many American Christians pointed out that in Matthew (5:38-42) Jesus said, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
- Trump doesn’t even go to church. During a campaign stop in South Carolina in 2015, Trump said he was a “Presbyterian Protestant” who goes to the “Marble Collegiate Church” in New York. The very next day, the church issued a statement saying although Trump’s late parents were “active members” of the church, Trump “is not an active member of Marble,” a polite way to say he lied about being a member of the church.
- Trump has never gone to church since he has been president, and when he appears in official church functions, he’s always visibly uncomfortable and apathetic.
On Friday, he pandered to evangelical Christians (for their votes only, of course) by saying churches are essential services that should be open. But on Sunday, he went to play golf instead of going to church. If there’s really such a thing as an “Anti-Christ,” it is Trump.
Two Trump biographers sum up his attitude to religion nicely. Timothy O’Brien, author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being Donald,” wrote: “Donald has never been a spiritually or religiously serious person.”
And Gwenda Blair, author of “The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President,” wrote: “He’s a transactional guy with humans, and it’s no different with God — it’s all about whatever is to his advantage with regard to his supporters, and referencing God is exactly and only that.”
