One of the many strange aspects of this election has been how Donald Trump has won over the religious vote. While Trump never appeared to have much interest in religion in the past, Hillary Clinton is one of the most religious politicians in public life. She spent her years in the Senate working with The Fellowship, supporting an increased role for religion in public policy. However, while generally conservative on social and cultural issues, she fails the right wing litmus test on reproductive rights. This is clearly a far greater sin to the religious right than Donald Trump’s admitted abuse of women.
As I noted yesterday, the release of the tapes in which Trump discussed his abuse of women led to the condemnation from many Republicans, but at least one representative of the religious right did not alter his support for Trump: “One of Trump’s most prominent social-conservative supporters, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, told BuzzFeed’s Rosie Gray: ‘My personal support for Donald Trump has never been based upon shared values.'”
Buzzfeed found another representative of the religious right who continues to back Trump:
“Voters of faith are voting on issues like who will protect unborn life, defend religious freedom, create jobs, and oppose the Iran nuclear deal,” Faith and Freedom Coalition president Ralph Reed said in an email to BuzzFeed News. “Ten-year-old tapes of private conversation with a television talk show host rank very low on their hierarchy of concerns.”
Asked if he had any comment on the tape itself and if he was definitely standing by Trump, Reed said, “I think the statement is self explanatory.”
Ben Carson also defended Trump:
“Dr. Carson believes that people can change and be better,” Carson aide Armstrong Williams told BuzzFeed News in an interview. “You know, these things happen. I’m sure somebody could find a video of Bill Clinton talking like this — are we gonna say Bill Clinton was the same person as president that he is today? Obviously not.”
Armstrong continued, “People commit adultery. It happens. Ministers. Heads of state. Everyday people. People are human, they do human things. It’s nothing unusual that somebody committed adultery on their spouse. Women do it. Men do it. Should we be shocked by it? No.”
…He concluded the interview by saying, “Hey, the flesh can be weak, my man.”
While it is possible that Bill Clinton has also talked like this, it is worth remembering, as Buzzfeed pointed out, “Republicans frequently argued in the ’90s that Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky was disqualifying in part because presidents should be held to a higher moral standard.”
Several Republicans, including Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Jon Huntsman have called on Trump to drop out of the race. While this is unlikely to happen, I have previously posted some interesting links in this post on the ramifications of a candidate dropping out.
I think that Trump already had little chance of winning the election (unless something major happened which was favorable to him). The tape therefore probably won’t change the presidential election result. However it does put the entire GOP in a bigger hole. Previously it looked like the nomination of Clinton seriously hurt the chances for the Democrats to take control of the Senate. That might now be a possibility again.
I find it very interesting how the GOP has reacted to this Trump video about women. My own personal opinion based upon numerous years of watching the GOP and their choices of legislation to push. Is the main reason the GOP is reacting the way they are, is that Trump let the cat out of the bag. The GOP has for years treated women the same way that Trump talked about women out in the open. The GOP has for numerous years pushed legislation that degrades women and treats them as far lesser then a man. Thus this is why the GOP have run around posting condemnations of what Trump said.
The real show of how the GOP feels about this issue is the fact that even though some have come out with negative remarks, very view have actual pulled their support for Trump. Why is this, for in their hearts they actually agree with what Trump said. They are true hypocrites.
His promise to appoint conservative judges who might undermine Roe or even overturn it and his repeatedly stated opposition to abortion are the main things to these people.
They would support Attila the Hun for Pope if he would stop abortion.
One would think from their attitudes that stopping abortion is the primary concern of Christianity.
Remember that these are Christians who actually read the NT. Often. A lot.
So go read the gospels, Acts, and the letters of Paul, especially.
Homophobia and the subjection of women are both written into Christianity's DNA.
God hates fags and wants women to shut up and do as they're told.
By men.
I have always considered it a real possibility, (albeit low), that someday I could be carted off to some "camp" by leftists because of my simple beliefs of a God who created the world in under 160 hours. However, I have also considered it even more likely that I could someday be put to death by so called "Christians" because I don't hold identical beliefs to those same labeled "Christians". To borrow someone else's comparison, when a infant is born, it could become an adult, but it isn't born an adult. When a fetus is growing, it could become a person, but is not yet a person. Thus, I don't believe abortion is murder. I say all this pre-amble, to get to my point, that Ron, you are correct, that many Christians see stopping abortions as a primary concern since they equate the perhaps half million abortions every year as equivalent to the millions murdered during World War II. Thus, yes, as disgusting as the Donald may be, they see him as far less evil that the pro choice party democrats. Now back to my high fat, processed food diet which is far more likely to take me down before either the left or right extremists come crashing through my door.
Yet if this is the primary concern of Christians, the Bible does not appear to support their view:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/abortion.html
Actually I suspect that opponents of abortion rights could come up with contrary lines to back up their view.
I'm not joking with you on this Ron, that first refenced text is spot on. For the most part your link source (skeptics annotated) interprets the Bible as accurately as you would say Breitbart interprets the news. However, I got to give them, and you, credit for hitting that one. I'm impressed.