Opinion: Is Trump Being Protected By a Higher Power? What Role Should Religions Play in Elections?

PixabayPhoto bygeralt

Religion and Its Use in Choosing Political Candidates

For several decades now religious organizations have stepped up and stepped into elections by using their numbers to support one candidate who falls in line with their religious beliefs.

If the candidate’s view on abortions or same-sex marriages as an example is compatible with a particular religious group’s then that person should be voted for.

But while the Constitution may support the concept that a “watchmaker God” exists it does not mention the word nor does it support one religion over another.

Since the 1970s, religions, the Christian-based Moral Majority being one group in particular, have inserted themselves in the political process and used their organizations in the same way that unions have used their structures to support candidates in the past.

But while one group’s motivations were mainly economics based the others were spiritual.

Does economics have a better and more grounded reason to be included in the political process rather than how one interprets God’s position on choice or his role in guiding a nation?

Or put in another way – should one person be chosen over another because they will support a religion’s desire to exert certain control over how a nation moves spiritually into the future?

God and the Constitution

Interesting statements have appeared online by people with a serious interest in religious dogma or with tongue firmly in cheek, positing why this man seems to continually dodge one bullet after another.

One associates this sort of behavior with saints or someone who is soon to become one. Someone who’s spent a lifetime doing good deeds is selfless and filled with empathy for his/her fellow man. Does Trump fit this profile for a pious and religious man?

Is this why he still has continuing support among the American people?

And if he is the “chosen” candidate at what point does this preclude potential voters from continuing to take a closer look at the man?

The Religious Right has voted as a block for him in two elections and probably will again in a third. Why? Is it because he supports a state heavily influenced by one religion - should we be concerned?

Why would people who revere Christian principles, revere a man with a checkered past? Who has spoken ill of others, poked fun at the disabled, and made disparaging comments about those unfortunate enough to have gotten themselves killed while defending this nation.

With religion, the bible, and a Christian Jesus on one side, and Trump, his lawsuits, criminal convictions, and half-billion in fines and judgments on the other, how did these two things end up being favorably compared?

If the Constitution didn’t mention God in its content and intentionally called for the separation of church and state, isn't it fair to conclude that the Founding Fathers were rightfully concerned about religion's role in America’s future?

Dictators are People Too

The man says he wants to be a dictator – but just for a day. Isn’t this what most dictators offer up as a way of assuaging concerns over their thirst for power?

History is filled with notable dictators, so, there are plenty of past and present examples of what dictators do. However being self-effacing, thoughtful, and egalitarian are usually not traits they aspire to. Nor is being religious.

They tend to lean toward ruthlessness and narcissism. They’re not very nice people all in all.

So, why are we discussing being one even for a day? What would he want to accomplish on that day that he would need to be a dictator to do it?

And if this man is being protected by a higher power what does that say about the other currently in office, shouldn’t he be accorded the same?

Or is it possible that in today’s religions, what God would and wouldn’t do is left to a select few to interpret?

Have they already decided?