Brookings Pastor Carl Kline offers a top ten list of reminders that Trump is morally unfit for high office
It seems necessary to offer a top 10 list today, especially for my evangelical Christian friends and neighbors. Apparently, they are still in the camp of our former president and making excuses for his behavior. It seems appropriate to remind folks of the 10 worst behaviors that render Trump (shown above in a U.S Government photo posted on wikimedia commons) morally unfit for office. Politics and policy aside! Let’s just consider personal behavior.
Number One: A jury of his peers found him sexually abusive. As that trial developed and concluded with him judged guilty, as Franklin Graham was quoted as saying, other women “seem to be coming out of the woodwork.”
The Stormy Daniels “hush money” scandal is still unfolding. And if folks haven’t heard the in-famous tape where our former president talks about grabbing women in their private parts, they should. He apparently believes he’s entitled to women’s bodies!
Number Two: For someone who never served in the military, you would think he might have respect for those who have laid down their lives for their country. Not so! He has been quoted by several as calling them “losers” and “suckers,” most recently by his former chief of staff, John Kelly.
Now he has accused Gen. Mark Milley, a 44 year veteran of the military and recent chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of “treason,” and suggested he should be “executed.” You must read The Atlantic interview with Milley to understand this angry exhortation, and invitation, to violence.
Number Three: Lying seems to come naturally to the former president. The most tragic lie for the country is his insistence that he won the election and it was “stolen” from him. He has successfully undercut trust in the foundation of our democracy, one person one vote, in safe and secure elections.
According to Washington Post fact-checkers, he told 30,573 lies or half truths in his four years as president.
Number Four: He is an accomplished provider of racist dog whistles. There were “good people” among the white supremacists at Charlottesville. The people invading our Southern border are “drug dealers” and “rapists.”
Immigration from all but European nations during his presidency hit a record low. Muslims were not welcome. Haiti, El Salvador and African nations were “shithole countries,” and we didn’t want immigrants from them.
Number Five: He is an autocrat and bully, so different from the suffering servant Evangelical Christians worship. Those close to him in the White House have spoken profusely about his insistence on obedience, and we have seen his castigation of those who fall out of favor.
He is domineering and imperious in his behavior. He has kind words for other autocrats, like President Putin in Russia and Kim Jong Un in North Korea.
Number Six: It is utterly impossible, given his public persona, to imagine our former president confessing a sin or asking for forgiveness. This, as every Evangelical Christian knows, is essential for one’s spiritual health and well being. My fear is, should one of his close pastoral confidants pray his sins be forgiven, he would find a new pastor.
Number Seven: He cheats people. The stories are legend of his shortchanging people who did work for him. Hundreds of people, carpenters, dishwashers, painters, lawyers, etc., claim they were never paid for their work, resulting in more than 3,500 lawsuits.
More recent litigation suggests he defrauded and cheated insurance companies and the IRS, when he inflated values of his properties.
Number Eight: He encourages his supporters to do violence. The primary example is asking his followers to “fight like hell” at the capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after inviting them to come, since it would be “wild;” and once there, he knew they were armed.
Or consider after recent indictments, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU” on his Truth Social. Then there is the recent photo where he is holding the pistol he wants to purchase. He’s a master at the political dog whistles!
Number Nine: He’s a narcissist and a braggart. It’s all about him! What he does is always the greatest or the best. There doesn’t seem to be a humble bone in him. One has to laugh, as those at the United Nations did, when he claimed his administration had done more in his first two years in office than almost any other administration in history.
Number Ten: Perhaps because some religious leaders have given him the persona of a messiah, he appears to find it energizing and satisfying. It’s disturbing and more than distressing to hear him speak to his followers, “I am your retribution.”
Does he now believe he is being persecuted for their sake, just like their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? God help us!
Carl Kline of Brookings is a United Church of Christ clergyman and adjunct faculty member at the Mt. Marty College campus in Watertown. He is a founder and on the planning committee of the Brookings Interfaith Council, co-founder of Nonviolent Alternatives, a small not-for-profit that, for 15 years, provided intercultural experiences with Lakota/Dakota people in the Northern Plains and brought conflict resolution and peer mediation programs to schools around the region. He was one of the early participants in the development of Peace Brigades International. Kline can be reached at carl@satyagrahainstitute.org. This column originally appeared in the Brookings Register.
