Our other feature article titled "Fight Back against Trumpists Embrace of Blasphemy" is right next to this one. It is a copy of a letter I wrote with the intention of sending it, first of all, to selective clerics, i.e., reverends, pastors, preachers, priests, bishops, etc. This article provides details about my methodology. Here is an example of how I solicit the clerics opinion of words spoken by Donald Trump:
Fact: In March 2024, Trump called his political opponents “vermin”—a term frequently used by Adolf Hitler—and said about migrants “…these are not people. These are animals” and “the country is being poisoned” by migrants.
My statement: Based on my Christian principles, I believe anyone who has called his political opponents “vermin” and called migrants “animals” who are “poisoning” America should not hold public office in the United States.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Rev. Smith, do you agree or disagree with my statement?
There are about 20 such “dialogues” in the letter.
I have a larger concern than putting religious leaders on the spot regarding Trump’s malicious statements. First of all, I know that Trump is not being held sufficiently accountable for his statements. The way the coverage is working: Trump says something like the above; the media duly report it, for one or two news cycles; and the words largely disappear from view. Words that ought to be repeated loudly and frequently enough to do damage to Trump’s political standing, are largely ignored, and Trump’s standing in the polls remains steady—or even improves. Meanwhile, Biden stumbles over some innocuous phrase, and the mainstream and social media go into high gear reporting the mental incapacity of an old man.
But there is yet another dimension to the issue that is going unrecognized, even as the threat it poses escalates. There is too much emphasis on Trump personally, while the real threat to everything America stands for is the fact that so many Americans either overtly endorse Trump's outrageous statements, or pay little heed to their implications.
It is those Americans—not Trump—that I want to want to draw attention to. I want them to be backed into a corner and forced to make an “either or choice” regarding Trump’s words. And I want to place the question in a religious context. The choice is not whether Trump’s words are politically acceptable or unacceptable, but whether they reflect the basic values of the Christian religion. Trump's supporters who try to respond to questions about whether his own words support or disavow the teachings of Jesus Christ are likely to find that screaming “fake news" doesn’t work so well.
My strategy is to get this into the hands of as many Americans as possible, with the expectation that the wider the circulation, the more likely the questions will be posed to Trumpists.
And the whole letter does not have to be employed. Why not select one to three of the examples, and pose them to a named politician on X (formerly Twitter) or Facebook or any social media? Example:
Fact: In March 2024, Trump called his political opponents “vermin”—a term frequently used by Adolf Hitler—and said about migrants “…these are not people. These are animals” and “the country is being poisoned” by migrants.
My statement: Based on my Christian principles, I believe anyone who has called his political opponents “vermin” and called migrants “animals” who are “poisoning” America should not hold public office in the United States.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), do you agree or disagree with my statement?
Get yourself a list of prominent Republican office holders, and have fun.
Editor’s note: This survey with its questions is being sent initially to selective clerics of various Christian denominations in Metro Atlanta. Background: No matter how extremist Donald Trump’s lies, demagoguery, character assassination, and dishonesty have debased America’s political dialogue, he can always gain some leeway by claiming they’re all “fake news,” or only different by degree with other politicians. More deeply disturbing is the claim by him and his followers to be, not only Christians, but the truest Christians of all. Trump recently has given this theme more prominence, even to the point of comparing himself to Jesus Christ.
We non-Republicans look at the words and deeds of Trump, and ask, how in God’s name can people who endorse this toxic brew claim to be Christians? In the cause of civilized debate, I have taken Trump’s explicit words, and stated my position, based on my understanding of Christian principles. Then, I ask the cleric whether he/she agrees or disagrees with my statement. In short: I have made no attack on the clerical recipient.
I am using as a template the copy sent to Pastor Jeremy Morton of the First Baptist Church of Woodstock. Other copies will go to other pastors, reverends, preachers, priests, bishops, archbishops, etc. I hope others will give wide dissemination to this letter and send it, not only to clerics, but to political allies, friends, colleagues--the general public. No attribution is necessary. I consider this template to be entirely in the public domain.
Lead Pastor Jeremy Morton
First Baptist Church of Woodstock
1905 Highway 92
Woodstock, GA 30188
Dear Pastor Morton,
I am an 80-year-old native Georgian and a Vietnam combat veteran who spent his 30-year career In Washington, D.C working with a national security agency. Having spent my career trying to serve my country as best as I could, I remain deeply concerned about its future. I give you these credentials to weigh when I state that I believe I base my political decisions on the same use of facts and rational analysis that informed my career as an analyst.
My problem, Pastor Morton, is that I am unable to discern any facts or rational analysis that would lead any American to support Donald Trump for president for the third time in a row. I and Trump’s supporters seem to live in two totally separate dimensions of reality. The facts I look at describe Trump as an immoral, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, narcissistic, dumb-as-a-brick congenital liar and miscreant who is waging a war against America’s basic moral and democratic values, and who has taken God’s Ten Commandments and Jesus’ Golden Rule, spat on them, ripped them to shreds, tossed them on the ground, and trampled them into the mud.
We normal Americans have become accustomed to hearing Donald Trump speak words that a few years ago would have been considered so repugnant, only a few of them would have ended the political career of anyone who spoke them. Ended almost any career, in fact. We watched in horror as it became clear that an overwhelming majority of Republicans approved the insulting, abusive, character-assassination language as normal.
Many of us early on were disturbed by the extent to which Republicans calling themselves Christians had rallied to Trump’s side. We held out hope that only a minority of misguided extremists would sign on to this prostitution of the message of Jesus Christ. Trump’s defeat in 2020 greatly eased our concern.
But events this year, as Trump pressed his campaign to be re-elected President, has set the alarm bells ringing even louder than in the waning days of his first term. Trump’s words have become markedly more extremist by the week, and the more extremist they become, the louder Republicans applaud. And a new factor has entered the picture that is even more appalling: Trump more than ever is asserting his rhetoric reflects the Christian principles espoused by Jesus Christ.
It seems a good time to engage Christian voices like yours in discovering whether this travesty of their faith is gaining traction, using Trump’s exact words to frame the discussion. I have set up a two-step approach: 1). I express a statement giving my opinion of Trump’s words based on my understanding of the Christian principles espoused by Jesus 2). I ask you whether you agree or disagree with my statement.
Let’s start with some of Trump’s more recent examples:
In March 2024, Trump called his political opponents “vermin”—a term frequently used by Adolf Hitler—and said about migrants “…these are not people. These are animals” and “the country is being poisoned” by migrants.
My statement: Based on my Christian principles, I believe anyone who has called his political opponents “vermin” and called migrants “animals” who are “poisoning” America should not hold public office in the United States.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Pastor Morton, do you agree or disagree with my statement?
Trump said that the persons who either plead guilty or were convicted by a jury and were jailed over their violent acts during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol are “hostages” and “unbelievable patriots.” (Not criminals). He has said he would consider blanket pardons for some of those charged.
My statement: Based on my Christian principles, I believe these words prove that Donald Trump has utter contempt for the rule of law, a basic American value that upholds the values Christians espouse.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Pastor Morton, do you agree or disagree with my statement?
Polls show an astonishing number of Christian Republicans who believe Donald Trump is God’s chosen man to save America. According to a prominent political observer, “The result is a religious movement steeped in fanaticism but stripped of virtue. The Christian virtues touted in the New Testament — ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control’ — have been replaced in MAGA Christianity by the very vileness the same passage warned against, including ‘hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions’ and ‘factions.’ ”
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Pastor Morton, do you agree or disagree with that conclusion?
Trump has an extensive track record that establishes his racism. He:
My statement: Based on my Christian principles, these words and deeds establish Trump as a racist who lives a life contrary to the teachings of Jesus, and who is unfit to hold public office in the United States.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Pastor Morton, do you agree or disagree with my statement?
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Trump made up a Big Lie that two Black election workers in Georgia had attempted to illegally manipulate the counting of ballots in the 2020 election. He and his lawyer, Rudolf Giuliani, gave media interviews to publicize the lie. In a telephone conversation with the GA Secretary of State, trying to get him to prevent Georgia's electoral vote going to Biden, Trump referred to one of the women as a “professional vote-scammer and hustler.” Trump’s false accusations subjected the workers to vicious threats and harassment, turning their lives into a living hell.
Trump kept the vile lie about Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Shaye Moss going for three years until a trial exonerated the two, and the jury ordered Giuliani to pay almost $150 million in damages.
My statement: Based on my Christian principles, Trump’s gross mistreatment and flagrant character assassination of two innocent Christians are so alien to the teachings of Jesus Christ, Trump has shown himself not only unfit to be president, he has shown he is unfit to be called a Christian.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Pastor Morton, do you agree or disagree with my statement?
Running neck and neck with Trump’s reprehensible treatment of the election workers was another case that demonstrated Trump’s separation from Christian doctrine. In the mid-1990s, Trump sexually assaulted a woman named E. Jean Carroll. As is common in such cases, the victim refused to press charges out of a feeling of shame and the dread of the publicity circus that would ensue, likely ending—according to precedent—with the criminal being found not guilty.
But in 2019, Carroll revealed the assault in the New York magazine as an excerpt from a book she had written. Trump vociferously denied the allegation and called Carroll a liar. Carroll brought defamation claims against Trump. Changes in New York state law in 2022 allowed Carroll to broaden her legal accusations. She filed a new lawsuit seeking damages for the alleged assault itself and for new acts of defamation by Trump. On May 9, 2023, a federal jury in New York found Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse and awarded Carroll a total of $5 million in damages.
The jury’s decision did not phase Trump one iota. He immediately proceeded to show what a warped, twisted, and depraved soul he really is by resuming his public insults and defamation of his sex assault victim. Carroll had no alternative but to force him to face a jury one more time, not on the physical assault charges, but to determine how much Trump would have to pay in fines and punitive damages.
During the second trial in January 2024, Trump outside the courtroom kept up a barrage of verbal attacks on his victim, and repeated his accusation that she was lying in a brief personal appearance on the witness stand. His lawyers in the courtroom did the same. The judge several times admonished Trump for exceeding the guidelines for his testimony.
On Jan. 26, 2024, the second jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to Carroll for defaming her.
My statement: Based on my Christian principles of “love they neighbor as thyself,” I believe Trump’s assault on Carroll, followed by his contemptuous treatment of her, renders him unfit to hold public office.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Pastor Morton, do you agree or disagree with my statement?
Trump over and over again has expressed his fulsome praise for democracy-hating, murderous thugs Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, Chinese President Xi, and Hungarian strongman Orban. Trump has even called Hezbollah, one of the world’s worst terrorist organizations, "very smart."
My statement: Based on my Christian principles, I believe anyone who has praised ruthless dictators who have repudiated America’s basic moral and democratic values should not hold public office in the United States.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Pastor Morton, do you agree or disagree with my statement?
Last year, Trump suggested that General Mark Milley, the highly respected former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, deserved execution. In 2022, Trump took to social media to call for the termination of the Constitution in order to overturn the 2020 election and “reinstate” him to power. He based his deranged demands on his own false allegations that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.
My statement: Based on my Christian principles, I believe that anyone who has called for the murder of an Army general or for the suspension of the Constitution should not hold public office in the United States.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Pastor Morton, do you agree or disagree with my statement?
In an interview published on March 18, 2024, Trump said “Jews who support Democrats hate Israel and their religion.” A few hours later, facing mounting criticism from Jewish groups, Mr. Trump’s campaign repeated his incendiary charge, declaring that “Trump is right,” and that the Democratic Party “has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, antisemitic, pro-terrorist cabal.”
Remarkably, very few Republicans who call themselves Christians have criticized these beyond-outrageous remarks by the man they want to make President of the United States. Their tolerance for warped, twisted, and depraved filth from Trump is bottomless. I ask again: where is there one iota of the teachings of Jesus Christ in these words?
My statement: Based on my Christian principles, I believe anyone who has said “Jews who support Democrats hate Israel and their religion” should not hold public office in the United States.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Pastor Morton, do you agree or disagree with my statement?
Trump has repeatedly made disparaging remarks about U.S. service members and veterans. On a trip to France in 2018, media reports said Trump had called soldiers “losers” and “suckers” and refused to visit their graves. Former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly last year confirmed Trump had made these statements. And Trump during his 2016 election campaign and while serving as president repeatedly demeaned the military service of John McCain. After the White House flag was lowered following McCain’s death, Trump ordered it to be restored to full height even while McCain’s memorial services were still underway.
My statement: Based on my Christian principles, I believe that anyone who has insulted our soldiers and demeaned the military service of a hero like John McCain should not hold public office in the United States.
My question: Based on your Christian principles, Pastor Morton, do you agree or disagree with my statement?
Your Assessment of Other Trump Remarks
The Fundamental Issues
The idea that Donald Trump represents Jesus Christ is pure blasphemy, a load of hogwash from the word go. You only have to turn to God’s Ten Commandments to prove the nonsense of equating Trump and Jesus. The Commandments are the solid core of the Judeo-Christian ethos. And Jesus explicitly stated in Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Three of those Commandments say:
Donald Trump has lived his adult life in wanton disregard of those three Commandments, as the public record plainly shows. One of his current criminal trials involves his paying hush money to one of the many mistresses with whom he committed adultery. Another of those trials has proven his manipulation of finances in order to steal money. Trump University was an outright scam.
Bearing false witness? Trump is a congenital liar, and a practitioner of the Hitlerian Big Lie, most notably the one about how fraud stole the 2020 election from him. The well-documented Fact Checker’s database shows Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims as President.
It is equally misleading to claim that Trump’s position on abortion equates him with Jesus. Jesus Christ never said one word about abortion. In fact, web search engines like Biblegateway.com show that the word “abortion” is not to be found in the Bible.
In sum, anyone who uses the Commandment “Thou shalt not kill” to condemn abortion and to try to bolster Trump’s alleged Christian connection is accomplishing exactly the opposite of what they intend. When they use that one Commandment while ignoring Trump’s disregard for the other three, they have defined themselves as the quintessential cafeteria-Christian, the person who goes through the Bible, picks and chooses what he likes, throws the rest in the dustbin—and proclaims the portions that he likes are the what Christianity is all about.
Trump's recent words simply prove conclusively what he has been demonstrating in one way or other since he announced his presidential bid in 2015: Donald Trump not only has no respect for America's basic democratic and moral values, he would cast them completely aside is he is re-elected president. The "rule of law" and common human decency mean nothing to him. As the public record plainly shows, Trump has nothing but contempt for God's Commandments that forbid lying, committing adultery, and stealing.
It is entirely possible, Pastor Morton, that some members of your congregation will end up joining the ranks of the misguided souls who believe Trump represents Christ on earth. The Bible provides you with the theological evidence to refute such nonsense. But you also have solid secular evidence to draw on: the fact that so many prominent Republicans have broken with Trump and are refusing to support his re-election—including former senior officials in his Administration.
The leader of the pack: former Vice President Mike Pence announced in March that he would not support Trump’s presidential bid. Other formers senior officials who oppose returning Trump to the White House are: former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former Attorney General William Barr, and former chief of staff John Kelly. And, of course, there’s Liz Cheney. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said that Trump’s calling the convicted Jan 6 hostages was “unacceptable”—and just this week, prominent Republican strategist Carl Rove spoke the same words.
I look forward, Pastor Morton, to your response to my letter. I am dumbfounded at the lack of clerical voices denouncing the immoral reprobate Donald Trump. Sometimes I feel transported back to the days of segregation in Georgia, when Blacks and their white civil rights allies were being murdered, beaten, lynched, and blown to bits by bombs placed in churches—and our pulpits remained largely silent, instead of ringing with voices of condemnation.
I will wait a few days for you to absorb and reply before posting this on social media.
Sincerely,
Tom Barksdale