Have Evangelicals Failed?

I'll post another excerpt from Mornings with Larry this Friday. Meanwhile, new ideas often swirl around in my head--and this blog is the dumping ground for those ideas. So get ready for some religion and politics. I take a strange, conservative/moderate position on many issues, so this post will certainly offend both liberals and conservatives. I invite you to respond by commenting either at the end of this blog post or on my facebook page. Disagree all you want. I only ask two things: first, that you write civilly, and second, that you don't use profanity. Okay, maybe I'll ask a third thing. Try to show some personality, maybe even a little humor. Fuming rants just don't cut it.

You can order Mornings with Larry: Life Lessons
from a Man in a Wheelchair on http://www.amazon.com/

If you've read my previous posts, you know that I've occasionally written about Christian hypocrisy. I've also written about the need for civil dialogue, especially when dealing with religion and politics. My faith is strong, so criticism creates little doubt in my heart and mind. However, my faith does get tested at times. The one thing that has tried my faith the most is when Christians fail to do the right thing. It especially irks me when Christian leaders blow it. They should know better!

Since the presidential election, evangelicals have received much criticism over the stat that 80% of them voted for Trump. Whether the actual percentage is that high, I'm not sure--but certainly the majority of evangelical Christians voted for him.

So, have evangelical Christians failed badly by voting for Donald Trump? Many progressives claim that the evangelicals sold their souls to the Devil in the 2016 election. Even if Trump is the sexual predator portrayed by the progressives, did the evangelicals really screw up that badly?

It all depends on their motives. I think the 2016 Republican primary is a better indicator of motives. It seems to me, evangelicals should have voted for a Republican with values. During the primaries, I think most of the other Republican candidates fared better than Trump when it came to character, integrity, ethics, morality, etc.. Evangelicals who voted for Trump in the primaries did indeed mess up, it seems to me. But I won't go so far as to accuse them of selling their souls to the Devil.

I'm not sure what the stats are, but I'm certain that a large percentage of evangelicals did not vote for Trump in the Republican primaries. I want to focus on that group.

Many evangelicals who voted against Trump in the primaries, voted for him in the general election. It's this segment of voters who I will not criticize. Most of them truly saw it as a choice between a somewhat evil (yet pro-life for the unborn) Republican candidate versus a candidate from a party with an unbending pro-choice stance. This was the dilemma for many evangelical Christians in 2016. It was truly a choice between the "least bad" of two evils.

Because of this dilemma, I won't condemn/shame my fellow Christians for voting for Trump. For them, the only other options were to either not vote at all, or vote for a third candidate. How can you shame someone who is faced with such non-choices?

So, did evangelicals fail by voting for Trump in 2016? Not in the general election. However, a large segment of evangelicals erred by voting for Trump in the primaries. If you think I've misjudged Trump's moral character, please comment below or on facebook. Conservatives, give me a list of reasons why our president is morally and ethically better than the liberals portray him. Blessings.