‘Any Real True Believer’ Will Support Trump in November, John MacArthur Says
“Pastor and author John MacArthur says in a new interview that President Trump phoned him this summer to offer support and that MacArthur told him ‘any real true believer is going to be on your side’ in November.” - C. Headlines
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[JD Miller]I would like to see a list of specific policies that Trump/Republicans have put in place or even proposed that would be dangerous. Joel shared his concerns about housing and Dave shared his reasons why he is not so concerned. I see those sort of discussions as much more profitable than “we don’t think our nation can survive that man” type arguments.
It may not be policies, as this president is primarily accomplishing things through executive order. But I would think the following are probably concerns:
- Lack of ability to lead through a crisis. He has not led during the COVID-19 situation. There is not comprehensive plan. He name calls and dismisses his own experts. He has not led through the riots. His response is name calling, demeaning and use of force, instead of leading through the issue. Understanding the underlying causes, putting together a plan to address them, bring the nation together.
- Lack of diplomacy. He routinely ignores his diplomatic leadership, and he doesn’t exhibit a real strategy or comprehensive foreign policy. The concern is that if there is a war, that it would be a very scary proposition.
- Lack of immigration policy. Just ruled by fiats, with no comprehensive policy. He has a scattered process on how to deal with this that is driven by fear.
- His biggest issue they would say is his policies on tarifs. He shows no clue or acumen on how tarifs work. China is not paying for the tarifs, the American public is paying for the tarifs. He continues to not understand this. There is not a trade policy. If he feels slighted, he will slap back.
- Policies impact on extreme poverty. Numerous non-partisan and international studies have concluded that his policies are significantly hurting the poor and creating a widening wealth gap.
- He continues to contribute to the growing deficit by either not reigning in spending or increasing taxes.
- His policies have contributed to more air pollution, where studies have shown has resulted in more than 10,000 deaths.
- Immigration policies - driven by missplaced fear that is not rooted in facts.
You can go on and on. Of coure there are two competing views as these resonate with the base, but not with the majority of Americans.
You may be right. You may be wrong. We will be able to stop guessing and know with certainty in November.
G. N. Barkman
[Aaron Blumer]Suppose there is such a thing as a candidate too uninformed, immature, divisive, impulsive, dishonest, etc. to be a U.S. President. Suppose a political party, the one you’ve supported all your adult life, nominated and then wholeheartedly backed such ‘leader.’
How should you protest? How could the party be taught a lesson? How could it be encouraged to find and nominate better human beings in the future? How could it be encouraged to look for leaders who can be persuasive of important principles to those who disagree or are undecided?
Suppose also that this party’s ability to offer better solutions and better ideas than the other one over multiple decades is desperately needed for the country to thrive long term… because the other party has so many really, really bad ideas. Does that make any difference?
Well, I can’t speak for you, but I left the Republican Party a long time ago, and am now an independent. If I send money to candidates (I do, but rarely), I send it directly to them, not to the Republican Party (or any other party for that matter). When they call me to ask why I’m not a Republican, I can tell them I do not wholly support them as a party (even if I see them as leagues better than the Democrat party). They can’t count on me to make calls for them, donate, or spend any other time or effort to campaign for them as a party. That’s about all I can do to protest against the party.
What I will NOT do, is cut off my nose to spite my face by voting for opposition that is even worse than the party I used to belong to in order to “punish” them (as if it’s really they who would get the punishment).
Dave Barnhart
[dgszweda]
- His policies have contributed to more air pollution, where studies have shown has resulted in more than 10,000 deaths.
Could you please tell us where you found these studies? I’d be very interested in seeing them.
[Robert Byers]Could you please tell us where you found these studies? I’d be very interested in seeing them.
Here is one study from Carnegie Mellon. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7605513/Rise-air-pollut…
[G. N. Barkman]I can’t imagine a more clear contrast…
Spot on. In one video I saw, MacArthur points out that the Democratic platform officially endorses and promotes “all the sins of Romans 1.”
Philip Knight
[PhilKnight]Spot on. In one video I saw, MacArthur points out that the Democratic platform officially endorses and promotes f “all the sins of Romans 1.”
I’m no fan of the Democrat party, but I’d say that the Republican party, and specifically the current president, embodies a good number of those sins as well.
Not everybody needs to see this the same way. Each person should vote as they see best and with a clear conscience before God. And don’t expect too much from any political party. I’d love to see Christians in the US focus more on the kingdom of Christ and less on American empire.
If economic activity drives fossil fuel use—you have over 5% economic growth in 2016 and 2017—you would expect that pollution from that same economic activity would increase by about the same amount. So the Carnegie study is, in that light, no big surprise.
To actually reduce pollutants, what you need to do is upgrade or replace more polluting technologies with less polluting. One big driver of this is that many factories are more or less trying to “run out the clock” on old capital (I’ve done quality analysis on metal lathes produced in the 1950s, for example) because the ROI and tax implications for getting new capital are simply not advantageous enough. Same basic thing with the poor upgrading their cars/homes/etc..
The left’s favored methods, things like subsidies for electric cars and solar power, actually make the problem worse because to pay those subsidies, you’ve got to get the tax/borrowing revenue from somewhere—and hence the end result is that you’ve subsidized Al Gore’s 20,000 square foot house and his Prius/Tesla while the servants who clean/garden/cook/etc.. are still driving a 1995 GMC pickup with visible emissions.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
[Ken S]I’m no fan of the Democrat party, but I’d say that the Republican party, and specifically the current president, embodies a good number of those sins as well.
Yes, but the Democratic Party has codified their endorsement, even “celebration,” of those sins within their official platform. To be allied with that party is to be allied with an organization whose stated goals are in direct, flagrant opposition to God’s Law. That’s a critically important distinction. And that was my point.
As is evident on this board, there are many thoughtful Christians who, even after considering and weighing the critical differences between the parties, have concluded that they could not (or cannot) vote for Trump—either because they cannot do so in good conscience, or because they believe (not unreasonably, in my opinion) that it would be better for the country long-term to register their disapproval by voting third-party or not at all in the presidential contest. I respect the choice of those in that category, and in the spirit of Romans 14, I will not dispute with them as though they are sinning (or even as though they are making an unwise choice). However, I can’t make that commitment to any Christian who would vote for the Biden/Harris ticket. To vote for that ticket is to vote for what the Democratic Party has pledged officially, in writing, to advance and promote, some of which is unmitigated evil.
Philip Knight
As is evident on this board, there are many thoughtful Christians who, even after considering and weighing the critical differences between the parties, have concluded that they could not (or cannot) vote for Trump—either because they cannot do so in good conscience, or because they believe (not unreasonably, in my opinion) that it would be better for the country long-term to register their disapproval by voting third-party or not at all in the presidential contest. I respect the choice of those in that category, and in the spirit of Romans 14, I will not dispute with them as though they are sinning (or even as though they are making an unwise choice). However, I can’t make that commitment to any Christian who would vote for the Biden/Harris ticket. To vote for that ticket is to vote for what the Democratic Party has pledged officially, in writing, to advance and promote, some of which is unmitigated evil.
As I mentioned before, I am one of the elders of a multi-ethnic church where about 1/3 of the congregation are pro-life democrats and will probably end up voting for Biden. One family has between 13-16 people living in their house at any given time because their relatives (who work full-time) cannot afford housing due to greedy real estate speculators that have bought up every house available in my neighborhood and driving up the market, forcing them out of their apartments because they cannot afford to pay 2x-3x what they were paying 5-7 years ago. Are they supposed to vote for Trump, especially when he just added another barrier for low-income housing to be built places where there is land in the GR area/near suburbs? Let’s say they save 10,000 for a down payment for a house. How do they compete against out of state investors that are offering cash in its entirety for that same house? They feel trapped and so they are gonna vote for Biden because most republicans aren’t acknowledging that there is even a real housing crisis/shortage right now.
Some of these same people in our church also have relatives that are spending 5-15 years in prison for a non-violent drug crimes that should’ve put them in prison for 6 months to 2 years. Some had unchecked, over-zealous Republican prosecutors/DA’s that forced them to plea-bargain crimes that they didn’t commit. Because they had a lousy defense attorney representing them, they were afraid to get an extra 10 years of prison so they plea-bargained down. While Trump made possible the First Step Act, it only addresses federal drug crimes and sentencing. 90% of the prison population is state and local. At these state and local levels, who are the ones pushing criminal justice reform and who is pushing the status quo? The democrats are pushing for criminal justice reform, whereas most republicans generally support the status quo. We’ve had a number of people in our church who were continually racially profiled by police, especially when discriminatory practices such as stop and frisk were legal. Which party is more likely to enact stop and frisk and which one isn’t? Which party is more likely to bring police reform? They will more likely look to vote for Biden because the democratic party platform for criminal justice reform is more comprehensive, even though Biden has a checkered history supporting the failed Drug in the 90s and early 2000s. None of these issues affect anyone here on Sharper Iron.
I think motives of why one votes for a person matters. I am not gonna judge anyone’s motives for voting for Trump, even if I believe that public support for Trump is starting to lead to mission drift and Christian nationalism among a large number of Bible-believing Churches and continues to do significant damage to the witness of the church. I’m gonna assume the best about Trump voters, that they really care about the direction of our country, that they care about unborn babies, and that they care about religious liberty. At the same time, I would challenge them to not judge the motives of certain Christians who vote for Biden. We forget that studies have shown more African-Americans (as a group compared to other groups) believe that Jesus is God and salvation is only through Him, believe that the Bible is true and God’s word, and believe that God’s law in scripture is a foundational basis for our laws in America. We white Christians often assume that our current laws in America reflect the Bible. At times they do and at times they don’t. Too many American sentencing laws are not proportional to the actual crime itself. Much of the reason is because many in America (including many Christians) see the reason for punishment as primarily a deterrent to the crime rather than satisfying the needs of justice in proportion to the crime, which is what we see in Scripture. It is why a habitual thief did not get his life-sentence overturned in an appeals court in the Bible Belt of Louisiana for stealing a 3 hedge clippers. When the status quo is continually maintained when it comes to issues such as criminal justice reform, many black Christians end up voting for what they believe is the lesser of the two evils-the democratic party.
Often times, conservative Bible-believing Christians equate the status quo conservative politics with conservative Christianity and sometimes the two are diametrically opposed to each other. By the way, in my opinion, I do believe more aspects of the Democratic platform are notably evil, which is why I am leaning 3rd party.
But I am more concerned at the state and local levels because that is where the majority of social policy and changes takes place (including abortion, criminal justice reform, and etc…) except for foreign policy.
I’m voting for Trump because the idea of Biden being president, and also a potential/likely President Kamala Harris gives me the shivers, quivers, and the hebbie-jeebies. I oppose vehemently almost everything Biden stands for in his campaign. I hope that if Biden won he really has some capacity left because if he doesn’t, the radical left just would have won without revealing their presence overtly. It’s really scary the potentially radical changes we could be facing.
That’s why. Period.
have your friends in your neighborhood tried talking to their local government officials, and state elected officials. I am almost positive the housing market in your city is a function of local/state policy WAY MORE than anything Trump is responsible for.
For the record, I live in a middle-class neighborhood, but almost every house that is put on the market is bought by an investor looking to turn the houses into rentals. Most of the families with mortgages are gone. Is that somehow Trump’s fault?
have your friends in your neighborhood tried talking to their local government officials, and state elected officials. I am almost positive the housing market in your city is a function of local/state policy WAY MORE than anything Trump is responsible for.
For the record, I live in a middle-class neighborhood, but almost every house that is put on the market is bought by an investor looking to turn the houses into rentals. Most of the families with mortgages are gone. Is that somehow Trump’s fault?
The city of Grand Rapids recognizes the problem and is trying to do different things, including lessoning certain zoning restrictions and partnering with the State Landbank and non-profit housing organizations, like this. We hope that the near suburbs of GR also follow suit. https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2020/08/grand-rapids-leaders-eye-vacant-properties-to-boost-low-income-housing-stock.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=grandrapidspress_sf&fbclid=IwAR2xaInPmk52Z6Nh2pGi7Yf4AieZGt6afmxSNbjjQckCmJz6NZwgkkEEGTk
But 67 houses is still only a drop in the bucket compared to the 9,000 houses and apartments that are needed to meet the housing demand due to gentrification. I am not blaming Trump for this. Of course, I realize it is through state and local avenues that housing policy is established. However, when Trump tweets, “I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low-income housing built in your neighborhood,” “Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down,” those in desperate need of low-income housing realize that he is playing identity politics, playing on the fears of suburban folks, who fear poor people and people of color invading their neighborhoods and driving down the housing market. Are they supposed to feel good about voting for a man that threw them under the bus in order to gain suburban wives votes?
By the way, the democrats also play dirty politics at the expense of the poor. In response to Covid-19, the Grand Rapids Public schools have chosen to do online schooling for at least the first 9 weeks. I’m predicting that it will go even longer, probably through December or through the entire school year. Even though other districts are opening much earlier, according to a couple of GRPS teachers we know, much of this is due to the powerful teachers union (controlled by democrats) doing the opposite of what Betsy Devos and Trump desire). In the meantime, there is a huge exodus of students to the private schools and other public districts that are opening much earlier or charter schools. UTM (the ministry that I oversee) and our church have created an online learning center to oversee disadvantaged students in our neighborhood that go to the local middle school and high school. As soon as we opened it this week, we had a waiting list of 10 that will grow to about 30 probably by next week. The teachers are doing their best, but the actions of the union folks are creating more and more inequality and disparity for low-income students of color in our city.
Why is it greedy for a landlord to charge the going rate for rent but it is not greedy for a tenant to expect to get ret for 1/3 the going rate? I have never been able to figure that out.
As a contractor I am also well aware of the rising cost to build housing. Much of the added cost is due to regulation. Trump has been trying to get rid of excess regulation. I like that since it will help make housing more affordable. I wish there would be further deregulation at the state and local levels as well.
https://srcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/19510/Building-Code-Updates?bidId=
Why is it greedy for a landlord to charge the going rate for rent but it is not greedy for a tenant to expect to get ret for 1/3 the going rate? I have never been able to figure that out.
As a contractor I am also well aware of the rising cost to build housing. Much of the added cost is due to regulation. Trump has been trying to get rid of excess regulation. I like that since it will help make housing more affordable. I wish there would be further deregulation at the state and local levels as well.
https://www.nahbclassic.org/generic.aspx?genericContentID=250611#:~:tex… is external)
https://srcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/19510/Building-Code-Updates?bidI…
To give you a little background, I own two houses in our community. One of which is a duplex that we rent out so I know all of what it costs for upkeep, including staying within code to the city housing codes and regulations. This little side business that we have is our retirement for the future. I also know the shape of the houses that are in our neighborhood. They are not homes that need much renovation for those who are buying them. Those investors who are buying them up typically buy them and put about $3,000 (Some more and some less) renovation and then jack up the rent about $500.00 per month which forces the renter out of the house or apartment. The investors are making huge returns on their investments because they drove up the market almost to the same level as Chicago, not based on what it costs but rather based on what other hip cities are doing and what the white progressive hipsters and college students are willing to pay. We’ve seen many of our single mothers with several children or 20 something couples (mostly black folks including those who were hoping to buy a starter houe in the community) leave the neighborhood because they could no longer afford to live there. The reason why our zip code is so desirable for outside investors is because of the growth of the “Medical Mile,” where hospitals, cancer centers, and a university nursing school and medical school converge. So real estate speculators began attempting to recruit employees from the medical mile to live in these houses, apartments, and a few newly built condos that they were either buying or building. While some have, the overwhelming majority of medical mile employees prefer to live in the suburbs or even bedroom towns 30 minutes away. Since the medical mile people weren’t embracing what the real estate speculators had hoped, they instead aggressively recruited progressive white hipsters along with some college students and developed night clubs and coffee shops to entertain them.
My former students are doing 3 different things. #1 moving to the suburbs where there is some more housing and apartment availability and really good schooling. But as I’ve mentioned in other posts, the rhetoric of Trump and the NIMBY mentality that often accompanies the development of any low income housing possibilities is a barrier. Many that opt for this do not want to move into low income housing but feel like its there only option. #2. Move to Atlanta Georgia. I’ve around 500 of my former students move to Atlanta. Many are doing well either opening their own businesses or obtaining living wage employment. Atlanta is considered the 2nd best city economically in the country for African Americans. Ironically, Grand Rapids is considered the 2nd worst city economically in the country for black folks. However, many of my students would’ve rather stayed in Grand Rapids because of their close connection to family. #3 Jump on the waiting list for section 8 housing vouchers, where the government pays between 50-90% of their rent and then stay in the community. Again, they hate depending on the government, but the whole process of gentrification, initiated by greedy real estate speculators contributed to putting them into that predicament.
I have no problem identifying greed when its actually greed. And I don’t use the term lightly. In fact, the majority of time that I use it in my context is teaching progressives and socialists–defending free-market capitalism as a system that is not based on greed, exploitation, or racism if it is accompanied by Christian virtue. I see it as the best of all economic systems. Yet as much as I am a free-market Capitalist, those who speculate the market much higher for housing and are making huge, massive profits while displacing the poor and disadvantaged need to be called out. Greed is a sin that most Bible-believing Christians don’t usually talk about now in the 20th century and 21st century, even though it is still quite rampant. And the Bible’s condemnation of greed applies both to the rich and the poor. Here is how Carl Henry said it in God, Revelation, Authority Vol.4 “The wealthy and the less fortunate also are to steward all they have for the good of the whole; everyone’s contribution and dedication is to nurture and enrich the global Christian family. God has a special eye for the poor, a special duty for the rich amid the seductive temptations that face both: the former, lust for things as the essence of life, the latter, love of riches. Christians are to stand on the side of the poor against exploitation, injustice and oppression; sensitive to human needs, they are to respond generously as God has enabled them. They are to do all this, moreover, not in a comer, but openly in the midst of mankind—not for ostentatious show, but to manifest what it means to be God’s people.”
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