The Daily Hatch comments on Adrian Rogers' sermon, "Does Character Count?"
In 1998, Dr. Adrian Rogers, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, in the suburbs of Memphis, Tennessee, made the character and morality of one serving in public office in the United States, specifically President of the United States, the priority for Christians when exercising their right to vote as citizens of the United States. Rogers specifically addressed President Clinton's morality, pointing to allegations of an improper sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky as evidence of his disqualification for office. Rogers claimed that it was the responsibility of Christians to influence elections with their faith by voting for candidates who exhibited a higher standard of morality, compatible with Christianity, because this was evidence of their capability of moral leadership.
Rogers didn't mince words or cut any corners in his condemnation of President Clinton. Of course the President was a Democrat, and even in 1998, conservative, white, Evangelical Christians, including most of the Southern Baptists who make up the nation's largest Evangelical denomination, were opposed to President Clinton, not only because there were concerns about his morality and possible marital infidelity, but because of his stance on women's reproductive rights.
Ironically, President Clinton had made a "profession of faith," the Baptist interpretation of Christian conversion, was baptized in a Southern Baptist Church in Hope, Arkansas, and had been an active member of a Southern Baptist church all his life. And personally, I think that might have also been the motivation behind some of Roger's tone and message. President Carter had also been Southern Baptist, and made his Christian faith the center of his identity. Discouraging those who shared a common denominational affiliation from supporting a fellow Baptist on that basis alone was also the point of Roger's sermon. It was aimed at damping down any Baptist support for Vice President Al Gore, also a Southern Baptist and fellow Tennessean.
Fast forward to 2016. Consider Trump's worldly lifestyle, including his personal promotion of his own sexual promiscuity that led to two highly publicized divorces and marriages to "the other woman," along with claims of having bedded "hundreds" of women, along with all sorts of business and tax fraud, incessant lying and a host of other indulgences in sinful living that would have set Roger's hair on fire if he had been alive.
But Rogers died on November 15, 2005, long before Trump became a politician aimed at winning the GOP nomination and the Presidency. I can't say whether Rogers, who was one of the hard line conservatives involved in the Southern Baptist's internal squabble with a more moderate doctrinal and theological element in the denomination, would have stood by the words in his sermon and also encouraged Christians not to vote for Trump, based on making character the top priority for choosing a candidate. But it's pretty clear that a majority of his fellow Southern Baptists, and of the wider white, Evangelical community, have basically ignored his words. No matter his standing and reputation among Southern Baptist conservatives, and conservative, Evangelical Christians, they've completely defied virtually everything he said on the subject in giving their support and loyalty to a man who has far less moral character than anyone who has ever run for President of the United States.
It Got a Hearty "Amen!" in 1998, Now, It's Contradicted in Practice and Ignored in Principle
When Evangelicals want to support a Republican politician who doesn't necessarily reflect their interpretation of the Bible's moral values, there is an "out" for that politician to keep their credibility with the easily led sheep who occupy pews in churches on Sunday morning. It's what they refer to as a "salvation experience." That's the Evangelical version of the Christian conversion experience. By selecting a few Bible verses that touch on the subject, they have developed a process by which any politician needing a boost can claim to be "saved," and that allows the supporters to excuse all of his or her behavior that may not meet moral standards, Things like extra-marital affairs, divorces, drunken driving incidents, and even a generally bad attitude can be overlooked if the person is Republican, by simply claiming they believe they have had a spiritual experience similar to what Evangelicals describe as salvation.
Ronald Reagan was the first Presidential candidate to benefit from this process. By the time Reagan got around to running for President, what religious beliefs he had would better be characterized as "New Age" rather than anything resembling some form of Christianity. But he had some advisors who were Evangelicals, and realized he needed to express some kind of sympathy or support for their position. So, when asked whether he had ever had a "salvation experience," which he had to have described to him, because he'd never been to church, he said, "As you have described it to me, yes, I have."
The problem Trump presents to Evangelical supporters is that he won't confess to any kind of conversion experience requiring him to acknowledge guilt for his sin, repentance and acceptance of God's forgiveness, which, according to Evangelical doctrine, is an absolute necessity to be Christian. The other side of this doctrine of salvation is transformation. People who become Christians through this process are visibly changed, when it comes to their moral choices and their lifestyle. Trump is still the same immoral, worldly, vile, depraved, licentious, corrupt liar that he always was. His Evangelical followers can't use this to pass by his immorality.
Trumpism Can't be Baptized, He's Clearly Not One Of Them, But Their Support For Him Makes Them Own His Immoral, Corrupt, anti-Christian Attitude
I hear so many people from within the Evangelical political right make the argument that you can't be a Christian and support a politician who supports abortion rights. If that's where you want your argument to rest, I'll go there with you, and point out that Trump has fully declared his support for abortion rights. That's right, he most certainly has. He has gotten testy at times when reporters claim that his follow up to selecting justices to overturn Roe v. Wade would be to sign a national ban on abortion rights passed by Congress. He insists that he would absolutely not do that, and that the only thing he intended, by appointing judges to overturn Roe, was to give the issue to the states.
"That's what everyone, Democrats, Republicans, all wanted to do, let the people vote on it," were his exact words. That's not true, of course. But he continues to deny supporting a national ban, and he has openly said that he supports abortion with restrictions on when it can be performed, and supports a state's right to ban it. When asked about a six week abortion ban his response, during the debate with Harris, was "six months is not long enough."
So you've lost that argument. But that's a political issue. And while there isn't anything else at all in Trump's agenda that a Christian either could, or should support, by their own words, the issue starts with his character.
I'll turn the argument back the other way. How can someone who claims to be a professing Christian support a politician who is an adulterer, publicly proclaiming his high profile affairs, then divorcing his wife to marry the other women, and who not only has not ever shown a shred of repentance toward his ex-wives, or regarding his behavior, and hasn't stopped having affairs right up to the present day? Remember the attitude and the condemnation heaped on Bill Clinton by Evangelicals, including their rejection of his very public repentance. Trump openly denies that there's anything wrong with this behavior.
How can someone who claims to be a professing Christian support a politician who instigated an insurrection against the Capitol and Congress of the United States, unleashing ungodly violence that led to the deaths of six people, including five police officers? That violates apostolic interpretation of the Christian gospel by two of the most prominent early Apostles, Peter and Paul, along with the very words of Christ himself, in the Sermon on the Mount.
One thing is clear. Christians who support Trump are ignorant of who he is and what he does, and they are even more ignorant of the principles of the Bible they claim to believe.
These same licentious, immoral, ungodly actions are what led him to commit the 34 felonies for which he was indicted and convicted in a Manhattan court. That's not the justice department or the Biden administration "going after him politically," as he claimed. That's the result of one of his more recent affairs with porn actress Stormy Daniels, and his attempt to cover it up with bribes disguised as business transactions, which are highly illegal. That also gets added to his civil conviction on rape charges involving his assault on E. Jean Carroll. His response to that was just to deny it, but when Trump does something that immoral, and that worldly, he cannot keep silence. He did enough talking to give prosecutors all the evidence they needed to match Carroll's story. And that came from people he considered friends.
So, Christians, you support an unrepentant adulterer and rapist. His third wife was pregnant with his fifth child when he had the affair with Daniels.
No wonder Americans no longer take your preaching and teaching seriously, and your church members are heading out of the exits, never to return.
The fraudulent business dealings he's been involved with, a trail of grifting, breaking the law, tax evasion, not paying debts, and the fact that he's a pathological liar, is all part of the kind of immoral, worldly lack of character that Adrian Rogers says the Bible "clearly" instructs Christians to avoid themselves, and also to protect their reputation and their witness by not supporting those public figures who build their reputation of worldliness for their own personal gain. And if he felt justified to apply those Biblical principles to Bill Clinton, then they also apply to Donald Trump, and the conclusion is that Christians, who live in a country with the privilege of choosing their own leaders, should not choose leaders who do not exhibit character that contradicts the moral principles of their faith, because that constitutes a denial of their faith.
I'll make it simple for those who need clarity. If you wouldn't have voted for Bill Clinton because of his immoral behavior, including extra-marital affairs, then you are a hypocrite if you are casting a ballot for Donald Trump, according to Roger's interpretation of the Bible.
Do you really want to elect, as your leader, and support, as a Christian, a man who claims immigrants to our country are "poisoning the blood", who calls them vermin, falsely claiming they are drug dealers, murderers, gang members and pet eaters. Those are all lies, and there's nothing consistent with Biblical truth in all of that, not one thing.
Do you want to take ownership of his treats against Americans who have every right to express the opinions that he doesn't like, and wants to attack and use the power of government for his own personal vengeance? That flies in the face of Jesus' commands to "love your neighbor as yourself," which is one of the greatest commandments, according to his own testimony, and also to "love your enemies, and pray for those who spitefully use you." Trump hasn't been spitefully used, he's deserved everything he's got and has not faced real justice for his crimes. Do you really want to stand on the side of this ungodly, anti-American, anti-Christian rhetoric?
How can you reconcile your Christian faith and practice with support for a man who exhibits a spirit of falsehood, anger, negativity, resentment, and grievance without cause? One who denigrates women, demonizes anyone whose politics he doesn't agree with, affirmed tyrants and instigated a violent insurrection against the sitting Congress.
For Christians, This Should Go Well Beyond Trump's Unrepentant Lack of Moral Character
Trump's rhetoric, spewed out in random bursts and off-track remarks made during his endless rally speeches, is dangerous to American constitutional democracy and to every ideal or principle on which this country was founded. Trump's language, and the things he says he plans to do, is a plan to completely dismantle the Constitution. He has declared he will be a "dictator on day one," and he has put in place a Supreme Court who has already given the office of President immunity for crimes committed while performing official duties, something that completely undoes every safeguard the founders wrote into the constitution to prevent the President from becoming a dictator.
He has said that he would use the military and the national guard against American citizens, not for violating the law, but for disagreeing with him. That's the destruction of the Constitution itself, and any American who would vote for a candidate who says that is not only completely ignorant of their own history and values, but they have made themselves an enemy of this country and its people.
When an American politician cites Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, and builds relationships with world leaders who are the heirs to their legacy, like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, every American should step up and make sure their candidacy is short-lived and dies when exposed to the light. Those Christians who are supporting Trump, especially those who are enthusiastic about it, have abandoned their faith, if they ever had it in the first place.
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. [2 Corinthians 11:13-15 NASB]
For false messiahs and false prophets will appear, and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. [Matthew 24:24]
For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only sovereign and Lord. [Jude v. 4]
This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. [I John 4:2-3, NIV]
And even as he depends on the support of Evangelicals politically, he holds contempt for what they claim to believe by openly denying the very basic principle leading to a Christian conversion experience, from their perspective, by shifting his position on abortion, which was at the top of their list of political priorities, and he ridicules them with the echoes of his statement that he could shoot someone in the middle of fifth avenue and not lose any voters.
Dr. Rogers very likely never imagined, in his safe megachurch bubble, that his words would soon apply to a Republican Presidential candidate whose immorality and worldliness would make Bill Clinton's problems look like a Sunday School picnic. A whole lot of conservative, Evangelical leaders have been willing to abandon their reputation, and make their own Christian testimony look insincere, abandoned and worthless in their pursuit of worldly power. And they are certainly paying for it.
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