A Christian letter to nominee Trump

By J. Matt Barber

Dear Mr. Trump:

One of the things I appreciate about you is that you're exceptionally direct. So am I.

And so I'll be direct.

I am a Ted Cruz supporter and part of what they're calling the "#NeverTrump" crowd. As it now stands, and, speaking of directness, absent some direct revelation from the Holy Spirit Himself, I cannot, and will not, vote for you in November. (I hope you'll continue reading. I do not intend this as an attack in anyway.)

Still, and before I jump into my profound reservations about your presidential candidacy, let me share a few more things that I appreciate about you. First, though many people, yourself included, have said that you "are the establishment," I nonetheless appreciate that you took on the mealy-mouthed GOP establishment this primary season. The conservative base of the Republican Party is sick of their empty campaign promises, gutless lack of resolve and failure to use all means necessary to rein-in Obama.

Next, I, and others, love your often witty, always delightful smackdowns of the mainstream media – a media so marinated in leftist ideology and political correctness that they wouldn't recognize objective journalism if it bit 'em in the ... well, you get the idea.

Finally, you have quickly come to both signify and personify Middle America's utter disdain for all things politically correct. "I don't frankly have time for total political correctness," you told Megyn Kelly in the GOP's first presidential debate. "And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time either."

Amen.

Now for the negatives. While there are many, for the sake of brevity I'll address but a few. These negatives alone, to me, are absolute deal breakers.

Mr. Trump, I don't oppose you because I'm Republican and you're not. I don't even oppose you because I'm conservative and you're not. I oppose you, sir, because I'm a Christ follower.

Now, let me be clear. I know that I don't speak for all faithful, Bible-believing Christians. In fact, there are many I both know and respect who plan to vote for you, some who even publicly endorsed you from the onset. I do not intend to indict them, judge them or even persuade them to do otherwise.

Still, there are many more who, like me, cannot, with a clear conscience, vote for you.

Let's start from 30,000 feet and bring it in for a landing. Some of my Christian brothers and sisters have noted, accurately, that God has a wonderful way of using unlikely, broken and even wicked people for good (we are none righteous, not even one [see Romans 3:10]).

He may be doing that with you, and I pray He is.

Still others have even compared you to King David, a "man after God's own heart," who was both a murderer and adulterer. I love David's story because it reminds me of my own. I've done some pretty horrible things in my life that, but for Christ's amazing grace, forgiveness and sacrifice on the cross, I'd be getting exactly what I deserve – eternal separation from God.

King David was a sinner. I'm a sinner. You're a sinner. But, as best I can tell, it is gross error to compare you to King David in any way. David, you see, was contrite. He was more than contrite. He was humble because he was humbled. He basked in humility because he willingly received God's well-deserved humiliation and discipline. David was utterly broken and gloriously repentant for his many sins. He begged God with some of the most sincere and beautiful words ever written, for forgiveness most undeserved.

And God forgave Him.

Humility does not mean weakness. David was meek, he was not weak. Meekness is restrained strength.

Here's where I must be direct. You and I, Mr. Trump, are no King Davids. Not only is there no evidence that you are broken, contrite, humble and repentant for your own very public sins; you, even today, continue, unrepentantly, to commit those sins and boast of them on the campaign trail. Hell, some of them, like crowing about your book, wherein you brag about all the hot chicks you scored and the times you cheated on your wives, are even part of your stump speech.

For his adultery David begged God, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin" (Psalm 51:1-2).

By contrast, when recently asked about God's forgiveness for your own storied past, you said, "I don't like to have to ask for forgiveness. Why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness, if I am not making mistakes?"

Well, because God demands it, for starters.

And so you remain an unrepentant serial adulterer who personally attacks his political opponents as "stupid liars," sleazily suggests that their wives are ugly, absurdly intimates that their fathers conspired to assassinate JFK (you admitted the next day you were lying), brags about the size of his manhood from the debate stage, even now says that Planned Parenthood, an organization that gets filthy rich tearing live babies limb-from-limb and selling their body parts, "does wonderful things and we should not defund it," essentially stated, just weeks ago, that men in miniskirts have a right to shower alongside our wives and daughters, and, neither last nor least, habitually and unapologetically verbally abuses women – somebody's wives, mothers and daughters – by calling them "pigs," "ugly," "fat" or "great pieces of a – ."

Moreover, Mr. Trump, if elected you will be the very first U.S. president to have owned (and/or presently maintain stock in) strip clubs. Your Trump Taj Mahal strip club "Scores" in Atlantic City, for example, among the most mundane. You, sir, have profited, and continue to profit, from the sexual exploitation of precious young women created in the image and likeness of Almighty God – women who, not long ago, were not unlike my 11 and 12-year-old daughters.

You're a worldly man, Mr. Trump. You know that many of these women are drug-addicted and were sexually abused as children. You also know that strip clubs (particularly Vegas/Atlantic City strip clubs) are hotbeds for sex trafficking (sex slavery) and prostitution.

This misogynistic exploitation of women and girls, on your part, is both reprehensible and inexcusable. Not only is it unbecoming of any man who wishes to hold the highest office in the entire land; it is decidedly unwise of any man who doesn't wish to have some father or brother jerk him out of his limo for roadside dental work.

By all indication, you have neither asked these girls' forgiveness, God's forgiveness, nor ceased this shameless exploitation.

You have not repented.

And so I will not vote for you.

But I will pray for you.

© J. Matt Barber