Hey, it’s special guest writer Matt Walsh! Who are we going after today, Matt?  Feminists? Anti-Home Schooling Nazis? Abortionists?

Matt Walsh writes:

On Wednesday night, the front runner for the Republican nomination for president, an alleged adult man, tweeted an unflattering picture of his opponent’s wife and insinuated that his own wife is hotter.”

Huh? You sound offended. Is it because the GOP front runner played the exact same trick that news organizations have been playing since the invention of the photograph? Was it out-of-bounds because he bypassed the media and took it directly to the people, like Ronald Reagan did? Perhaps it’s because his wife is, in fact, much better looking. We’ll revisit your opening paragraph in a few ‘graphs.

For the record, Donald Trump’s current wife — a woman 25 years his junior who used to take her clothes off and pose for pictures for money —  is his third, who he married after dumping his second, Marla, with whom he cheated on his first, Ivana, who, according to allegations in a sworn deposition, he once brutally assaulted.“

Donald Trump denies the allegation, which was written by a third party, in an article written by hard-working news sleuths who I’m sure had no axe to grind whatsoever. Like you, Matt. I’ve left the link in so readers can follow up and decide for themselves if this is a smoking gun, or a smokescreen from a messy divorce proceeding.

There are other accusations, sure to be finally covered by the mainstream media during the general election, of Trump stalking and intimidating women who rebuff his advances.”

Once again, an article long on allegations and short on evidence. Two things popped out instantly. It took Selina Scott twenty years of alleged abuse and misogyny to file legal papers that stopped it? And Selina Scott says, “There is little doubt that Trump sees me as his nemesis.” I’m sorry, really? For a documentary that happened 20 years ago? His nemesis? Of the hundreds of reporters who’ve pursued, gossiped about and criticized Trump over the decades, she’s his bête noire? I find that hard to believe, but once again these are your links and allegations, Matt. Readers can follow up as they will.

But just a minute! In your opening paragraph you insinuate that Trump insulted Heidi Cruz on social media solely because he’s a big meanie. It was, in fact, his response to ads from the Cruz political action committee that featured a nude but strategically covered Melania Trump. The PAC pushed the social media attack ads a day before, and the day of, the Utah caucuses.

I suspect you might be showing some bias in your column, Matt. Let’s keep going though, shall we?

By the way, he has never repented, apologized, or admitted that he did anything wrong. He laughed in God’s face and said he does not need His forgiveness. He boasts of his adultery, happily recommends that other husbands leave their wives just as he did, encourages men to look at women as “pieces of ass,” and advises them to “treat women like sh*t.” And this is the man millions of Christians want to be president.”

The “Relationship Advice” class at Trump University was scarcely attended for a reason, Matt. I don’t imagine we’d want Mr. Trump running a Fireside Girls troupe, either. Fortunately he’s not running for marriage counselor or role model. Neither is the guy I hire to clean my septic tank.

As for his relationship with God: that’s between him and God. Just like yours is, Matt.

The shameful, morally unjustifiable support Trump enjoys among Christian voters and prominent Christian leaders like Robert Jeffress is considered one of the most confusing aspects of this election cycle.”

I’ve broken up this paragraph because it really isn’t that confusing.

But it isn’t all that confusing.”

Oh, nice. We’re finally going to agree about something. I like it better when we agree on the issues.

Christianity has long been on the decline in the United States, and Donald Trump is just one of the many beneficiaries of its collapse.”

Wow, that did not go in a direction that makes sense. Let’s back up to the “Trump phenomenon” portion of this paragraph. The simple explanation is a significant portion of the electorate on both the right and the left have arrived at the conclusion that all politicians are lying scumbags who answer to nobody but themselves and their rich donors and benefactors. Christians are among them. As a result, we have civil wars occurring in both major political parties. It’s Bernie vs Hillary on the Democratic side, and Trump vs Cruz vs Everyone-in-the Republican-Establishment-Who-Hates-Both-of-Them, which we’ll call the “Kasich block” for convenience.

It’s that simple. The Republican civil war gets all the press because Republicans are both stupid and inept. The Democrats have theirs covered via their Super Delegates, so Bernie never, ever, had a chance. And Republicans will somehow screw theirs up so the worst possible result will come about. No, I don’t know what that is yet, but “worst case” in my mind involves Cleveland burning down.

Well, Cleveland burning down and President Hillary.

Your assertion that Christianity has long been on the decline is completely accurate, and I lament this also.

There are other beneficiaries, of course. The porn industry, Hollywood, the Democrat Party, Planned Parenthood, the gay lobby, feminists, etc. A great number of nefarious forces have profited tremendously from the deserted churches and empty pews scattered across our nation. But, at the present moment, none of these vultures have feasted more greedily upon the decaying husk of western Christendom than Mr. Trump.”

Codswollop. All the nefarious forces you list have profited far greater than has Donald Trump. Mr. Trump is merely the front runner in a campaign that has been moving along for about a year and will end less than a year from now. He may never be President. He may not even be the nominee. Yet everything else you mention has existed, will exist, and its influence has been growing for decades. Part, but not all of it, is because Christians generally suck at fighting for their culture.

There have been many theories offered to explain how America is falling into the grip of a grotesque megalomaniac, pathological liar, clinical narcissist, – “

Glad to see you railing against the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Oh, my bad, you weren’t.

– and unrepentant strip club owner who talks openly about his desire to date his own daughter, but the decline of the faith is most certainly the biggest reason.”

The biggest reason is the decline of a faith: Faith in the Republican party. The Tea Party movement came about in 2009 as a result of congress passing TARP. They swept Republicans back into power in 2010, got rewarded for their efforts with a man who has harsher words for his own side than he ever had for Barack Obama, and then gave them workable margins in both the House and Senate in 2014. The margins were so workable, in fact, that they’ve managed to cave on every single issue and give Obama everything he has demanded and more.

We wait with bated breath to see them cave on Obama’s gun-confiscating Supreme Court nominee. Will it be before the convention to punish party members who voted in Trump as the nominee? Will it be a last-minute thing on Halloween, a week before the election? Or will it be during the lame duck session before President Trump is sworn into office and has a chance to make a nomination of his own?

Right. It might be President Cruz they’ll betray.

Yeah, we’ve lost faith in them. God has nothing to do with it. In fact, this might be a blessing for many if they turn away from worshiping government and turn to God instead.

Clearly, if America were still a nation populated by serious, observant, devout Christians, there is no way a man like Trump could launch a successful presidential campaign.”

Neither could Hillary, Bernie, or Cruz. What is your point? We don’t live in a perfect world; we don’t even live in a good world. We live in the world where our political leadership has failed completely and our rights are trampled daily.

If he did, he’d at least have to go to great lengths to hide the fact that he’s a philandering goon and self-obsessed tyrant with an affinity for war crimes and Planned Parenthood. He’d have to put on a convincing act to distract us from his vindictiveness, his vengeful contempt for anyone who dares criticize him, and his utter disregard for the law, the Constitution, and basic human decency. But Trump makes very little effort to pretend he is anything but an insidious buffoon and petty despot. He’s advertising the fact. He’s campaigning on it, even.”

Trump, who has made political donations to everyone holding power, played the game of “pay off the politician to actually get something done.” Hate the game, Matt, not the player.

I’m also guessing that you pretty much don’t understand bullies. Do you know how to get a bully to stop hitting you? You punch back twice as hard. Once the bully stops hitting, you offer them a hand up. This is what Trump does. Did you watch his victory speech on Super Tuesday? Did you hear him compliment Mr. Cruz on his hard-fought campaign, and congratulate him for his victories in Alaska, Oklahoma, and Texas? Did you hear Mr. Cruz’s response to this? Go back and listen to the speeches that night, Matt. It will tell you everything you need to know about both men.

Notice when Hillary played the “sexist” card, Trump punched back with the affairs of her husband and her own culpability in making his accusers back down. The attack stopped almost instantly.

When Megan Kelly and others at Fox News ambushed Trump at the debates with graphics and video attacks they didn’t use on any of the other Republican candidates, he didn’t just take it. He fought back. You seem comfortable watching your leaders cower before bullies and injustice, Matt, because losing with dignity would appear to be far more noble and important to you than winning the “wrong” way.

Trump is popular because Americans want to win against the political powers destroying our country. They are tired of weakness. They are tired of surrender. They are tired of being taken advantage of by darn near everybody. Trump is the only candidate who appears to understand this. Even if he is a con man and has no intention of doing anything he promises, so what? Do you actually think any of the candidates isn’t lying?

How foolish are you?

It’s important to realize that he isn’t winning in spite of “Christians” — he’s winning because of them. This billionaire reality show character who funded liberal Democrats for decades, supported infanticide, and donated recently to radical gay activists, swept the “Bible Belt.” He lost in Texas and Oklahoma, but won, sometimes dominantly, in Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky and North Carolina. He claimed almost half the Christian vote in Florida. He lapped the field in Arizona, a state with about an 85 to 90 percent Christian population.

Trump lost by almost 50 points in Mormon Utah, but in Alabama, a state with significant Baptist and Methodist populations, he won with a bigger share of the vote than second and third place combined. In New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Florida — majority Catholic states — he clobbered the competition easily.

Recent attempts to minimize Trump’s success among Christians have been rather pitiful. This article in Christianity Today trumpets the fact that Trump hasn’t won a majority of Evangelical votes. He’s only won about 40 percent of them. “Only” close to half of the Evangelicals in the country have so far supported an authoritarian leftist who calls for riots, encourages his supporters to assault protesters, mocks POWs and the disabled, tries to kick old ladies out of their homes so he can build parking lots, cuts deals with the mob, and commits financial fraud. “Only” 40 percent! Hooray!”

Is your point here that Christians should not take advantage of their voting rights and exercise their duties as citizens? Is it that you don’t like the way they are voting? Or is it simply that you are so enamored with Cruz that you can only see flaws in Trump, whether they exist or not, and see none with your preferred candidate? Because I notice you haven’t brought up any of Cruz’s shortcomings in your tirade.

Or are you really calling Christians ungodly over a political candidate?

Others have tried to find solace in the fact that the majority of Trump voters are not church-going Christians, but that begs the question: why aren’t the rest of them going to church? It’s not exactly reassuring that unchurched Christians so overwhelmingly outnumber and outvote churched Christians. It seems quite sad that we’re reduced to justifying our failures by pointing out that most of us aren’t going to church anyway so it doesn’t count.”

Ungodly Christians it is.

Team Christian: Matt Walsh says you can virtue signal your religiosity by voting for the holy Ted Cruz and spitting on pictures of Donald Trump. Wear a Cruz button in church for extra piety points. If you are extra super brave and sacrosanct put up a Cruz sign in your yard, take a picture, and post it to your social media site. Throwing in a Bible verse is optional.

For the record, I agree that Christians who fail to go to church are a problem. That has nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with why Christians are failing to have an impact on our culture. Of course, why they are staying away from churches is a whole different post.

Accusing them of holding sinful political beliefs is not going to help the situation. If you are having the vapors over Trump supporters, what will you do when you find out there are Hillary supporters in our churches?

No matter how you slice it, almost every Christian group shares massive amounts of blame. A left wing demagogue running for the GOP presidential nomination should be subjected to enormous, humiliating defeats in every state, especially the “religious” ones down south. The vote totals across the “Bible Belt” ought to mirror what happened in Utah. Instead, Trump has enjoyed enormous, humiliating victories in Christian states, and that is nothing less than an utter disgrace.”

There are no “Christian States” Matt. None. Blaming Christians for the fact that Cruz is losing is fine, even if it is misguided. Implying that Christians who don’t vote for Cruz are ungodly, and by implication are sinning, is completely wrong.

It is also out of character for you. I was very impressed with your column blaming the sorry state of marriage on the divorce, cohabitation, and hook-up culture we’ve created, and not on homosexual marriage. Why are you blaming Trump for the ills of our churches, when the ills of our churches can be set squarely on the doorstep of our churches?

Granted, we knew Christianity was dwindling in America long before Donald Trump came along — the fact that abortion and pornography are both billion dollar industries in this “Christian nation” of ours ought to have been a major clue — but his ascendancy puts an exclamation point on the sad tale. And that exclamation point may be the end of the tale completely. I’m not sure America can survive a Trump or Clinton presidency, and, if that’s the route we choose, I’m not sure it wants to. Indeed, what we are witnessing now is not a revolution, but an act of national suicide. And millions of Christians have lined up at the poisoned punch bowl right along with everyone else.”

I’m not sure it deserves to survive anybody’s presidency, Matt.

At this point, Matt lists two primary reasons for the “cancerous trends in Christianity that have most enabled the Trump scourge.” From the first reason:

Trump’s Christian groupies often remind us that it’s OK to support a moral degenerate because we aren’t electing a “pastor in chief,” which is a bit like saying it’s OK to marry an adulterous dead beat because otherwise you’d have to marry the Pope. A ridiculous way of looking at things, obviously.”

You can still apply your faith to your politics without advocating the installment of a religious monarch. But these Christians have quarantined their faith into one small section of their lives, which means, in their minds, they need not apply it to politics, just as they need not apply it to their professional lives, their sex lives, their family lives, or any other part of life that doesn’t come with a giant “RELIGION” sign attached.”

You have no idea what kind of faith life Trump supporters have. You have no right to imply that Christians who are Trump supporters lack faith, or don’t apply faith, in any given area of their life.

Should Christians select their political leaders carefully, even prayerfully? Yes. There is room for disagreement in this. Unless, of course, the candidate is running around healing people and raising the dead in Jesus’ name. Then we might have a politician chosen by God. Even then I’d suspect a trick. Don’t be cynical like me, Matt.

The Bible says leaders in the church ought to be sober minded, self-controlled, loyal to their wives, respectable, honest, dignified, and not greedy or quarrelsome (1 Timothy 3). Falwell says a president or king ought not share these qualities, suggesting that our country would be better served by an out-of-control, greedy, undignified, disloyal, dishonest, shameful lout. This is the sort of unhinged reasoning that seems suddenly compelling when you’ve convinced yourself that faith is ought to play no role in the non-religious parts of your life.

Exactly. Leaders in the church. What part of that is unclear? If Donald Trump were to show up at my church applying to be an Elder, I would not vote for him. As it is, I may or may not vote for him for President. I’ll make both decisions in accordance with my faith. So far I’ve come to different conclusions than you have.

This list from Timothy does not apply to fathers, mothers, or members of your local church body. Sure, we’re all working toward those traits but there are many damaged people in the world who have repented, received forgiveness, and seek to become more Christ-like, even in the midst of messy family life, addictions, and emotional scarring. That might be any of us.

Perhaps you should take another swing through the stories of Saul and David in the old testament, Matt. Saul was the manly-man, strong, tall, good-looking, and ungodly. The Trump of his day, if you will. Did God use him? Yes. Did Israel have victories? It did. Was Saul eventually removed from power because of his sins in favor of David? He was.

Have I just made your point for you? I have not. David went on to have an adulterous affair with Bathsheba, plotted to have her husband murdered, and passed his dysfunction on to his children who had incestuous affairs with and murdered one another. David, the man chosen by God and described as a man after God’s own heart.

The lesson is this: God can use anyone to carry out his will. He blesses who he blesses, and curses who he curses. Our votes make no difference in that process.

Do you know what does make a difference? Godly people coming together in Godly churches and worshiping God by serving one another and their communities. If church members can’t commit to that common goal and put their politics aside, that’s on them. Trump, Cruz, Hillary, Bernie. If voting for the wrong candidate damns us, then we are all damned.

The Spork Speaks – Tempest in a Teardrop – Quizzer