When WorldNetDaily columnist Michael Brown isn’t expressing faux compassion for transgenders, he’s an apologist for President Trump, insisting that evangelicals should ignore Trump’s deeply troubling personal life and be happy that he signed on to promote a right-wing evangelical agenda. He’s provided “talking points for pro-Trump evangelicals” and even written a book on the subject.
Brown took this argument to its crass, cynical extreme in his Dec. 6 column, writing in response to the fact that Trump, unlike all the other presidents who attended the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush, refused to recite the Apostles’ Creed. Brown, needless to say, gave Trump a pass for the religious faux pas — summed up in the headline “Ask me if I care” — because the only thing that matters is that he pushes a right-wing agenda:
During the presidential campaign, did I take Trump’s references to the Scriptures seriously? No.
Was it meaningful to me when he held up his family Bible at his rallies? Absolutely not.
Did it surprise me when he really couldn’t quote a single, favorite verse? Not in the least.
And that’s why it didn’t surprise me when he remained silent during the recitation of the Apostles’ Creed.
As to why he was silent, God knows.
Perhaps he didn’t want to put on a religious show.
Perhaps he was committed to being totally quiet and out of the way during the Bush funeral.
Perhaps he was unfamiliar with the words.
Perhaps he’s not a true Christian and so had no interest in making the statement of faith.
To repeat: God knows why he didn’t recite the creed.
But, to repeat: His silence is of no material concern to me, since I would rather have a president who kept his promises to evangelicals and didn’t worship publicly than a public worshiper who broke his promises to us.
Brown then invokes WND’s favorite divine-Donald narrative, that Trump is just like biblical hero Cyrus:
But even if it was the worst case scenario, namely, that he was silent because he is not a true believer in Jesus, that would only confirm the “Cyrus” prophecies about him. (Namely, that God raised him up for His own good purposes, despite the fact that Trump himself did not know God, just as he raised up Cyrus, who was an idol-worshiping pagan king. See Isaiah 45:1-4, and note carefully the last words of verse 4.)
To be clear, I have said for more than three years that we make a mistake when, as evangelicals, we present the president as “Saint Donald” or when we whitewash his worst words. We can support him and pray for him without being puppets and lackeys. We can stand with him while expressing our disagreement and differences.
But as long as he continues to nominate pro-life justices and push back against LGBT extremism and fight for our religious liberties and combat radical Islam and stand with Israel (among other things), he has my ongoing support.
And that holds true whether he himself is a genuine Christian or not.
Somehow, we suspect that even if Trump suddenly stops delivering the right-wing goods, Brown will still find a reason to support him.