Moral Issue #1: You should never ever vote for a politician who speaks and behaves like Adolf Hitler. Do we have to explain this?

Moral Issue #2: Christian leaders break faith when they skip paying taxes and turn their churches into partisan political machines

Moral Issue #3: Donald Trump has declared that he wants to use the office of President of the United States as a tool for personal vengeance against his enemies

Moral Issue #4: Donald Trump has repeatedly told falsehoods for the sake of his own personal gain, with consequences that caused extreme harm to other people

Moral Issue #5: Donald Trump has promoted sexual assaults against women

Christian Nationalists are ready with excuses to dismiss the rampant immorality of Donald Trump and his supporters, however.

The Baby Christian Excuse

Christian fans of Donald Trump often justify their support for Trump by claiming that Donald Trump is just a “baby Christian”, meaning that because Donald Trump is just newly converted to Christianity, he can’t be expected to understand and follow all of the moral codes that more mature Christians follow.

This excuse doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, however. The “baby Christian” justification of Donald Trump’s behavior began in earnest in 2015. That was nine years ago. During those nine years, Donald Trump has had regular meetings with Christian leaders, prayed with them, and been prayed over by Christian preachers.

When Christian Nationalists excuse Donald Trump’s terrible behavior by saying that he’s just a baby Christian, what they’re implying is that Christianity is such an ineffective religion that it is incapable of reforming the character of its followers, even over such a long period as nine years. They’re saying that Donald Trump’s cadre of Christian preachers are incompetent.

Besides, Donald Trump actually isn’t a new Christian. He grew up as a Christian, and has been a Christian for his entire adult life. Donald Trump is nearly 80 years old, with a lifetime of experience as a Christian living in a society dominated by Christianity. He isn’t a baby Christian.

The King David Excuse

Another common excuse for the immorality that is rife in Donald Trump and within his political movement is that the Christian god uses immoral people to achieve moral ends.

If that’s true, it’s a condemnation of the god of Christianity.

The Christian god is supposed to be all-powerful. That means that instead of using bad people to do good things, this god could instead choose good people to do those very same good things. Alternatively, this god could just snap his fingers and make the good things happen instantly through his magical powers.

So, given that he has superior alternatives that don’t involve unleashing wicked rulers on the world, why does the god of Christianity choose a less efficient option that causes suffering for so many people?

Some Christians will simply avoid confronting this difficult subject, shrugging their shoulders and saying, “God works in mysterious ways.” The thing is, giving power to sadistic, immoral people who hurt others and corrupt society in order to achieve some unspecified moral goal isn’t mysterious. It’s just stupid.

Do Christian Nationalists really believe that their god is so idiotic that the only way he can possibly achieve his goals is making Donald Trump President of the United States?