Was Donald Trump America’s First Atheist President
Christians worldwide are called to observe penance and develop a closer relationship with Jesus Christ during the Lenten season. Self-reflection and repentance, key pillars of Lent, are tools of atonement for past sins and are innate to the moral teachings of Christ. It’s difficult to imagine a true Christian who wouldn’t welcome the opportunity for forgiveness. In contrast, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he has never asked God for forgivenessa foremost doctrine of Christianityand has questioned his need to do so if no sins were committed.
This broaches the question: Was Donald Trump America’s first atheist president?
Though faith is a private matter only known to the individual, our actions provide outside indicators that can be explored. Trump’s formative religious exposure was as a congregant of the Marble Collegiate Church in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, where he attended services with his parents. The church’s head pastor, Norman Vincent Peale, a conservative icon and author of the seminal work, The Power of Positive Thinking, had a lasting effect on Trump’s self-confidence. Peale is often considered to be more of a motivational speaker than an evangelist, delivering his message on radio programs, in newspapers and in a monthly publication.
Ben Pryor is an American politics researcher and writer.
Trump’s Religion During The 2016 Campaign
Religion was a major issue forTrump during the 2016 election campaign. From the beginning, Trump campaigned hard among evangelicals, and it paid off for himhe won 81% of the white evangelical vote.
At campaign stops, he would bring two props: a copy of his own book, The Art of the Deal, and a Bible. He claimed the Bible was his favorite book. I love the Bible, he would proclaim to the crowds as his rallies.
There was one problem with this. He apparently did not know the first thing about the Bible. He called communion wafers those little crackers. He referred to Second Corinthians, a book in the Bible, as Two Corinthians. When he was asked to name a favorite Bible verse, he couldnt come up with one. He covered up his ignorance by saying the whole Bible is incredible.
Finally, reporters pinned him down in an interview. He told them his favorite Bible verse was “Proverbs, the chapter ‘never bend to envyIve had that thing all of my life where people are bending to envy.” Only one problemthat phrase is not in the Bible. Well, two problems, since he also made it all about him saying people envy him. Okay, maybe three problemsif he was referring to Proverbs 24:1-2 where it says Be not thou envious of evil men he was casting himself as an evil man.
His ignorance of the Bible and religious traditions left him unfazed. He continued to campaign citing his love for the Bible.
Donald Trump Apparently Doesn’t Know Which Christians Are Evangelicals
President Donald Trump, a professed Presbyterian, courted Christian voters throughout his campaign and attributed his party nomination largely to evangelical support.
But a new report from CNN suggests the president doesnt entirely grasp the differences among Christian denominations.
Just days before his presidential inauguration, Trump met with two Christian leaders at his office in Trump Tower. Invited to pray with the incoming president were the Rev. Patrick OConnor, senior pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, of Queens, New York where the president was confirmed as a child and the Rev. Scott Black Johnston, senior pastor of Manhattans Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.
In comments previously unreported, the pastors told CNN, Trump boasted: I did very, very well with evangelicals in the polls.
OConnor and Johnston reminded Trump that neither of them is an evangelical. To which the president-elect reportedly asked: Well, what are you then?
The pastors are both mainline Protestants like Trump, who describes himself as a Presbyterian. OConnor and Johnston explained this to the president-elect, who nodded and asked them: But youre all Christians?
Yes, they said. Were all Christians.
Trumps failure to grasp basic religious literacy stands in contrast to his efforts to fashion himself a devout Christian and pander to Christian audiences. But it fits with that demonstrate a fundamental inconsistency with his professed faith.
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Does Donald Trump Attend Church
Donald Trump appears to be one of those Christians who only attends church on Easter and Christmas, and maybe for the occasional wedding.
Although he may attend church on the holiest days of the Christian calendar, he appears to have no idea of the religious significance of the holidays. Read what he aid about Easter on Easter Sunday in 2015 on ABCs This Week in the picture above and judge for yourself how deep his feelings go.
Bill Maher states why Trrump is not an atheist.
From Washington To Trump Most Presidents Have Been Christian
Although the Constitution clearly prohibits any religious requirement for public office, almost every single president has been a believer.
There has never been a self-identified atheist at the highest elected U.S. office, but views and denominations have varied — though the vast majority have been Protestants, according to the Pew Research Center.
President Trump joins eight other presidents who grow up in the Presbyterian Church. He has called it a “wonderful religion.” The first Presbyterian president was Andrew Jackson and the last one before Trump, Ronald Reagan.
President Trump takes the oath of office as first lady Melania Trump holds the Bible with his son, Barron.
Presbyterian: Andrew Jackson , James K. Polk , James Buchanan , Gover Cleveland , Benjamin Harrison , Woodrow Wilson , Dwight D. Eisenhower , Ronald Reagan , and Donald J. Trump
About a quarter of the presidents — including George Washington, James Madison, Franklin Roosevelt and the late George H.W. Bush — were members of the Episcopal Church, the American successor to the Church of England.
In this Jan. 20, 1989 photo, President George H.W. Bush raises his right hand as he is sworn into office as the 41st president of the United States by Chief Justice William Rehnquist as first lady Barbara Bush holds the Bible for her husband.
Methodist: Ulysses S. Grant , William McKinley and George W. Bush
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The Christian Prophets Who Say Trump Is Coming Again
In the growing community of charismatic Christian prophecy, faith in Donald Trumps imminent return to the White House is a new dividing line.
Pastor Paula White-Cain and President Donald Trump remark at the & quot Evangelicals for Trump& quot coalition launch on January 3, 2020, in Miami, Florida. | Media Punch/AP
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Perched on a cream-colored armchair,Johnny Enlow, a 61-year-old, California-based Pentecostal pastor with short-cropped gray hair, a trim beard and Tom Selleck-style mustache, looked into the camera and prophesied that Donald Trump would become president again.
Not in 2024. In 2021.
The January 20 inauguration date doesnt really mean anything, Enlow said in the January 29 video, which has gotten north of 100,000 views on YouTube. According to Enlow, more than 100 other credible Christian prophets around the world had likewise declared that Trump, somehow, would be restored to power soon.
Enlow, Locke and Kerr are among dozens of Christian prophets in Americareligious leaders with followings among Pentecostal and charismatic Christians who claimthe ability to predict the future based on dreams, visions and other supernatural phenomena. Some prophets are church leaders, while others operate independently. There are no official requirements for prophet status, though followers generally expect prophets toget at least a few prophecies right.
But, lately, that standard has come under duressparticularly when it comes to Donald Trump.
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Peale preached individualism, optimism, and self-sufficiency. He taught that winners in life are people who have overcome human weaknesses and discarded the idea of sinfulness. Trump remained friends with Rev. Peale into his adult years. He was strongly influenced by the prosperity gospel message he received at this church.
Trumps philosophy takes Peales teaching to an extreme. Peale was a decent man of faith who wanted to uplift people and free them from the fear of hellfire. Trump has transformed this message into one that provides license for cruelty to lifes losers.
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Donald Trump Christianity And Politics: Its Complicated
Even though Trump is clearly not a regenerated Christian, this does not necessarily mean that Christians should reject him as a politician. Despite Trumpâs immorality and pride, many Christians voted for Trump to be the President of the United States with legitimate reasons because politics is full of complicating factors.
Trumpâs policies while he was President were very friendly towards Christians, and he vigorously defended religious freedom, in contrast with the policies of the Democratic Party. In this way, and in many other ways, Trump was on the same side as Christians in much of the culture war.
However, it is important for Christians to distinguish between people who are fighting for similar conservative values, yet are not Christianâfor example, Trumpâand people who are truly Christian. Without true faith in Jesus, Trump is just as lost as any pro-abortion, anti-Christian leftist.
Is Trump A Christian An Atheist The Anti
I posted about Donald Trump’s religion on Facebook, and the comments generated by this post were startling. While a few said Trump was a Christian as he claims to be, most had other definitions and descriptions of his religious views. Here is a summary of those comments.
A large majority denied that he was a Christian, or else they said he was not a true Christian. I think what they meant was that he was not a good Christian as they defined the term. The comments suggested that they meant that a good Christian was someone who did one or more of these things :
- attends church regularly,
- lives according to godly morality, and
- does good works.
Many referenced his well-known narcissism. They said he worshiped himself and/or considered himself to be God. They said he wants others to worship him. They described his religion as…
- He is a Me-ist.
Some said he worshiped money. Mammon was his god. They said…
- His religion is the Almighty Dollar.
- His God and the God of his entire family is money.
- He’s a Money-ist.
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Trump’s Actions And What They Reveal
Trump believes that he does not need to ask for forgiveness. At a campaign event in Iowa, he was asked if he had ever asked God for forgiveness. His response, after several attempts to evade the question, was that he had nota statement that must have shocked most Christians: “I am not sure I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don’t think so. I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.”
He mocks and reviles every sign of weakness in others. Even a physical disability does not escape his disdain. Early in the presidential campaign, he mocked a disabled reporter.
Trump married his first wife, Ivana In the Marble Collegiate Church he married his second wife Marla in the ballroom of the Plaza Hotel he married his third wife in the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida.
What Is Trumps Religious Background
For the record, Trump claims to be a Christian, a Presbyterian. It is the religion he was brought up in as a child. He was baptized and confirmed at the age of 13 at the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens, in New York City. This church practiced an evangelical form of Protestantism.
In his late twenties, Trump began attending Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The church was then headed by Norman Vincent Peale, a pastor best known for his book The Power of Positive Thinking. Trump quickly adopted the philosophy of Peale. Trump, with his usual flair for superlatives, said that Peale thought I was his greatest student of all time.
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I Dont Like To Have To Ask For Forgiveness And I Am Good
Most significantly, Trump said this during an interview with CNN, and there is no evidence that anything has changed since then:
I like to be good. I donât like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good. I donât do a lot of things that are bad. I try to do nothing that is bad.
Donald Trump
This, in itself, demonstrates that Trump is not a true Christian because all true Christians recognize their need for forgiveness and their need for a savior. That Trump believes he does not need to ask for forgiveness demonstrates that he does not at all understand the most basic aspects of sin and the gospel.
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Former President Donald Trump is reportedly considering waiting until after the November midterm elections to announce a third presidential campaign as his legal troubles continues to mount. Trump is also facing concerns that Senate candidates he endorsed may not be as promising as he led on, CNN reports.
Trump initially planned to launch his 2024 campaign on Labor Day weekend, but the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month and diminished hopes for a “red wave” in November.
Documents at Trump’s Florida home were “likely concealed” to obstruct an FBI probe into his potential mishandling of classified materials, the Justice Department said in a court filing Tuesday.
The filing provides the most detailed account yet of the motivation for the FBI raid this month on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, which was triggered by a review of records he previously surrendered to authorities that contained top secret information.
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Before the raid, the FBI uncovered “multiple sources of evidence” showing that “classified documents” remained at Mar-a-Lago, the filing says.
“The government also developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed… and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” the filing adds.
Nevertheless, some within Trump’s orbit are urging him to launch immediately.
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Christian Influencer Scorns Maga Folk For Idolizing Trump Warns Of The Anti
This anti-vax, anti-mask, Fauci-bashing, God-pushing, far-right TikToker checks all the MAGA boxes except one: she accuses Trump followers of idolatry, a trait that won’t protect them from the anti-Christ.
“I have never seen a human being be worshipped the way that conservatives are worshipping Donald Trump,” conservative Christian influencer Morgan Ariel said in a recent post . “And if you dare speak out about it, you get viciously attacked. It’s no wonder why God allowed him to be removed from office. Because our god is a jealous god, and he does not play games with idolatry, and that’s exactly what’s going on in this movement.”
She then warned the blind people who follow her: “The people who blindly follow man are going to be the same person deceived by the anti-Christ when he pops up on the scene. So I would tread very very lightly,” she says, later referring to Trump and politicians in general as people who “don’t care about you one bit.”
Welp, her days of MAGA inclusion are numbered.
TPUSA Ambassador Morgan Ariel blasts conservatives for worshiping Donald Trump, says “God allowed him to be removed out of office” and implied those who “blindly follow” Trump will be “deceived by the Antichrist.”
What Religion Is Donald Trump
Donald Trump says he is Christian. More specifically he is Presbyterian, which is a form of Protestantism which traces its roots back to Scotland.
The US president inherited his religion from his British mum, who was born on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides before moving to New York in 1930 at the age of 18.
His fathers ancestors were Lutheran another form of Protestantism originating in Germany.
His family attended First Presbyterian Church in Queens, New York, before joining Manhattans Marble Collegiate Church in the 1970s.
But Trump did not often attend apart from major occasions like weddings and funerals, according to US Catholic.
The president talked about his religious beliefs during his 2016 presidential campaign, saying his own book The Art of the Deal was his second favourite book after the Bible.
But some critics have suggested he is not really a practising Christian and was simply talking up his religious credentials to appeal to the many US Christian voters.
They have pointed to his vague answers when quizzed on religious matters in more detail.
Stories about him nearly putting cash in a Church communion plate, and referring to the holy wine and bread at Church as my little wine and my little cracker are also often cited.
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We Can Judge People By Their Fruit
Some say that nobody can truly know the heart of another person, and so nobody should say that another person is not truly Christian. It is certainly true that only God fully knows the heart of any human.
At the same time, the Bible teaches what distinguishes a true Christian from a false Christian. At the very least, true Christians will exhibit these two things:
If a person claims to be a Christian, it makes sense to ask, âHas that person repented of sin? Does that person trust in Jesus alone for salvation? Is that person pursuing obedience to God?â
