Joe Heim began his year with an interview with Jerry Falwell the Lesser for the Washington Post. At first I thought it was a satirical column and, I must admit that I still wonder if it actually was. Falwell spent the interview arguing with Jesus on behalf of Trump making light of Jesus' own words. Forget "suffer the little children to come unto me" or "love thy neighbors as ourselves" or "help the poor." Falwell brags that he laughs out loud when liberals talk about those things. "Jesus never told Caesar how to run Rome," said Falwell. "He went out of his way to say that's the earthly kingdom, I'm about the heavenly kingdom and I'm here to teach you how to treat others, how to help others, but when it comes to serving your country, you render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. It's a distortion of the teaching of Christ to say Jesus taught love and forgiveness and therefore the United States as a nation should be loving and forgiving, and just hand over everything we have to every other part of the world. That's not what Jesus taught. You almost have to believe that this is a theocracy to think that way, to think that public policy should be dictated by the teachings of Jesus."Heim reminded him that "In 2016 you wrote in a Washington Post editorial that voters in the 2010 and 2014 midterms sent a message they were "tired of the leftist agenda." What message did voters in the 2018 midterms send?"Falwell answered with lies and Heim didn't call him out on them. "This midterm, the president did better than the average president does in his first midterms. So I think the message is that the American people are happy with the direction the country is headed and happy with the economy, happy with our newfound respect in the world. It's a better result than you normally see in the first midterms." Ten million more people voted for Democratic House candidates than Republican House candidates. So which president got that message from the voters in his first midterm?Heim also reminded him that he and other white evangelical leaders have strongly supported Trump. He asked him "what about him exemplifies Christianity and earns him your support?"That's a tough question if an evangelical wants to answer it honestly. But easy-peasy for one-- like Falwell-- who doesn't. "What earns him my support is his business acumen. Our country was so deep in debt and so mismanaged by career politicians that we needed someone who was not a career politician, but someone who'd been successful in business to run the country like a business. That's the reason I supported him." This time Heim did push back and reminded Falwell that "the deficit and debt have increased during his first two years." Falwell was prepared to blame... Trump's rubber-stamp Congress (and Obama). "Yeah, Congress, the spending bill that they forced on him in order to get the military spending up to where it needed to be-- he said that would be the last time he signed one of those. But he had no choice because Obama had decimated the military, and it had to be rebuilt." Then came my favorite questions:
Q: Is there anything President Trump could do that would endanger that support from you or other evangelical leaders?A: No.Q: That's the shortest answer we've had so far.A: Only because I know that he only wants what's best for this country, and I know anything he does, it may not be ideologically "conservative," but it's going to be what's best for this country, and I can't imagine him doing anything that's not good for the country.Q: Is it hypocritical for evangelical leaders to support a leader who has advocated violence and who has committed adultery and lies often? I understand that a person can be forgiven their sins, but should that person be leading the country?A: When Jesus said we're all sinners, he really meant all of us, everybody. I don't think you can choose a president based on their personal behavior because even if you choose the one that you think is the most decent-- let's say you decide Mitt Romney. Nobody could be a more decent human being, better family man. But there might be things that he's done that we just don't know about. So you don't choose a president based on how good they are; you choose a president based on what their policies are. That's why I don't think it's hypocritical.There's two kingdoms. There's the earthly kingdom and the heavenly kingdom. In the heavenly kingdom the responsibility is to treat others as you'd like to be treated. In the earthly kingdom, the responsibility is to choose leaders who will do what's best for your country. Think about it. Why have Americans been able to do more to help people in need around the world than any other country in history? It's because of free enterprise, freedom, ingenuity, entrepreneurism and wealth. A poor person never gave anyone a job. A poor person never gave anybody charity, not of any real volume. It's just common sense to me.
Jonathan Martin is a pastor and author from Tulsa who criticized Falwell, Jr for aligning "with the darkest forces of Trumpism"
