Scott Kamps
I’m unashamedly a “conservative Christian, right-wing Republican, straight, white, American male” who voted for Donald Trump.
While I’d reject the Leftists pigeonholing me as hateful, racist, bigoted, etc., I could – broadly speaking – be categorized as a typical Bible-believing redneck: the kind Charlie Daniels described as “nothin’ but a workin’ man…” who “ain’t afraid to take a stand…” and has “respect for the Lord and the law…”
While President Trump is far from a perfect man, I’ve been satisfied with many of his policies and his Supreme Court picks. Still, I don’t have a problem mentioning his shortcomings – especially those influencing younger generations in the wrong direction. It’s understandable many conservatives keep quiet when Trump does/says something atrocious, not wanting to give any “ammunition to the other side.”
At times, it’s important to ignore political calculations and call a spade a spade. Last week – shortly after it was publicly announced – Trump posted on Truth Social: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
Without reflecting on whether this was a politically expedient thing for Trump to do, I’m concerned with our President – the leader of the free world – exemplifying such callousness toward human life.
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Right is right, even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong about it.” And wrong is wrong.
Conservative Christians ought to be alarmed, knowing “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.”
I don’t know our President’s heart, but his words reveal hatred. Robert Mueller was a political enemy of Trump’s and sought to destroy him with supposed lies on Russian collusion.
But to celebrate the man’s death on social media – where Mueller’s widow and children/grandchildren will see it (as well as Trump’s own children and grandchildren) – is not just heartbreaking: it’s wrong and destructive to society. It’s bad enough that profanity and vulgarity has increased so much among politicians, but modeling malicious behavior to the American public must be opposed publicly.
The Bible teaches that we naturally go about “passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).
Only the love of God in Christ can melt our hearts to begin truly loving others – even our enemies. It’s essential for parents, grandparents, pastors and other leaders in society to teach by word and example a Christ-like life of love for God and others. What America – Graham County, indeed – “what this world needs is a little more respect for the Lord and the law and [our fellow] man.”
Scott Kamps writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, thestableguy@frontier.com.