Southern Baptist seminary president denounces Trump’s comments

by Jacob Fuller

Curt Flewelling, FISM News

 

Former president Donald Trump has yet again been roundly criticized for comments that he recently made on his social media platform Truth Social, this time from a prominent Christian leader.

Following the first “Twitter Files” release, Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform that the documents provided more proof that the election was stolen and could allow for the dismissal of the election regulations in the Constitution.

“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump stated.

This statement received immediate blowback from conservatives and liberals alike, and also caught the attention of R. Albert Mohler Jr., President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Trump is sending every signal of a basic recklessness, irresponsibility, and contradiction of the Constitution of the United States and the presidential oath of office,” Mohler said on Monday’s episode of his podcastThe Briefing.”

“The language that the Former President articulated in that social media posting is a direct contradiction of the oath of office for the President of the United States,” Mohler further stated

The list of presidents who have tested constitutional limits is long, but Mohler contends “the list of presidents who have used language like this is a list of one.” He also pointed out that there is a difference between “arguments over how the Constitution is to be interpreted, and whether the Constitution is to be considered in force.”

He urged Christian conservatives to wake up as he asserts that, “this kind of language is incompatible with a conservative cast of mind, a conservative disposition, and a conservative understanding of the Constitution.”

Mohler also criticized Trump for having dinner with controversial rapper Kanye West and”unapologetic white supremacist” Nick Fuentes. Even though Trump has tried to explain away the meeting, Mohler stated that “if one hosts such people for dinner, one bears responsibility for having done so.”

He also maintained that “Christians must be the first to recognize that when there are statements of antisemitism or any sort of racial supremacy, the entire system of moral credibility simply evaporates.”

Mohler is not the first to question Trump’s conservative bona fides. None other than the great Rush Limbaugh boldly declared on his radio show back in 2016, “Can somebody point to me the conservative on the ballot?” Rush rhetorically asked himself, “What do you mean Rush, are you admitting Trump is not a conservative?”

In 2016, faith-based voters did not heavily back the most conservative candidate throughout the Republican primary process. Trump routinely came close or won primary victories over conservative Ted Cruz in several states.

For years Christian conservatives have tolerated the former president’s “less than Christlike” behavior. Evangelicals in search of a political savior looked the other way as Trump’s tweets routinely assailed Heidi Cruz (commenting on her appearance), John McCain (“I like people who weren’t captured”), and E. Jean Carroll, rebuffing her assault allegations with, “She’s not my type,” largely due to the way in which he bucked political norms in setting policy that aligned with conservative (and often Christian) values.

However, as the number of reckless and, at times vile, comments continue to pile up, Trump’s standing with conservatives and evangelicals has been showing a rapid decline as of late. It is interesting, however, that what may have finally cratered his support is a result of his assault on the core of conservatism, the U.S. Constitution, and not his boorish behavior.

His latest comments prompted self-identified “constitutionalist” Ted Cruz to issue this succinct statement in an interview with Nexstar, “Of course what he said was wrong.” He went on to say, “I think the Constitution has defended our liberties and it created this nation, it created the structure of our government.”

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