Republican megadonor Foster Friess recently made an appeal to evangelical voters on behalf of GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting Donald Trump.
Rick Santorum’s former benefactor, who has since endorsed Trump and is now leading efforts behind the scenes to raise the hundreds of millions he is expected to need to compete against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, said he was asked by a reporter if, before concluding to support Donald Trump, he “grappled with the same concerns expressed to him by a principled evangelical Christian woman.” The reported told Friess the woman worried about the moral example Donald Trump is setting for young people.
My response: Remind your born-again friend, that all through history, God has harnessed imperfect people to fulfill His perfect will. Saul of Tarsus spent most of his life killing people whose beliefs he rejected but then became the Number One Salesman for the loving things Jesus wanted to see happen in our fallen world.
Saul definitely would have won all the incentive trips to Hawaii.
King David sent Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, off to the front lines in hopes he would be killed so David could play cozy with the guy’s wife.
David time and again states in the psalms that he delights in God’s statutes because he “loves them.” His unwavering faith in God, from the time he was a shepherd boy, inspired him to establish Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Joseph counseled Pharaoh and Daniel and advised four nasty kings. Did they struggle with their role and their support of these leaders? Perhaps these individuals can serve as role models for the evangelical Christian woman as she considers supporting a leader with imperfections.
Donald Trump does not smoke or drink and as a father led his impressive kids to follow suit. Lynn and I spent some time with Bill Clinton at Mohammad Ali’s memorial service, and his upbeat, vivaciousness is worth emulating.
Every day we should find an opportunity to embrace Philippians 4:8—“whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—dwell on such things.”
As an evangelical Christian, she already knows that Jesus is the ultimate role model for all of us. She makes sure her kids emulate his forgiveness, servanthood and love for others despite how others so often disappoint.
Jesus exhorts us each day to be a channel of His love to others, His hands and feet in a hurting world and a blessing to every person he puts in our path. We are our brother’s keeper.
God blessed me with significant success, partly because I harnessed people’s strengths and pretty much ignored their weaknesses. I evaluated people not so much on their pasts or where they are today, but on what they could become. We all are on a journey of change.
At Muhammad Ali’s service, some said he was the most revered person on the planet. We met people as diverse as the former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, former President Bill Clinton, Spike Lee and Katie Couric.
Several years ago, Ali honored me, a white, born-again Christian, with his Muhammad Ali Humanitarian of the Year award and welcomed me to his home. He was also best friends with Billy Crystal, an Orthodox Jew. But as a younger man, Ali expressed thoughts about whites some considered racist.
He changed. You and I are changing, and so is Donald Trump. Trump’s willingness to express views, at times clumsily, that the everyday man embraces, could put certain issues at the forefront of our political discourse that this woman would support. Issues that others are not willing to press due to their concern for how they are perceived or whether they are politically savvy.
I do believe Donald Trump truly loves America and all it stands for. His courage of expressing what he believes is best for us caused Universal Studios, Univision and Macy’s to sever business ties with him. The price he is paying and the attacks from Establishment Republicans seems to only add to his growing stature as a “folk hero.”
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