“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).
As Ben Shapiro regularly points out, one should view the POTUS through the lens of “Good Trump, Bad Trump.” Sometimes he does good things, and we should call them good. Sometimes he does bad things, and we should call them bad. And asking that “God bless America” while repeatedly taking God’s name in vain is a bad thing.
Paul Hardesty is a Democrat, but he’s a Democrat from the conservative state of West Virginia, which means that he’s also a Trump supporter. Although being both a Democrat and a Trump supporter seem like mutually exclusive ideas, in some pockets of the Bible Belt, some conservatives have still inexplicably held onto their party affiliation. Hardesty is one of those. And Hardesty, in a recent letter sent to Trump, rebukes him for taking the Lord’s name in vain while acting in his official capacity as President of the United States.
Many evangelicals were also shocked and dismayed at Trump’s use of God’s name, but all evangelicals should be.
Hardesty wrote, “I have a real appreciation of your support for the coal industry and I thank you for that. I am, however, appalled by the fact that you chose to use the Lord’s name in vain on two separate occasions when you went off the prompter during your speech.”
Hardesty continued, “There is NO place in society — anywhere, anyplace and at anytime — where that type of language should be used or handled. Your comments were not presidential. I know in my heart that you are better than that.”
Trump had said in a speech…
“I said, ‘You don’t like me and I don’t like you. I never have liked you and you never have liked me. But you’re gonna support me because you’re a rich guy. If you don’t support me, you are going to be so [GD] poor, you are not going to believe it.”
Unfortunately, the crowd cheered rather than winced.
If Trump seeks to win the evangelical vote, and thereby win the 2020 presidential election, he should stop misusing the name of their God. And if Paula White, Ronnie Floyd, and Robert Jeffress are really advising the president, they should start with explaining blasphemy.
