{"id":4261,"date":"2016-06-22T08:31:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T13:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/?p=4261"},"modified":"2016-06-22T09:21:33","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T14:21:33","slug":"a-liar-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/2016\/06\/22\/a-liar-in-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"A liar in the desert"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"To<\/a>
To the U.S. Evangelical Community, wandering in what seems to them an 8-year political desert, this is a dangerous time for them – a time of temptation, a test of their faith. Photo by Ishai Parasol.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am a scientist. Normally, I would turn to evidence to debunk a claim. But sometime the lie is so big… so deep… so fundamentally wrong… that only a story of faith can counter its power. Presumptive Republican U.S. Presidential Candidate Donald Trump comes to the U.S. Evangelical Christian as temptation in the desert, and tells a lie so big that only a story of faith seems appropriate to counter its terrible core.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Donald has tried to sweet-talk evangelical Christians by telling them that he’ll work on behalf of “religious freedom” [1] \u00a0while having repeatedly and vociferously advocated for preventing an entire group of people from immigrating to the U.S. based on their religion [2]. Normally, I find this kind of dichotomy just a circus-style freak sideshow… but from a presumptive Presidential candidate, this level of mischief and deception is just… just… sick.<\/p>\n

Evangelical Christians have perceived themselves for many years as wandering in a political desert in the U.S. Whether I agree with that or not is irrelevant; what matters is that the voice of this community expresses this feeling. A community that believes itself politically starved for too long is in a dangerous place. At this point, it would do well to remind ourselves of a key scene in the life of Jesus as told in\u00a0the Book of Matthew, Chapter 4 [3]. The U.S. Evangelical Christian community views itself in a metaphorical political desert, starved of attention to its needs\u00a0(Matthew 4:2). How does one resist the temptation, then, of a wicked one bearing promises\u00a0of relief in that kind of metaphorical desert? Here, especially Matthew 4:9-10 gives the answer; such a community of faith would do well to remember what was offered to Jesus at the last, and how he used his own faith to resist such temptation.<\/p>\n

I’m a scientist, but I certainly appreciate this story. Never more than now has this story been so true to U.S. Evangelical Christian voters. If Donald can casually take away the rights of a people to immigrate based on their religion, he can do it to any such group. There are no protected classes in the eyes of a man who singles out one class for different treatment.<\/p>\n

Donald\u00a0now offers Evangelical Christians a Presidency that he claims will “restore religious freedom.” He is a liar in the desert. Keep walking.<\/p>\n

[1] http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2016\/06\/21\/483018976\/inside-trumps-closed-door-meeting-held-to-reassures-the-evangelicals?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social<\/a><\/p>\n

[2] http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/2016\/06\/20\/trump-us-should-consider-profiling-muslims.html<\/a><\/p>\n

[3] https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew 4&version=NIV<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by\u00a0Ishai Parasol:\u00a0https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/99XsXN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a scientist. Normally, I would turn to evidence to debunk a claim. But sometime the lie is so big… so deep… so fundamentally wrong… that only a story of faith can counter its power. Presumptive Republican U.S. Presidential Candidate Donald Trump comes to the U.S. Evangelical Christian as temptation in the desert, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-life","7":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4261"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4266,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions\/4266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steve.cooleysekula.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}