Chuck Roots
4 September 2017
www.chuckroots.com
A Matter of
Grace
Where to begin?
A great deal of criticism has been,
and is being leveled against President Donald Trump by the Main Stream Media
along with various detractors across the political spectrum. Some of what is charged
against Trump is deserved, either because he is combative by nature, or he
enjoys tweaking his opponents. Much of what is said about the President is
hateful, and intended to diminish the man and his presidency.
As I have written in previous
articles for my column, Donald Trump was not my first choice as the Republican
candidate for the presidential nomination. In fact, of the seventeen
Republicans running, Trump was number seventeen for me. As the various candidates
dropped out, it became clear that Trump was possibly going to win the
Republican nomination. Any of the seventeen would be far superior to a Hillary
Clinton presidency.
The things I disliked about Trump
from the outset had to do with his overall manner. His attack on Senator John
McCain, where he said he was not a hero, was over the top. As a thirty-four-year
veteran of our military, I did not appreciate this vendetta against McCain.
From a political perspective, Senator McCain and I have little in common. But
he did not deserve to be publicly shamed and berated by Mr. Trump at the outset
of the campaign.
Furthermore, I did not like Mr.
Trump’s bullying tactics toward the other Republican presidential hopefuls. He
is frequently rude and boorish. He has involved himself in activities that make
me cringe. But as I have written before: I was not voting for a Sunday School
teacher.
In Mr. Trump, I believe those who
voted for him were a lot like me. That is, they didn’t always like what they
saw in him, but they were fed up with the empty promises of neatly groomed
politicians who say the right things to get elected, but fail to deliver once
in office. Mr. Trump is a hard-nosed businessman. He’s a wheeler-dealer. For many
of us who supported him for the presidency, we liked this man who knows how to
get things done. He has made many campaign promises, such as “draining the
swamp” in Washington D.C. Building the wall along the Mexican border. Restoring
America as the economic engine of the world. Building up our military as the
premier fighting force on the planet. And so forth.
Some have challenged me for
supporting President Trump. How can I as a Christian, they ask, support someone
who has been married three times? How can I support a man who has owned and
operated casinos?
Here’s my answer.
I support President Trump (just as I
have supported every president during my 69 years on planet earth, even those I
was diametrically opposed to politically and philosophically) because I believe
he loves America, and wants to restore our nation by protecting our freedoms
and liberty.
Here is where I believe some of us
in the Christian community make a mistake. I did not grow up in the church, so
I was not exposed to solid Christian teaching. I had a life-changing encounter
with Jesus when I was a twenty-four-year-old sergeant in the Marine Corps. I
had much to learn about this Savior who loves me.
My life-style up to that point was
far from exemplary. The night I walked into that Christian Serviceman’s Center,
changing my life forever, I had been living with a hooker (prostitute) for the
previous six months. My mouth was a cesspool of vulgarity. I was in the bars
almost daily drinking with my friends. The path of life I was on scared me, but
I knew of no way to change. Jesus intercepted me and changed all of that, for which
I am forever grateful.
In becoming a Christian, I was
accepted into churches and fellowship wherever I traveled around the world. No
one has ever held it against me that I did not always live a clean, Christian
life. I was able to attend seminary. I have enjoyed being the pastor of several
churches. And I had a wonderful career as a Navy chaplain for twenty-five
years. I have been truly blessed.
So then, why is it that there are
Christians who cannot bring themselves to support our president because he has
not acted like a Christian throughout his life? To my knowledge, he has never
professed to have had a life-changing encounter with Jesus. Why then do we hold
him to Christian standards? This seems highly unfair. If the person doesn’t
even know the rules, how can you expect them to live according to those rules?
Here’s the most important thing in
all of this. Every last person on this planet is a sinner. Nothing complicated
in this. We have all violated God’s laws at one time or another. So, we’re
already toast, condemned. But God loved us enough to pay the price for our sin.
Jesus is that payment. In accepting Christ as Lord and Savior we are forgiven.
This is known as Grace. Jesus extends grace to us.
I’m no longer judged by God for my
life of sin. I’m forgiven! So, let’s not expect a person who is not a Christian
to live like one, whether it’s your neighbor across the street, or the
President of the United States. It’s all about grace.
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