A letter to family lost to Donald Trump
My wife and I received an email from her brother telling us we will not be going to Heaven without embracing Donald Trump as our lord and savior or something to that effect. This is my response. Feel free to use any of it if you find yourself in the same position.
"We have always had our differences of opinion. That’s all they were. They stemmed from our own personal experiences and convictions, our individual perspectives on the world we live in. We usually agreed on facts and unassailable truths. Something has happened in the span of a few years that defies explanation. We look at something obvious and no longer see the same thing.
I don’t expect you to share my view of the value of immigrants in our society or my belief that we have a government to promote the common good. We seem to have a big divide on the core principle of the separation of church and state. There have always been grey areas but now your black is my white and your white is my black. Truth, it seems, has become negotiable.
Donald Trump has come between us. To you he is a savior. To me he is all the things even most Republicans admitted he was before the Electoral College made him president.
The current pandemic has given us an objective measure of how Trump’s government has failed us. The numbers of infections and related deaths, likely under-reported, present the sharp contrast between what Trump has done and how competent, effective world leaders have dealt with a global health crisis. The number of confirmed cases in the United States is by far the worst in the world, eclipsing all other countries, even those with clearly failed leadership. The pandemic has marched steadily on in the absence of a national plan and in the face of our government’s denial of its devastation. Blaming it all on Obama or the Chinese does not belie the fact that our response has been uniquely and exceptionally disastrous.
I can understand your approval of Trump’s appointing judges sympathetic to your beliefs, but any Republican president could have done the same. He succeeded in getting a list of judges confirmed that were given him by the Federalist Society. A Republican majority in the Senate and an unprincipled Senate Majority leader, indifferent to democracy, made that a slam dunk, no leadership required.
In embracing what he has accomplished as the work of God, you have had to overlook his failings as a human being. He is a role model that no moral person of any faith would want to follow or encourage others to follow. Holding up the Bible for a photo op in front of a church does not make him a Christian. It only served to reinforce his position as president for a few and not for all. His sinful life is an open book. His own words attest to his lack of morals, principles or compassion. Denying his faults doesn’t erase them. If you truly believe you will be rewarded in the next life, don’t expect to see Donald Trump in the company of the saints. He is incapable of contrition.
Presidents are essentially managers. They don’t really have to do much but upholding the Constitution and uniting the country in troubled times are the essence of their job. General Mattis was astonished that the president he directly served has made no effort to bring us together as one nation. In that alone, he has failed miserably as president. If you are oblivious to his attempts to divide us you aren’t paying attention.
I hope you find nothing admirable in how he has enriched himself at our expense. When we finally get an honest accounting of how he has used his office to enrich himself, his family and his organization, I think even you will be horrified at the shameless grift and corruption.
I do not intend to make any moral judgement about you. People define themselves by what they admire in others. For me, humility, courage, honesty and compassion are at the top of my list. Trump is a paragon of none of these.
If Trump has ever demonstrated the slightest bit of humility, it certainly wasn’t in his public life. I only have what we all see and that is a man incapable of self-deprecation, unwilling to admit any error no matter how insignificant. His self-aggrandizement is comical to the point of his being a parody of himself.
Trump’s tough guy bravado should never be confused with real courage. He used his family’s wealth and influence to avoid the war I volunteered for. Even in the presidency he has always relied on others to take on the things he had no stomach for. His trademark “You’re fired” is almost always delivered by underlings. He threatens his enemies with the military he once hid from. He takes on his enemies from the safety of from wherever he launches his disgusting Twitter rants.
Trump’s dishonesty is legendary. He lies about his own lies even though there is a public video record of the things he lies about. It is almost as though he has a visceral aversion to truth. His dishonesty manifests itself in the relentless cheating that led to his impeachment.
Trump’s total lack of compassion makes him incapable of any effort to heal the divisions that weaken us. He seems incapable of even acknowledging the suffering of others, especially when he is the agent of that suffering. Kids in cages ripped from their families, mass shootings, police brutality and the growing number of COVID-19 deaths are just abstractions to him, nothing that causes him any discomfort or loss of sleep. Nothing that might affect his golf game.
We may not be headed for the same destination in eternity but we’re currently stuck in the same reality. We just can’t agree on what that reality is. Any further interaction with you now would now be awkward and uncomfortable. The miles between us has become a universe. If we all survive the ongoing unmitigated disasters, please don’t be offended if we make no further attempt to cross that universe. Maybe we’ll surprise you in the next one."
= new reply since forum marked as read
Christians are not supposed to worship each other or any other human beings, with all mankind being equal before their God.
Therefore, even if we disregard Trump's crimes and transgressions, he must not be venerated above anyone else.
That should scramble their brains.......
Good letter and thank you for sharing.....
Bravo! 
I hope it goes viral
