{"id":2306560,"date":"2024-07-23T08:19:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T12:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-god-wasnt-making-a-political-statement-by-sparing-trump\/"},"modified":"2024-07-23T08:25:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T12:25:36","slug":"no-god-wasnt-making-a-political-statement-by-sparing-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-god-wasnt-making-a-political-statement-by-sparing-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"No, God Wasn&#8217;t Making A Political Statement By Sparing Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fno-god-wasnt-making-a-political-statement-by-sparing-trump%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2306560&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In the days following the attempted assassination \u2064of former President Donald Trump, some have attributed the event to divine\u200c providence. While it&#8217;s important to be\u200c grateful when violence is averted, it&#8217;s crucial\u2062 not to mix politics with religion. Assigning\u2063 political motives to the divine can be harmful \u200bto\u2064 both belief systems. In today&#8217;s society, many have turned politics into a form \u200bof religion, seeking belonging and purpose in a polarized world. However, treating politics as theological can be\u200d damaging, leading to inflexible policies\u2064 and negative consequences. It&#8217;s essential to \u200ckeep religion and politics separate to prevent these issues and maintain a\u2062 healthy society.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In the days since the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, some observers have rushed to assert that the hand of divine providence thwarted the attack. It&rsquo;s an understandable impulse, given the close call that kept Trump from the assassin&rsquo;s bullet and the further unrest that would have resulted had the attempt succeeded. People of all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-vows-to-take-effective-action-against-anti-semitismwhile-ignoring-these-democrat-anti-semites\/\" title=\"Biden Vows To \u2018Take Effective Action\u2019 Against Anti-Semitism\u2026While Ignoring These Democrat Anti-Semites\">political stripes<\/a> should give thanks when violence gets thwarted, and our nation can resolve its differences peacefully.<\/p>\n<p>Assigning <em>political<\/em> motives to the divine, however, goes too far. For instance, when talking about the assassination attempt, professional fighter Jake Paul began by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jakepaul\/status\/1812273062588436903\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">saying<\/a>, &ldquo;If it isn&rsquo;t apparent enough who God wants to win.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, conflating religion and politics does an injustice to both. Too many Democrats have adopted leftism as a&nbsp;<em>de facto<\/em>&nbsp;religion &mdash; one of the reasons explaining our current polarized climate &mdash; that it presents a cautionary tale for conservatives thinking they should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/european-regulator-to-lift-boeing-737-max-grounding-in-january\/\" title=\"European regulator to lift Boeing 737 MAX grounding in January\">follow suit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>&lsquo;Wokeism&rsquo; as the Left&rsquo;s Religion<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As a conservative living in the nation&rsquo;s capital, and a single one at that, the evidence of a &ldquo;woke&rdquo; religion pervades the culture. I have seen more profiles on dating apps featuring pictures at protests, references to Black Lives Matter or Free Palestine, and &ldquo;Trumpers need not apply&rdquo; than I can count.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from the inherent irony of people who boast of their tolerance, effectively excluding half the population from their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/marriage-makes-you-happier-better-and-more-successful-but-fewer-americans-are-even-willing-to-date\/\" title=\"Marriage Makes You Happier, Better, And More Successful But Fewer Americans Are Even Willing To Date\">dating pool<\/a>, these statements speak to a larger zeitgeist. Yes, mentioning the &ldquo;climate crisis&rdquo; in a Hinge profile classifies as virtue signaling, but it goes well beyond that.<\/p>\n<p>At a time when the nation has become more secularized, politics has for many people taken on the role of religion. With social cohesion declining as membership in clubs and other institutions of civil society falls, politics becomes a way to find a sense of belonging. But because modern politics has often become a discussion about what parties and groups&nbsp;<em>oppose<\/em>&nbsp;as much as what they&nbsp;<em>support<\/em>, the trend only increases polarization.<\/p>\n<p>In my area of the country at least, the sight of people wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts has become the equivalent of what in a different time and place would have been families bowing their heads in silent prayer at a restaurant before a meal &mdash; a public display of one&rsquo;s private belief structure. The same paradigm could well apply to red MAGA hats in rural areas of the nation.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Costs of Theological Politics&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>But making politics almost theological harms politics as much as religion. While principle should matter when making policy choices, it should not become doctrinaire and rigid in outlook. To paraphrase a quote attributed to John Maynard Keynes, when facts, circumstances, and evidence change, policies may also need to.<\/p>\n<p>To use one example, does it make as much sense to pass a massive tax cut in the coming year &mdash; given our huge debt, sizable&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/24\/two-trillion-dollar-deficits-show-washington-has-a-spending-problem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">budget deficits<\/a>, and lawmakers&rsquo;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/15\/speaker-johnson-cut-his-bad-deal-because-republicans-dont-want-to-cut-spending\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">inability to restrain spending<\/a> &mdash; as it did more than two decades ago when our nation (briefly) was running budget surpluses? Of course not, at least not unless Congress pays for it via spending restraint.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Placing these types of policy decisions into the realm of the theological would have destructive effects &mdash; indeed, it already has. For those in any doubt about the dangers of infusing religion into politics, look at the price at the gas pump the next time you fill up and behold the consequences of the left&rsquo;s biggest shibboleths, the &ldquo;climate crisis&rdquo; and &ldquo;net zero.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Keep Religion Great<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Elevating the grubby art of politics into the theological gives it a stature and rigidity it does not deserve. As a Christian, I believe that God became man to save my soul. Believing corporeal and mortal outcomes reflect some heavenly political statement flatters men more than exalting the divine.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Lincoln&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/01\/20\/lincolns-inaugural-offers-timeless-words-of-wisdom-to-sustain-the-nation-in-dark-days\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rightly observed<\/a>&nbsp;in his&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/linc\/learn\/historyculture\/lincoln-second-inaugural.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Second Inaugural<\/a>&nbsp;that presuming God intervenes in binary politics means at least one set of Americans will receive heavenly opprobrium:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Both [North and South] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. &hellip; The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully.&nbsp;<em>The Almighty has His own purposes<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>If the great emancipator could hold those sentiments about the greatest and deadliest cataclysm ever to befall our nation, far be it for me to attribute any beneficial political event, or series of events, to the divine. The Almighty has not only His own purposes but an eternal time scale. The events that some may view as providence speaking in their favor in one moment may prove to be but a snapshot of another series of events sending a far different message.<\/p>\n<p>Far better to follow Christ&rsquo;s command to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar&rsquo;s, and reserve to God the things that are God&rsquo;s. In these polarized and troubled times, such advice represents the best way to follow Lincoln&rsquo;s axiom to make sure not that God is on our side, but that we are on God&rsquo;s side.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Mr. Jacobs is Founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book&nbsp;&#8220;The Case Against Single Payer.&#8221; He is on Twitter&nbsp;@chrisjacobsHC.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the days following the attempted assassination \u2064of former President Donald Trump, some have attributed the event to divine\u200c providence. While it&#8217;s important to be\u200c grateful when violence is averted, it&#8217;s crucial\u2062 not to mix politics with religion. Assigning\u2063 political motives to the divine can be harmful \u200bto\u2064 both belief systems. In today&#8217;s society, many &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1164,"featured_media":2306561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Donald-Trump-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6733,35341,35868,5894,3634],"class_list":["post-2306560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-controversy","tag-divine-intervention","tag-gods-will","tag-politics","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Donald-Trump-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2306560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2306561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2306560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2306560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2306560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}