You've got to wonder if Pete Wehner ever seriously considered that evangelicals who give Trump a pass are instead practicing forgiveness.
What would forgiveness look like, Pete? Did Jesus ever once turn a blind eye to moral transgression?
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
-- Matthew 6:15
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
-- Luke 23:34
Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
-- John 8:11
Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
-- John 20:23
Pete's clearly still a sin retainer, after all these years, just as many evangelicals have been in the past, for example in regard to Bill Clinton.
Kind of runs in the human family, but for a brief, shining moment.
Kind of runs in the human family, but for a brief, shining moment.
The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity:
The enthusiastic, uncritical embrace of President Trump by white
evangelicals is among the most mind-blowing developments of the Trump
era. How can a group that for decades—and especially during the Bill
Clinton presidency—insisted that character counts and that personal
integrity is an essential component of presidential leadership not only
turn a blind eye to the ethical and moral transgressions of Donald
Trump, but also constantly defend him? Why are those who have been on
the vanguard of “family values” so eager to give a man with a sordid
personal and sexual history a mulligan? ...
[T]here is ... the undeniable hypocrisy of people who once made
moral character, and especially sexual fidelity, central to their
political calculus and who are now embracing a man of boundless
corruptions. Don’t forget: Trump was essentially named an unindicted
co-conspirator (“Individual 1”)
in a scheme to make hush-money payments to a porn star who alleged
she’d had an affair with him while he was married to his third wife, who
had just given birth to their son.