"Jesus never said any of that..."

For this post, I wanted to address the issue of Donald Trump's religious beliefs about Jesus compared to what we see depicted in the media today. As the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump has been in the public eye for quite some time since he chose to run for presidency and has made several questionable statements about God and religion. This meme is one that I came across in my search for depictions of Jesus in the media, and I think it deserves some comment.

When I first saw the meme, I felt annoyed that Donald Trump would say something as ignorant and offensive as this. The Bible is a compilation of historical documents that has been proven as authentic, and therefore its message should not be misrepresented as something made up by the media. As someone who clearly has enough influence to be elected as a president, Trump should have known better than to make a statement like this. I was then quick to jump on the "Dump Trump" bandwagon because this meme shows him discrediting Scripture and the teachings of Jesus in a way that casts doubt on its authenticity. However, upon doing more research on what Trump actually believes, I realized that this meme was not an accurate representation of his thoughts about religion, Jesus, or the teachings of Scripture. It turns out that President Trump is actually a Presbyterian who attended Sunday school as a child and has many connections to various popular religious figures today. In an article I read, one of these religious figures defended Trump, claiming that his heart was turned towards God and that he is someone genuinely searching for God. With this in mind, when I read a meme like this and think about what Trump actually claims to believe, I become even more annoyed. This is because someone chose to use the image of a controversial figure in our society to portray a message about Christ that they believe, whether or not it is true. It bothers me even more that because Trump sometimes makes questionable statements about many issues, one would be quick to believe this message was actually made by him and if they supported Trump, they would likely agree with what the meme says. The truth is, Jesus' message was rather liberal for His time but was not any less true then than it is today, and no matter who chooses to push contradictory messages about Christ's teachings, we should all be aware of the importance of researching information for ourselves to uncover the truth.

If I had the opportunity to have a conversation based on this meme with a non-believer, I would first correct their thinking about what Trump actually claims to believe about Christ. I would then look for a way to communicate the truth and importance of Jesus' teachings, whether or not they were controversial in His time. I would also address the authenticity of the Bible as a historical document that can be trusted, and point them to some resources to research this information if they wanted to.