DONALD TRUMP - GP/AJ

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  (Hebrews 4:12)

First of all:  Believe it or not this is not primarily intended to be a political piece.  In fact, it is not intended to be a political piece at all; but as soon as you mention Donald Trump, I guess you have to assume it will be at least somewhat political.  And secondly, maybe the timing of this is not the best.  I am posting it during the period of great controversy and anger about the killing of Mr. George Floyd by a police officer who was behaving in a very violent, cruel, and insane manner. The timing is coincidental; it has nothing to do with that terrible event.

I voted for Donald Trump. 

Since the day after Trump won in November of 2016, I've been asked directly or indirectly many times how a committed Christian like myself could possibly vote for Donald Trump?  I have a relative who has many times posted lines such as, "I have friends and family who voted for Donald Trump? Can you PLEASE tell me HOW you can support this sick and evil and demented and vile man???!!!"  She's the most dramatic, but in fact many of my Facebook friends over the past few years have asked that question or pretty much dared those of us to explain how we can be such dupes, fools, and hypocrites as to support this person?  I've thought about those questions, challenges, and dares many times and I have mentally thought about what I might write as a response.  I will spare you my tales of woe, but I have not had access to a desktop computer at home for over nine years.  When I do a blog post, I normally do it on a public library desktop computer.  Well, even when there wasn't a COVID-19 crisis, on Saturdays I was usually on the library computers writing handout materials for my Adult Sunday School class or doing lesson plans for my Adult Sunday School class.  Once in awhile I would try to make time to write a blog piece at the library.  The last one in early March was about my skepticism about all the COVID-19 news and warnings we were starting to hear.  You know how that all turned out!  Yeah, for the most part I was dead wrong on that one!  But this may well end up being the most controversial and alienating piece I've ever written on the blog!  (Incidentally, I'm writing on the desktop computer at my son and daughter's apartment.)  I thought a lot about this as I drove over here. "People are absolutely going to think I'm crazy when they read this,"  I thought,  "They'll say, 'He really HAS gone over the edge. There's no logic in what he says.  He's CRAZY!'"  And they might.  You might!  Nevertheless, I've been "sitting on this" for two or three years and today I'm "letting 'er rip!"

In order to understand how I view Donald Trump and specifically the Donald Trump PERSONALITY, you have to indulge me and hear all about Quinn Swarthmore.  Now, Quinn Swarthmore is not his real name.  I wish I could use his real name, but six years ago at the time Quinn Swarthmore died, I wrote a lengthy piece which was mostly a tribute to Quinn Swarthmore.  I did mention in the piece that at one point in his later life, Quinn Swarthmore was sentenced to a couple years in federal prison.  Within twenty-four hours, I heard from a very angry family member.  He insisted I take my piece down.  Frankly, I was shocked and hurt, and I could write a whole other piece about that sometime, but I did take it down.  But, this is why I have to give him a fake name.  And for people who know the real name of Quinn Swarthmore, if you want to comment about this post, please do not use his real name or real initials.  Quinn Swarthmore, or to be more accurate, The Rev. Quinn Swarthmore, was an admired Assemblies of God minister who had a very strong and charismatic manner and personality.  At first, I was just an ordinary person (who had graduated from Bible College) attending the church he pastored in Massachusetts.  After a couple of years, he brought me onto the pastoral staff of the church; I became Licensed and Ordained in the Assemblies of God, and married my wife Mary Ann.  Quinn Swarthmore was complicated.  He was both paradoxical and complicated.  In early 2016 I was attending a funeral service where I ran into the first wife of Quinn Swarthmore.  I will call her Melissa.  He was married to Melissa during the entire time I served as an assistant pastor under Swarthmore which was mid-1981 through the end of 1986.  (He divorced her five years later, remarried, and eventually divorced the second wife.)  I know it's not customary to laugh and kid around at a funeral service, but I spoke to Melissa prior to the actual service.  "You know who Donald Trump reminds me of?" I asked, chuckling in a silly manner, "Quinn Swarthmore!"  Melissa immediately burst out laughing and with a big smile said, "Yes, Quinn and Donald Trump are very much alike!"  

That's why I kind of think I understand Donald Trump; because Quinn Swarthmore and Donald Trump are very much alike!  There is so much I could write about this!  I could write thousands and thousands of words.  I could literally write a book about it.  (Maybe someday, I will write a book about it!)  Many people say that Donald Trump is a narcissist.  Maybe.  But I think it's actually much more complicated than that.  He and Quinn Swarthmore had the exact same personalities and behavior, and I do mean exact!  The first time I met Quinn Swarthmore, before I was attending the church he pastored, he struck me as a confident young lawyer who'd knock on your door and with a very forward, confident, and almost arrogant approach say, "I'm Quinn Swarthmore and I'm running for the Massachusetts State Senate!"  A politician.  That's how he struck me.  He also could have been imagined to be some sort of young executive in a growing high-tech company.  He did not strike me as acting like a minister or a pastor at all.  He was a captivating speaker in the pulpit, and a very motivational speaker.  Bluntly, his sermons were mostly very simplistic.  They weren't very deep.  I could frankly put together a much more scholarly and informative sermon.  But he was very entertaining and so upbeat and confident that his sermons made you feel good.  One time privately Quinn Swarthmore told me about the first time he sat down with his church board at the place he'd previously pastored in New Jersey.  A board member tried to be slightly intimidating to him.  Swarthmore said he got out of his chair, went right up to the board member, grabbed the board member's tie, and tightened the knot so hard against his adam's apple that he became very uncomfortable.  Swarthmore told the board member he was the pastor and how things were going to be from then on.  The board member backed off!  I saw that side of Quinn Swarthmore many times.  If someone became confrontational toward him, it was all over!  He'd think nothing of dressing that person down and insulting them to the point they'd slink out of the church facility and never come back.  Yes, that was one side of Quinn Swarthmore.  There was another side.  I've seen him care about and help so many hurting people.  If you were a single mother of several little kids on a limited income and you attended Quinn Swarthmore's church, you had it made.  If you needed the electric bill paid, it was paid.  If you needed a month's rent paid, it was paid.  If your kids needed new clothes and new shoes, money was no object, and it happened.  And, if you were being harassed by a cruel ex-husband, the ex could probably expect a visit from Quinn Swarthmore.  Five minutes after that little visit started, the ex would be humbly apologizing and promising to never cause a problem again; and pretty much that's how it would be.  Quinn Swarthmore cared deeply about suffering people in the Third World.  He made many missions trips to destitute countries.  He didn't just stay in nice hotels.  Usually he was out in remote areas living in very rough conditions and doing all he could to not only "tell them about Jesus" but offer practical help, much the way Franklin Graham does, albeit on a much smaller scale.


I owe a couple of things to Quinn Swarthmore.  First, I owe him my life.  In 2009, "the bottom fell out" in my life.  I was suicidal.  I was very unhealthy mentally and spiritually.  I put out an email message saying I was taking myself completely off the internet and pretty much just going to become a recluse who confided in and trusted no one.  Less than an hour later, I received a phone call from Quinn Swarthmore.  By that time he was in his late sixties.  He had served time in prison and in a halfway house.  He had worked a secular job for awhile but was in such poor health he had to retire. He lived in an apartment complex for the elderly.  The guy on the phone that day was not the bully choking a board member by the tie!  He was very tender.  He asked me what happened and what was wrong.  I poured out my heart to him that day.  He listened and spoke words of counsel to me that were better than you'd get from Dr. Phil or anyone else.  Yes, I consider that he saved my life.  And in a sense he saved my life way back in 1981, too.  I was out of Bible College, but I was mostly not working.  I'd get some crummy job that would last a week or two, then be unemployed for many weeks, then get another crummy job that would last a week or two.  I was teaching Adult Sunday School at Quinn Swarthmore's church.  But I was very much lacking in confidence.  I was around twenty-six years old.  I looked thirty, but inside, I felt like a scared sixteen-year-old.  I did terribly on job interviews.  Listen, I still do terribly on job interviews!  Unlike most people, I'm not afraid of public speaking.  But I'm terrified of one-on-one stuff.  Why do I tell you all this?  Well, let me tell you about a phone interview I had with a pastor in those days.  I bombed the,"Tell me a little about yourself" thing.  He actually said to me, as he totally rejected me, "I have to prove all things and hold fast that which is good!"  (For you Bible illiterates, that's a line from the Apostle Paul.)  In other words, he said, "You're a loser, pal!  Good bye!"  Quinn Swarthmore did something for me that no one else would have.  He hired me.  He did tell me some of the lay leadership did have some reservations about me.  He said he told them, "I don't think anybody's ever really given him a chance.  I think with a little coaching and direction he will do a good job."  It wasn't always easy!  I was called into his office and chewed out many times.  But less than six years after I started there I became the pastor of my own church.  I've given hundreds and hundreds of sermons, performed weddings and funerals, all kinds of "stuff".  It never would have happened if he hadn't believed in me.

Now, I did already tell you,  Quinn did commit a federal crime.  He did divorce his wife.  He did go to prison.  He did get his Ordination yanked.  The funny thing is, today I could bring twenty people who knew Quinn Swarthmore into a room and ask them to tell us what they thought of him.  Each of them would tell you graphically that he was a liar, a manipulator, in love with himself, egotistical, cruel, a poor excuse for a pastor, and a guy who did such damage to them they'll never fully recover.  Then, I could bring another twenty people into the same room.  They would tell you, the man who made the greatest difference in their lives was Quinn Swarthmore.  Some would say it's because of him they're on the mission field today.  Some would say it's because of him they're in the ministry today.  Some would say he helped them to find Jesus, to get off drugs and alcohol;  some would say because of him they came back to church after being away for many years, that he saved their marriage, that his counsel brought healing from depression and suicide- does that one sound familiar?  In other words, that Quinn Swarthmore was either the poorest excuse of a man you could ever imagine or the finest most caring man you could ever imagine.  Or was he both?

My title for this is DONALD TRUMP - GP/AJ.  I could just as easily have called it QUINN SWARTHMORE - GP/AJ.   What does GP/AJ stand for?   GP stands for Great Person.  AJ stands for Annoying Jerk.  

Was Quinn Swarthmore an annoying jerk?  Much of the time, absolutely yes!  Was Quinn Swarthmore a Great Person?  Much of the time, absolutely yes!  I don't know what a professional psychologist would say is the clinical name for this personality- so I'm calling it Great Person/Annoying Jerk!

Did you ever read the story of Samson in the Bible?  It's found in the Book of Judges in the Old Testament.  People are always asking, "How can evangelical Christians be so stupid as to think God would call a profane, selfish, lustful, manipulative jerk to be the political and spiritual leader?"  Well, you will have to ask God that one, because in the Book of Judges, God called Samson who was profane, selfish, lustful, manipulative, and a jerk to be both the political and spiritual leader of the Israelites!  And I do think God called the profane and selfish and lustful and manipulative and jerky Donald Trump to be the President!  Remember the twenty and twenty I talked about for Quinn Swarthmore?  I guarantee it's the same. You could find twenty who really know Donald Trump who could not be any more negative about him, and you could find twenty who really know Donald Trump who could not be any more positive about him.

Yes, I've been thinking about this post for two or three years and today I have finally spit it out!