CINCINNATI -- Comedian Bill Maher likes to point out the double standards practiced by Bible-thumpers like me – bringing up, for example, the time a leading anti-gay activist and co-founder of the Family Research Council was caught returning from a European vacation with a male prostitute. But Maher really nailed us when he said, referring to the 2016 election, that support for Donald Trump exposes evangelicals “as the shameless hypocrites they’ve always been.”

Consider these verses:

· Colossians 3:9 – “Do not lie to each other ….”

· Ephesians 4:25 – “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor ….”

· Proverbs 12:22 – “The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.”

Why, then, do up to 78 percent of white evangelicals support a man who (according to Washington Post fact-checkers) has lied thousands of times since taking office?

It certainly isn’t because the president’s lifestyle follows biblical standards. According to Ephesians 5:5, “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure … has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” President Donald Trump is not only alleged to be a serial adulterer; he has been accused of paying hush money to keep his concubines quiet.

No, the reason so many of my fellow Christians rally behind Trump is simple: Christians are easily bought. Give them anti-abortion judges and pro-family rhetoric, and they will put up with anything -- lies, corruption, attacks on the press and the rule of law -- they don’t care.

Phil Heimlich of Cincinnati is a former GOP county commissioner from Hamilton County.

Shrewd politicians recognize that being pro-life (along with opposing gay marriage and standing up for “religious freedom”) is the key to Christian hearts. Many evangelicals are fine, for example, demonizing immigrants, despite Bible verses like these which command us to welcome refugees:

· Exodus 22:21 – “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien; for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

· Leviticus 19:33-34 and 24:22 – “… you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt ….”

· Ezekiel 47:21-22 – “The aliens shall be to you as citizens, and shall also be allotted an inheritance.”

Many of my fellow evangelicals also ignore scriptural warnings about the dangers of debt:

· Proverbs 22:7 – “… the borrower becomes the lender's slave.”

· Proverbs 22:26-27 -- “Do not be among those who give pledges, among those who become guarantors for debts.”

After all, our current leader, who styles himself the “king of debt,” has pushed the federal deficit close to $1 trillion and increased the national debt to more than $22.5 trillion.

And 18 percent of our indebtedness is to foreign countries – with China being our largest creditor, thus violating another biblical precept:

· Deuteronomy 28:12 – “You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.”

Perhaps they justify Trump’s violations of biblical teachings on sexual immorality, immigration and fiscal responsibility because he stands with evangelicals in protecting innocent life. But history suggests we Christ followers aren’t really concerned with saving lives, just stopping abortions.

In May 1939, an ocean liner, the SS St. Louis, took off from Hamburg, Germany, carrying 937 Jews escaping from the Third Reich. The ship eventually docked just outside Miami and passengers cabled President Franklin D. Roosevelt, asking for refuge. Not only did American authorities refuse these pleas but – despite national attention to the refugees’ plight – there is no record of Christian churches or religious leaders speaking up on their behalf. Finally, after a month at sea, the ship was forced back to Europe where many of its passengers died in concentration camps.

In his book, “The Abandonment of the Jews,” David S. Wyman writes, “Between 1941 and 1945, 5 to 6 million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators .... America’s Christian churches were almost inert in the face of the Holocaust and nearly silent too. No major denomination spoke out on the issue …. American Christians forgot about the Good Samaritan.”

More recently, most of my fellow pro-lifers supported the Iraq War launched by pro-life President George W. Bush, and didn’t seem concerned about the 460,000 unnecessary deaths of civilians and soldiers – perhaps because those were born people who died. It’s the unborn they care about.

Jesus had a word for religious folks who pick and choose which of God’s commands to follow: “Woe to you … you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices .… But you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness … on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Christ’s description applies as much to born-again believers today as it did to the audiences of his time.

Phil Heimlich is a former Republican member of Cincinnati City Council and a former GOP county commissioner from Hamilton County, who has shared his faith in Christ at prayer breakfasts and other events.

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