The Mountain Retreat

I support many of the things he's done also, but if seeing Trump shoot someone in the streets of New York, and still supporting him, isn't the very definition of a cult, then someone please tell me what a cult is because either I'm crazy or you are. This was from Trump himself talking about his follower's blind loyalty to him. Is that not blind idolatry? Or am I crazy?

Soapbox mode off.
 Sorry Pearson, everyone's stealing your tagline

I was getting confused and now I see what's going on- you guys switched the order of responses on a post from the latest one starting at the top? Is this a permanent change? It's kind of confusing when reading through long threads, trying to find out who's responding to what/who...when it's in a backwards order. I suppose I can just get used to it, just wondering if it's permanent and why the change?

And a hearty to you Melanie for calling it as you see it. 
I refuse to comment on Dan's post because I feel he's trolling us and it doesn't deserve comment. It's typical of Trumpism.

I guess I'm just another Reformed Christian LIBERAL here, but that label won't stop me from the truth anymore than your label of us as Amillennial anti-Semites will. Now I'm not happy with all this political talk either, but it never ceases to amaze me the turning a blind eye with some people professing to serve God, the continual apologists, justifications, camouflage, rationalizations, coverups and sanctification so many professing Christians practice when it comes to "this particular" President that has never happened before in the long history of the church. If that's not carnal, I don't know what is.

The country is as polarized, divided and as tribal as I've ever seen it. It is filled with bigotry, resentment, hatred and irrational fear and on its way down a dark path, and Trump is the common denominator. He's very strangely venerated by some as if he is the righteous warrior sent from God to set the world straight, and I think I just vomited in my mouth. God set him in office of course, but it wasn't to bring righteousness to America anymore than God setting Hitler in office was to make Germany righteous. You people are delusional. This belief that is held by Televangelists and their minions is blind idolatry pure and simple. Man trusting in man for his deliverance from the world and its evil. How fool-hearty.

Isaiah 31:1
"Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD."

Trump is to morality what Satan is to virtue. Those who look to him as their Godsend, redeemer, deliverer from evil, security and help in this world will have a rude awakening some day. Because you place their trust in man and not God.

Of I almost forgot. Of course it's a religious cult. Any group that idolizes someone so fiercely that they will support his every foolish move and deny his every lie, is a cult.

I wouldn’t single out Republicans. You have to include the liberal leaners who despise Trump, such as 99% of media.

And this is why I hesitated to comment. Even if you were right, which you are not, a cult is not defined as a group that hates someone, it's defined a one that venerates or has devotion directed toward a particular figure or object. So it's not applicable or germane to the word. Moreover, most of those who criticize (not hate) Trump  do so for legitimate reasons. That includes many who hold to conservative views like myself and many of his own party, so let's try and be accurate.

For example, on this international trip he is on now I hear many Republicans criticizing him for the same things that I have, and surely you don't think they hate him? That's a ridiculous generalization. It's easy to say people hate someone when they criticize them. We hear that in this forum every time someone says homosexuality is wrong, or when they say national Israel are not God's chosen people and so on and so forth. It's we hate this one or hate that group. Very easy to call it hatred when it's just righteous comment or just common sense criticism.

Every single late night news show is engrossed by Trump.

And they were engrossed by Johnson, Nixon, Bush, Clinton, Hillary and Obama, the difference is none of those people were vile, egotistical, narcissistic, antagonistic, braggadocious demagogues who distorted and lied as a rule of thumb. And none of them had a cult following who whined every time someone dared to make fun of or criticize them. Which they did every night on those very same late night entertainment or news shows.

Also you Philly. You are obsessed with everything Trump says or does.

You might be right about that. But his obsession against him is balanced by the cult of personality for him. Not saying he's right being so focused, just that I just think it's good to hear both sides of the story, since clearly many would (and do) only give one side, and despises the other, whether they are accurate, truthful, right or wrong.

Doesn’t that qualify as cult like?

No, a cult is not a obsession to criticize someone. At least not in any dictionary that I have ever read.

When your mind is constantly occupied by something, eventually that is what you become. You become what you despise.

So if he despises lies, distortions, deceit and demagoguery, he will become a liar, distorter, deceitful and a demagogue? I don't think that follows since our God despises those things also.

We as Christians are told to have are minds and hearts on God. If we have are thoughts set on the world all the time, we become a part of it.

I agree one hundred percent. But that doesn't mean we bow down at the altar of Trump and justify his evil doings with platitudes and clichés-like retorts about serving God and ignoring his deceits. Especially since John the Baptist was serving God when he told the king that it was not lawful for him to have his brother's wife. No one told him to shut up and stop criticizing the king's evil doings.

You think John might have thought that to be silent about sin, even the king's sin, was to be in some way complicit?  Just a thought as I see so many Christians silent about so many things. Including Abortion, Deceit, Divorce, Sexual Immorality, Greed, Sundays, Homosexuality, Proper Marriage, Child Rearing, the list is endless. And we can throw in the disgraceful behavior of our President as well.

I've said my piece so as Pearson would say, Soap Box mode off.

I hesitate to give my opinion, but the dictionary says a cult is:

a group with misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing; "as a cult of personality surrounding a leader." the idolization of someone; an obsessive fixation on someone; a group blindly following absurd beliefs; a veneration of a unorthodox religious leader;  a spiritual mania; any sect with a unreasonable adoration for a philosophical, religious or political leader; a group that idolizes someone; a faction with thoughtless devotion towad someone;

So I would say  Blind "Trumpism" (as you call it) certainly qualifies. But it's just the people who Trump and Giuliani say would still support him even if he took a gun and shot someone in the middle of the street. Definitely a cult. Definitely not Christian. And Definitely un American.