Donald Trump may be well on his way to becoming the most polarizing candidate in the history of the United States elections despite being polarising, and he is dividing leaders of the Christian faith as much as others. While some condemning his outrageous statements about his views on key issues affecting the nation, there are those who embrace his candid approach and straightforward - some would say brash and offensive - way of getting his message across.
Megachurch pastor Perry Noble isn't shy about telling the world what he thinks of Trump, as he posted on social media his strong opposition to making the business tycoon the Republican candidate for the presidency.
The pastor, who has 150,000 followers on the social media site Twitter, originally posted that he would go for Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, or Jeb Bush but absolutely not Trump in the primary. He later urged evangelicals in South Carolina to refrain from voting Trump. But he didn't stop at that as he continued to tweet.
"Seriously concerned that @realDonaldTrump may win SC!!!!' C'mon y'all - we are better than that!!!!!"
Max Lucado, best-selling Christian author and preacher at Oak Hills Church, for his part questioned whether Trump would even pass a decency test, calling into question his tendency to mock and belittle the weakness of others, especially those who are opposing him.
"We appreciate decency. We applaud decency. We teach decency. We seek to develop decency. Decency matters, right?Then why isn't decency doing better in the presidential race?" he asked.
While there are those who continue to question Trump, like Christian leaders Matt Barber, Dr. Michael Brown, Rev. Mark Creech, Wallace Henley, E.W. Jackson, Dr. Russell Moore and Rep. Reid Ribble, there are those who have also taken up his side, especially when Pope Francis deemed him un-Christian for building walls instead of bridges.
Pastor Robert Jeffress, who leads the 12,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas has been one of Trump's staunchest supporters from the start, and has defended him from the critics over his moral capability as a leader.
"If the Bible gave a checklist for how to choose a candidate, how to vote for a candidate, it would be a simple matter but the Bible provides no such checklist because voting didn't exist when the Bible was written," he said, adding that each Christian will have to make up their own mind about whether or not they will vote for the controversial candidate.
On his Facebook post, Rev. Franklin Graham defended Trump from the Pope's statement saying that Trump's position on building walls was meant only as a strategy to protect national security and was not a lone position of the candidate.
"Donald Trump isn't the only one who wants to build a wall—other Republican candidates Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Dr. Ben Carson, and John Kasich as well as millions of Americans, also want to build a wall—in order to protect America from enemies who want to use the U.S./Mexican border as a way to enter our country and do us harm. Are they not Christian either? My advice to the Pontiff—reach out and build a bridge to Donald Trump. Who knows where he may be this time next year!," he said.
