[WideRight05]

Donald Trump has discussed both issues of abortion and marriage redefinition a few times, I will post my thoughts below.

I do think Trump does have consideration to help Christians. He did state on twitter when he started his campaign that Christians have been treated badly. I watched the opening to his rally in Pensacola, Florida, and liked that the opening came from a Christian pastor who both prayed to God and concluded the prayer in the name of Jesus. Sometimes (especially on the Democratic side) you will see "pastors" who act afraid to mention Jesus. He also stated via twitter that the problem was where Christians didn't have anybody to represent them and that he would be the best representative Christians have had in a long time. I'm not sure really how much he believes in it himself (and only God can tell that, I sure can't) and my alarm doesn't stem so much from his positions, but more from how he stumbles around when being asked questions about The Bible.

There are videos of him on YouTube talking about the major social issues, the one that I am suspicious is a couple years ago when Trump was interviewed by Howard Stern about abortion and marriage redefinition. Trump mentioned how the public has swung in favor of redefining marriage and stated that the number will probably continue to increase. Stern said something to the tune of, "I know you Donald...you're a social liberal." Trump stumbled through his words and didn't make a huge effort to fight that.

Relating to abortion, he did state in an interview in 1999 (parts of which I watched) that he was pro-choice, but that he did say that he hated the concept of abortion. The past five or so years, he has been consistent at stating that he is pro-life with the exceptions of rape, incest, and life of the mother.

Relating to religious liberty, Trump has stated he has been for it. I am yet to find comments about whether the baker, florist, or wedding chapel owner who has Biblical beliefs should participate in a mock wedding. I think he has been very careful to not tread on those waters. Pope Francis visited the United States a while back, and even Barack Obama gloated that he cherished religious liberty. So the definition of religious liberty may be different to Donald Trump than it is to say, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio who have been consistent in defending people who are under attack for living out their Biblical beliefs.

Relating to redefining marriage, it hasn't been a big issue for Trump, but he is on record multiple times stating that he is for traditional marriage. His stance has been the typical one we have seen from people such as John Kasich who disagree with the SCOTUS decision, but want us to move on. When Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses after the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, Trump didn't defend her. He said that she needed to comply with the law. Ted Cruz went right on the air and said that he stood unequivocally with Kim Davis.

Donald Trump seems to be in consistent support for amending the civil rights act to include "sexual orientation" as part of it when it comes to discrimination. While that may seem like a good thing in protecting them from say, being denied food because they're gay, these laws have been used to punish people who believe in Biblical marriage. For example, in Australia The Catholic Church is under fire from the government for distributing "harmful" pamphlets throughout their schools.

We just saw where a Catholic school in Massachusetts was forced to hire someone that did not adhere to Church doctrine because of an "anti-discrimination" law. A fire chief in Atlanta, GA lost his job for distributing a book with references to homosexuality. We will definitely see many more instances like this if Trump pushes a so-called "anti-discrimination" law for LGBT people.

The Human Rights Campaign considers Trump one of the better Republican candidates for LGBT people. One of the directors of the Log Cabin Republicans, a socially liberal group, called Trump one of the best pro-gay Republican candidates to ever run for the presidency.

Trump is tough, aggressive, and confident when being asked about issues such as immigration or the economy. When it comes to abortion or marriage redefinition, he often stumbles around his answers. Given that the debates will likely be between 2 - 4 candidates soon, I anticipate that will be a vulnerable area for him.

One moment from the second debate a while back that caught my eye was when Donald Trump and Jeb Bush were debating. Bush is against casino gambling, Donald Trump owns casinos so it's pretty obvious he's for it. Bush claimed that Trump tried to persuade him to vote for casino gambling when he was governor of Florida. Trump quickly denied this, but I do believe what Bush was saying just because of the fact that Trump owns casinos and I'm sure he would be able to make a lot of money opening a few in Florida. And I'm no Jeb Bush fan.

My major issue with Trump when it comes to social issues is his ability to make wise decisions appointing judges that are pro-life and defend traditional marriage and religious liberty. I could see him passing up one or both of those issues because he doesn't seem to acknowledge that they're a big priority. Republicans had control of the presidency for 20 of 24 years between 1968 and 1992 and produced more judges that defended Roe v. Wade (Warren Burger, Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell, John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Anthony Kennedy) than fought against it (Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, William Rehnquist). Thus, the importance of wisely appointing judges is crucial to me. That's one of the reasons I am for Cruz, because he has been very consistent on these issues and I would trust him to appoint judges who are trustworthy. Given that Ginsburg, Breyer, Kennedy, and Scalia are all approaching 80, we could see retirements this term to the point where the next POTUS would have to replace four judges in their first term.

I don't have anything personal against Trump, I do think he has done a great job in eliminating the Republicans such as Jeb Bush who cave toward the realm of political correctness. He has done a great job in waking up the party and getting them to stop pandering to the media and apologizing for what they believe in. How many times has a Republican made a comment similar to Trump and lost his campaign? Quite a bit. Oftentimes the Republican will apologize and then quickly back off. It's disappointing to see so many people cave. I do hope that Republicans take after Trump when it comes to standing up to the media and to others who attack them. My stance on Trump is that I will support him if he wins, but I really hope we see Ted Cruz pull it out.