I like a good joke as much or more than the next guy. Laughing releases something in us that feels very healthy and enlightening. I love a good laugh.

God gives us reason to laugh every day if you go looking. Consider, for example, the odd pairings He has given us in history. Who can forget Solomon and the Queen of Sheba? James Carville and Mary Matalin? Sonny and Cher? Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller? Billary Clinton? Samson and Delilah? Governor Noem and Corey Lewandowski? Peanut butter and banana sandwiches?

As we watch these improbable pairings in dumbfounded wonder, we can’t help but ask what does she see in him or what does he see in her? As we desperately search for reason and logic in these pairings, we can take some comfort in the fact that many of these pairings are short-lived.

Our woke and left-leaning fellow citizens also have a hard time understanding the current alliance of evangelicals and former President Trump. As they howl about the hypocrisy-rich courtship between Trump and evangelicals, you can hear something else if you listen very carefully.

Call it Deja-Reagan. The Democrats loved Reagan when he was one of their own. How hard it must be for the elders of the Democrat party to admit that the greatest Republican President of the 20th Century was once a Democrat. When we recall that Donald Trump was once a major donor to Democrats, it helps us understand why they do not want another Latter-Day Republican, a turncoat, writing a name for himself in the 21st-century history books.

Image: Donald Trump. YouTube screen grab.

Trump was fine when he was one of their rich and worldly benefactors. His hedonism was no more offensive than the adventures of Bill Clinton, JFK, LBJ, and FDR. If Trump had decided to run as a Democrat, they would have allowed that, provided that he would agree to wait in line. When he came down the escalator in 2015, however, and announced he would run for the Republican nomination for President, they decided this latest betrayal deserved a thermonuclear response.

So now we have the odd spectacle of worldly Donald Trump again courting evangelicals for the chance to become President again.

There are evangelical leaders who assure us that Trump has converted and is now a secret believer. Secret believer? Isn’t that an oxymoron? TikTok, a CCP app, has many postings assuring us that Trump is a follower of Jesus. In his most recent interview of former President Trump, I was hoping that Tucker Carlson would ask Trump about his faith. It did not come up.

Trump knows that he cannot win in 2024 without evangelicals. In a manner that looks a bit like bullying, he demands that we support him, no questions asked.

If he wants evangelical support this time, we should not be timid in asking him questions about who he is today compared with his libertine past.

The American family needs a champion in 2024. Our nation needs to do all it can to foster and encourage two-parent families. The help that we give the poor must not discourage two-parent families and encourage unwed motherhood. With Trump’s marital history and record of infidelity, it is hard to see how he can make America great again without renouncing his hedonistic past. Then again, St. Paul persecuted Christians before becoming one of its greatest evangelists.

I was disappointed to see Tucker miss the opportunity to ask President Trump about these matters. The good news is that we still have time to find out what is in Donald’s heart if anyone dares ask the questions.

Ned Cosby, a regular contributor to American Thinker, is a former pastor, veteran Coast Guard officer, and a retired career public high school teacher. His newest novel OUTCRY is a love story exposing the refusal of Christian leaders to report and discipline clergy who sexually abuse our young people. This work of fiction addresses crimes that are all too real. Cosby has also written RECOLLECTIONS FROM MY FATHER’S HOUSE, tracing his own odyssey from 1954 to the present. For more info, visit Ned Cosby.