Kirk Cameron Warns Trump’s Troop Deployments Could Backfire against Christians

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Author and actor Kirk Cameron is breaking ranks from his fellow conservatives on President Trump’s deployment of troops into American cities, saying it’s a bad precedent that could be abused by a future left-leaning president – perhaps even against Christians. Cameron made the comments in a recent episode of The Kirk Cameron Show as he urged Americans who typically agree with Trump to consider the future. Trump has deployed National Guard troops to such cities as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, and Portland, saying it’s necessary to crack down on unrest and crime. 

“President Trump says he's sending the National Guard to stop violent crime, protect federal agents, and defend cities that seem out of control. He even said that he might invoke the Insurrection Act,” Cameron said. “... But that Insurrection Act is a law that allows a president to deploy the military here on American soil, and it's a power that is extreme.” 

The Insurrection Act, Cameron asserted, is “meant for true emergencies – like rebellion, like invasion or anarchy – not just everyday unrest.” 

“So here's the hard truth – even if you and I like what's happening today, we need to think about tomorrow,” he said. “If one president can decide who is a threat, what happens when the next president decides that you are? What if a future president, a far-left president, declares that Christians, homeschoolers, and conservative voices are domestic extremists? Would we have any moral ground left to stand on when those same powers are turned on us?

“Our Founders understood this. That's why they built a system of checks and balances, because power, even with good intentions, is like fire. It can warm your house, or it can burn it down.”

This week, Trump vowed to continue to send National Guard troops to select cities.

“We have cities in trouble. We can’t have cities that have trouble,” Trump said. “We’re sending in the National Guard and we need more than the National Guard.”

“We’ll send more than the National Guard because we’re going to have safe cities,” he added, according to The Hill. “We’re not going to have people killed in our cities. And whether people like that or not, that’s what we’re doing.”

Photo Credit: ©YouTube.com/kirk cameron

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel. 

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