[PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was a reporter for the Daily Astorian (in Astoria, Oregon) and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as an Oregon state government manager and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing pubic policy – to what I write. If you are reading this, thanks for doing so and please don’t hesitate to respond so we can engage in a dialogue, not just a monologue.]

I was struck the other day by reading opinion pieces in the Wall Street Journal that compared two competing “theologies,” if that word even applies in one case.

One piece – hard to affix the label “theology” — dealt with Donald Trump and his apparent appeal to some have called the “religious right.”

The second dealt with former President Jimmy Carter and his incredible, personal and theologically-based approach to the reality that he now faces a cancer fight, at 90 years of age, for his life.

Let me put it simply: There is much to admire about Carter’s approach; there is much to disdain about Trump’s.

Consider this opening paragraph from columnist Frank Bruni as he wrote about the “theology of Donald Trump:”

“Let me get this straight. If I want the admiration and blessings of the most flamboyant, judgmental Christians in America, I should marry three times, do a queasy-making amount of sexual boasting, verbally degrade women, talk trash about pretty much everyone else while I’m at it, encourage gamblers to hemorrhage their savings in casinos bearing my name and crow incessantly about how much money I’ve amassed?”

Then, for contrast, look only to a piece by another columnist, Leonard Pitts, who knows real Christianity when he sees it.

Pitts wrote: “You did not hear much about faith last week when Jimmy Carter held a press conference to reveal that he has four spots of cancer on his brain. The 39th president made only a few references to it in the nearly 40 minutes he spoke, and they were all in response to reporter’s questions. Yet, you would be hard-pressed to find a more compelling statement of belief in things not seen.

“Unsentimental, poised and lit from within by an amazing grace, Carter discussed the fight now looming ahead of him, the radiation treatments he will undergo, the need to finally cut back on his whirlwind schedule. He smiled often. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said, in such a way that you believed him without question. And it was impossible to feel sorry for him.”

Okay, Mr. Carter is not for running for president this time around, but, if he were, I would vote for him in a nanosecond compared with Trump (and notice that I don’t convey respect for Trump by using the title Mr.).

He is a terrible candidate for president when what this country needs is real people who will propose real solutions to real problems and, all the while, exhibit real faith.