Anil Philip 18 October, 2020
The split between the liberal and conservative factions of Evangelical Christianity is now well-known. The secular media covers it with glee; even Reuters front paged it [1] and the Atlantic claims Trump is using Evangelicals 2[].
Since Trump came to office he has enacted a mostly conservative policy. This has enraged the liberal factions but delighted the conservatives. As a result the liberal factions of evangelicalism have allied with secular liberals to support his impeachment and now, removal through the elections - should he lose. The conservatives are anxious that the causes they are passionate about and are biblically aligned should not be abandoned.
Are evangelical leaders really concerned about Trump (and his family’s) spiritual walk with the Lord?
Both factions are more concerned with his policies and personality than with his spiritual condition. It is almost as if they have turned into political leaders themselves.
Liberal Evangelicals despise Trump for his policies on Obamacare, Illegal Immigration, Environmentalism, his personality, past affairs and untruthfulness (when it concerns himself). They consider him to be a heathen.
They forget that all of us have sins in our past. Trump is not committing his infidelities now. They are in his past. He is a self-admitted Christian. They are not God to decide whether or not to admit him into Jesus’ Kingdom.
Conservative Evangelicals love his policies and ignore his personality and other traits. They have written articles and books seeing him as a God-appointed heathen King like Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus and Darius [5,6,7]. They forget that we are in the New Testament church. Trump is a self-admitted Christian [3,4]. They had a responsibility to pastor his soul, not his administration. Has there been any attempt to disciple the "new born Christian"?
In 4 years, what has been the fruit. Does Trump read the life of Jesus in the Bible for himself and pray regularly? Does he have family prayers with his wife Melania and son Barron? Given he is silent on this topic, I suspect the answer is, No.
The photo-ops with conservative evangelicals in the Oval Office praying for Trump seems like a political image intended to convey Support, Unity, Strength. But it also comes across as self-serving of them.
It is almost as if they are attracted to the power rather than speaking truth to it - especially when it is uncomfortable. Paula White, Robert Jeffress, Brian Houston, Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson, Michael Brown and others[8].
Even if Trump’s faith isn’t sincere they should have walked with him towards a genuine and living faith. They could have encouraged Melania and Barron to have family prayers every night where Trump reads a passage from the gospels and they each pray in turn. Perhaps even sing a worship song together. Seeking God as a family.
Within Christianity, the real elites are those who have the microphone. The rest of us, our voices are not heard.
Pastors and Christian leaders, both local and national, call for repentance of the nation, but it seems to apply to others and not themselves. In the Old Testament, God rebukes the spiritual leaders for their unrighteousness. God is again shaking everything that can be shaken.
“Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.” (Ezekiel 34:1-10)
“For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction—because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty. But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi," says the LORD Almighty.” (Malachi 2)
“And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven’.” (Hebrews 12:26)
It should concern us that Trump is untruthful, especially with regards to Covid-19 [9]. It should bother us that he never admits wrong nor apologizes nor asks God for forgiveness. Review the September 29 debate when we cringed to watch Trump behave rudely and embarrass us supporters [10].
This is not Christ-like. We are to be imitators of Christ.
“Love is not rude” (1 Corinthians 13).
“Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”. (Matthew 11:29)
Yet, there is no rebuke from any of the pastors and leaders close to him. They refused to scold him into behaving decently but instead sought to blame both participants equally [11].
Please note that I am not suggesting they get involved in his policy actions - that would be wrong. That would subvert our constitution and democracy by making the religious leaders kingmakers, so to speak. They would use scripture to manipulate the president into their agenda.
The danger is, I fear that Trump will get disillusioned with Evangelical Christians once he realizes they're using him and then he will fall away from Christianity and he may end up doing what the cynics had unfairly predicted about his motives.
I fear there will be a backlash after the November 2020 US presidential elections - and not just in the USA alone. Why?
Given the polls, unless God wills otherwise and does a miracle, it is possible that Trump will lose and conservative evangelical Christians have staked their all on him.
When Biden comes to power his administration will target conservative evangelical Christians as being of the "enemy". It will be either active hostility or indifference to the concerns and needs of Christians.
Internationally, this will translate into more persecution of Christians because those governments will believe they are immune to sanctions from the Biden White House.
If you don't believe me, just look at history:
1) In Japan, in the 16th Century, a Christian young man, Amakusa Shiro, led a rebellion (Shimabara Rebellion) which was crushed brutally and tens of thousands of Christians slaughtered. Apart from small numbers of hidden believers, Christianity was wiped out from Japan for about 250 years.
2) Even in Jesus' time, there were rebel leaders and in AD 70, was brutally crushed by the future Roman emperor Titus. He burnt the temple, razed it to the ground, destroyed Jerusalem
and an estimated 1 million Jews were killed. The nation of Israel was demolished and the Jews dispersed throughout the world. This was the destruction prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 23.
3) There were successful Crusades and Christians "won" for a few decades - but in the end, Christianity was almost wiped out from the lands of its birth - especially from Turkey which had several of the early churches in the New Testament like Galatians, Ephesians. Now, Turkey is 99.8% muslim [12].
References:
[1] Reuters: Christianity Today's split with Trump highlights deeper issue in white evangelical America
[2] The Atlantic: claims Trump's faith isn’t genuine. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-secretly-mocks-his-christian-supporters/616522/
[3] The faith of Donald Trump https://uscatholic.org/articles/201701/the-faith-of-donald-trump/
[4] God and the Don https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/politics/state/donald-trump-religion/
[5] Two Men from Babylon: Nebuchadnezzar, Trump, and the Lord of History https://www.amazon.com/Two-Men-Babylon-Nebuchadnezzar-History/dp/1713529009
[6] Is Donald Trump Like Cyrus From the Bible? https://www.christianpost.com/news/is-donald-trump-like-cyrus-from-the-bible.html
[7] Looking to the bible to justify allegiance to a flawed leader http://www.sfltimes.com/opinion/looking-to-the-bible-to-justify-allegiance-to-a-flawed-leader
[8] ‘I hope it’s true’: Trump responds to claim he was chosen by God https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-god-appointed-christian-interview
[9] Trump Consistently Bends Reality, Sells His Narrative In Interviews For Woodward Book https://www.npr.org/2020/09/09/911138032/woodward-book-says-trump-chose-to-downplay-deadliness-of-virus-to-avoid-panic
[10] ‘How did America reach this level of political decline?’: Foreign observers shake heads at debate https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-09-30/foreign-observers-note-chaos-rancor-trump-biden-presidential-debate
[11] Michael Brown: Presidential debate was snapshot of America https://onenewsnow.com/perspectives/michael-brown/2020/09/30/michael-brown-presidential-debate-was-snapshot-of-america
[12] Cia Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tu.html
