When the church looks to earthly power for protection, we become like the person, the party, the thing in which we put our trust.  We become like what we worship – a biblical truth that gives both a precious promise and a profound warning.  Will we, as Christ’s church, whom He calls His body, be conformed to His image and reflect His love? 

Ever since Jerry Falwell, Jr. embraced Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, many have wondered how Christians could support a candidate so comfortable in his immorality.  Yet, evangelicals often defend, laud and honor him, citing Trump’s protection of “life” and “liberty,” particularly the liberty of religious expression, as the trade justifying their support.  Armed with these self-evident truths, evangelicals generally have spoken scarcely a word about the other self-evident truths of this president, which are often dismissed as just his “language” or his “behavior.”  To them, these two policies outweigh his many sins.  However, the temptation to strike this balance – loyalty in exchange for political power – not only undermines evangelicals’ goals of “life” and “liberty,” it corrupts our Christian witness and weakens our faith, drawing our eyes away from the one who came that we may have life and have it abundantly.

Life

Because all people, born or unborn, bear the image of their divine Creator, their lives are of infinite value and deserve to be treated with dignity.  Since abortion is an issue of life and death, many evangelicals determine that Trump’s immorality and other vices do not outweigh the benefit of having a pro-life president, no matter how recently he joined the cause.  Yet, a president’s ability to end abortion is generally limited to appointing justices to the Supreme Court that may one day vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade.  Of course, justices tend to think independently of their nominators and make unpredictable decisions, as conservatives have experienced to their great frustration again and again over the last 30 years.  Further, if Roe vs. Wade were ever overruled, abortion would lose some or all of its constitutionally protected status but would remain legal in every state that chose to allow it.  The ability of a president to rid America of abortion is extremely limited and tenuous.

Christians, however, are not left with limited and tenuous means.  Rather, we have a sovereign God to whom we can pray, whose omnipotence extends to all things, including the decisions of Supreme Court justices.  Is God’s power limited by anyone’s ideology or judicial philosophy?

“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).

The Lord God almighty does not require a Republican appointee to accomplish His will.  After all, “[o]ur God is in the heavens; He does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3).

In addition to praying, we must live consistently with our belief that God is all-good, all-sovereign and all-wise.  That means we trust His perfect providence, which removes fear, which in turn frees us to love our neighbors “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).  If society saw Christianity as a message of faith, hope and love, it may be more inclined to understand the immeasurable value of human life.  Ancient Rome offers a historical example.  When Christians devoted themselves to the poor, needy and weak, despised by the pagan society, the people turned to Christ, and the empire followed.

Furthermore, on issues which a president can control, Trump is decidedly not pro-life.  As I write this, over 221,000 Americans have died of COVID-19.  Just as we passed the 200,000 mark, and just prior to contracting the disease himself, Trump said the virus “affects virtually nobody.”  Regardless of how you view Trump’s response to minimize the virus, or whether you believe the public health doctors at the CDC are “idiots” or part of a “deep state” conspiracy, it is profoundly anti-life to disregard 200,000 dead people.  Were none of those 200,000 Americans made in the image of God?  What about the unknown hundreds that will die today, and tomorrow, and every day for who knows how many more months?

Trump’s zeal to dishonor the image of God in our neighbors impacts many issues, including one that Scripture describes again and again to be of utmost importance to God: our treatment of immigrants and refugees.  Historically, the United States has been a beacon of freedom and safety for those fleeing persecution, leading the world in refugee resettlement.  Our asylum laws have been an expression of the Christian influence in our nation’s history, reflecting the character of our Lord, who says, “‘Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,’ says the Lord; “I will place him in the safety for which he longs’” (Psalm 12:5).  Throughout the Bible, particularly when describing His righteousness and justice, God expresses his care for the poor, the stranger, the widow, the orphan and the oppressed.  In Jesus, God actually identifies himself with them, saying that what we have done for the “least of these,” we have done for Him.  “For I was hungry and you gave me food.  I was thirsty and you gave me drink.  I was a stranger and you let me in” (Matthew 25:35).  This isn’t just an expression of Jesus’ compassion or justice.  As a child, he literally was a refugee, fleeing his home country to escape persecution.  Today, America would not let Him in.  Last year, Trump said, “We don’t have room,” which the Messiah’s family had heard before.  But of the things Trump has said regarding asylum seekers, that is the kindest.  He has called them “rapists,” “drug dealers,” “murderers,” “an infestation.”  In 2018 he said, “These aren’t people.  These are animals.”  He commonly employs this invective at his public campaign rallies.  At a rally in Florida last year, after inciting a sufficient level of fear and hatred in his audience, Trump asked what we should do to those with whom Jesus identifies.  “Shoot them!” one man yelled.  Perhaps he would have preferred Barabbas as well.

Trump’s cruelty has been institutionalized into our immigration system.  His administration separated over 5,000 immigrant children, including infants and toddlers, from their parents.  Despite a court order, hundreds of children have still not been reunited with their parents, and likely never will.  Trump argued that cruelty serves as a deterrent.  “If they feel there will be separation, they don’t come.”  But when fleeing death or a life of rape and beatings, they do come.  This January, I served as a volunteer lawyer with a legal services organization counseling asylum seekers at an ICE family detention center.  The mothers and children held there fled their home countries primarily to escape physical and sexual abuse and threats of death after the local authorities were unable or unwilling to intervene.  In our interviews, they told their stories of terror through tears, usually with their children sitting in their laps.  I didn’t find a single murderer, criminal, rapist or drug dealer among them.  When one mother learned that her request for asylum had been denied, she asked for help finding someone in the U.S. to adopt her daughter, because when she gets deported, “I will be killed, and I don’t want my daughter to be an orphan.”  Inflicting additional suffering as a matter of policy dishonors the image of God in each asylum seeker, and violates God’s command to “not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart” (Zechariah 7:10).

But mothers seeking to protect their children are not easily deterred.  One mother fled increasing and continuous domestic beatings after the police told her she should stay home and be quiet.  If she left, her husband said he would kill her and force her son to join a local gang.  She said, “I decided to leave because I do not want my son to be like that.  He wants to be a doctor.  I trusted God because he is the King of Kings – I am here because of Him and I trust Him.”  Her claim was denied.  While our asylum laws already provide a very narrow gate, Trump has undermined, and in some cases violated, existing laws to make it increasingly difficult for refugees to pursue asylum.  As a result, many of the women and children I worked with who had valid claims for asylum were deported back to the violent places they fled.  All of them will suffer, and some of them will die.

“The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion!
Tell among the peoples his deeds!
For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.” (Psalm 9:9-12)

Persecuted Christians suffer the effects of Trump’s policies along with asylum seekers of other faiths.  According to a report titled “Closed Doors” published by World Relief and Open Doors USA, with “religious persecution of Christians at some of the highest levels ever reported, closing the door to refugees and asylum seekers threatens the lives of Christians – and American Christians must not remain silent.”  One of the ways Trump is closing the door is through the Orwellian-named “Migrant Protection Protocols,” which require most asylum seekers who cross the U.S.-Mexico border to remain in extremely dangerous Mexican communities while they await their asylum proceedings, often months later and often in courts located hundreds of miles away.  Many suffer kidnapping, rape and other assault while waiting.  As a result, most do not make it to their court hearings.  The Trump administration touts the effectiveness of this policy in reducing the backlog of claims.  Mission accomplished.

“For I know how many are your transgressions
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
and turn aside the needy in the gate.” (Amos 5:12)

In March, Trump shut the door to asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border entirely, citing the risk of spreading COVID-19 as though immigrants are more likely to spread the virus than Americans across the border, whom he encourages to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in unmasked adulation at his rallies.

All of this is to say that Christians who want to vote pro-life are not obligated to vote for a man who assaults the image of God in others, particularly including the sick and those fleeing persecution.  God calls us to protect human life, treat all people with dignity and show particular care for those who are vulnerable.  In the realms this administration can affect, it pursues the opposite.  “Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute?” (Psalm 94:20).  It is an offense to the character of God, and should be an offense to each of us.

“May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!” (Psalm 72:4)

Liberty

Evangelicals often cite protection of religious freedom as another rationale for supporting Trump.  As former Attorney General and self-identified evangelical Jeff Sessions explained, American Christians “felt they were under attack, and the strong guy promised to defend them. And he has.”[1]

Well known for his transactional approach to life, Trump describes the deal offered to Christians in frank terms.  During a campaign rally, he raised the specter of Christians being under attack, and pointed to himself as their protector: “I will tell you, Christianity is under tremendous siege, whether we want to talk about it or we don’t want to talk about it . . .  And yet we don’t exert the power that we should have.”  Trump then promised, while he is president: “Christianity will have power . . .  If I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power, you don’t need anybody else. You’re going to have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that.”[2]

Why did Trump add “you don’t need anybody else”?  Who else might Christians have been inclined to turn to for protection?

“Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124:8)

The temptation to turn to earthly power to address our present fears is as old as the Fall.  God often warns us against listening to that temptation:

“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel    or consult the Lord!” (Isaiah 31:1)

From what danger does the church of Christ need protection?  The danger of insufficient political power?  Waning societal acceptance of conservative moral values?  Where does God call us to pursue any of these things?  Instead God says we are called to suffer, and enduring it “is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”  And what is Christ’s example?  “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:20-23).

Perhaps evangelicals feel threatened because we have put our trust in (i.e., we worship) cultural power.  The cultural influence that Christianity exerted in America for much of the country’s history is waning.  The restoration of that power is part of what Trump says will MAGA.  David Foster Wallace, in a famous commencement address, reflected on power and worship: “There is no such thing as not worshipping.  Everybody worships.  The only choice we get is what to worship.”  And if you worship power, “you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay.”[3]  As Christians, we know such worship by another term: idolatry.  God frequently describes his people’s decision to trust others for their protection as idolatry.  This isn’t to say that Christians in America do not face opposition, but evangelicals’ fear is disproportionate to both the weakness of our enemy and the strength of our God.

Jesus tells us, “In the world you will have tribulation.”  And Peter says, “do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”  To the extent we do experience persecution, we are never told to seek power over those doing the persecuting.  God tells us exactly what to do.  We are to “rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed . . . Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (1 Peter 4:13, 19).

Jesus also tells us to “take heart,” because He has “overcome the world.”  God knows adversity causes us to fear.  That’s why He reminds us over and over of His identity and ours.  He is the good shepherd, and we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.  Therefore we have no reason to fear.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,  for you are with me;” (Psalm 23:4)

“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one.” (Revelation 1:17-18)

Paul tells us fear is un-Christian, since “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7).  As Marilynne Robinson wrote, “fear is not a Christian habit of mind.”  While acknowledging the actual perils of the world, she said, “it is potentially a very costly indulgence to fear indiscriminately, and to try to stimulate fear in others, just for the excitement of it, or because to do so channels anxiety or loneliness or prejudice or resentment into an emotion that can seem to those who indulge it like shrewdness or courage or patriotism.  But no one seems to have an unkind word to say about fear these days, un-Christian as it surely is.”[4]  We are called to approach our neighbor with a spirit of love, not of fear.  And if our trust is in God, we will not look for a strongman to defend us or strike perceived enemies.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

As for power, Satan also tempted Jesus with earthly power.  Satan’s offer to Christ is similar to Trump’s offer to Christians: “Put your trust in me.  I will empower you.  You don’t need anyone else.”  Satan offered Jesus a pathway to power apart from the cross.  Trump offers Christians a pathway to power apart from the gospel.  How is God’s power most perfectly displayed in the world?  In the gospel, which “is the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16).  The gospel is the only power Christians are called to project in the world.  Our power is the power of the cross, which brings the dead to life and clothes the mortal with immortality.  This is not a power we can lord over others.  We are called to wield this power to the glory of God and in service to our neighbor.

We accomplish this by proclaiming Christ’s gospel and by loving our neighbor as ourselves, including those who disagree with us, don’t look like us, don’t speak our language, or whom we might naturally be inclined, or encouraged by others, to view as our enemies.  We are called to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God” (Micah 6:8).  Confident in our Savior, we can have no fear.  When we listen to voices who inflame our fears, we neither honor God nor love our neighbor.  Rather, we corrupt our witness and corrode our faith.

“For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: ‘Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.  But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.  And he will become a sanctuary . . .’” (Isaiah 8:11-14).

Temptation

Trump demonstrated what his empowered Christianity looks like when he used violent force against citizens peacefully protesting police brutality to clear his way to Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C.  There, he awkwardly brandished a Bible he hasn’t read[5] in front of a church he hasn’t attended, to project a Christianity of hostile force and division.  God calls us to spread a Christianity of grace and reconciliation.  We undertake this mission “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).  While some evangelicals rejoiced at the photo op for its “appearance of godliness,” we should instead object that Trump “den[ied] its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).  In the same verse, God tells Christians to “avoid such people.”

If we bear responsibility for how we present Christianity to the world, we should consider the cost of associating our Savior with divisiveness, fear, anger, lying and slander – all things God tells us He hates (Proverbs 6).  The church is harmed – not protected – when Christianity is associated with the very vices God abhors.  As Marilynne Robinson wrote, “This present brand of Christianism speaks of itself as threatened and embattled, and it approaches the rest of the country cowering and threatening and wagging its finger, then declares it is on account of its exceptional piety that so many people find it unattractive.”[6]  By embracing Trump’s offer of protection, Christians support a man who succeeds only in damaging our witness, drawing our eyes away from our true refuge and strength, and declaring a false gospel of earthly power.

Trump offers support to Christianity not because he believes in its goodness and truth, but because he wants Christian votes.  Last month, after The Atlantic published a story claiming that Trump privately mocks and disparages conservative Christians, the White House did not dispute the story.  Instead, a spokesperson reminded evangelicals of the deal they made with Trump: “People of faith know that President Trump is a champion for religious liberty and the sanctity of life, and he has taken strong actions to support them and protect their freedom to worship. The president is also well known for joking and his terrific sense of humor, which he shares with people of all faiths.”[7]  So, since evangelicals are getting what we bargained for, we should not object to being mocked by the president.  And after all, we are assured the jokes are funny.

When the church looks to earthly power for protection, we become like the person, the party, the thing in which we put our trust.  We become like what we worship – a biblical truth that gives both a precious promise and a profound warning.  Will we, as Christ’s church, whom He calls His body, be conformed to His image and reflect His love?  Or will we become resentful and fearful, grasping about for power to wield against others?  Let us embrace Christ’s perfect power, which He exercises for us in perfect wisdom and goodness.  Let us remember He expands His kingdom of grace not through political power, but through His church remaining faithful to His gospel.  “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5).  To the extent we engage in politics, do so out of love for our neighbors, seeking the peace of the city and aspiring to live quietly.  As the writer to the Hebrews said, let us fix our eyes on Christ, and run the race set before us, not growing weary or fainthearted, seeking peace with everyone.  And with zealous regard for God’s glory, let us magnify the cross in all circumstances and draw people to “taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Michael Kersten is a member of Piney Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Taneytown, Maryland.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/magazine/jeff-sessions.html

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/09/us/evangelicals-trump-christianity.html

[3] https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DFWKenyonAddress2005.pdf

[4] Robinson, Marilynne. “Fear.”  The Givenness of Things.  Picador, 2015, pp. 125-126.

[5] When asked if the Bible he held was his, Trump demurred, saying, “It’s a Bible.”  https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/june/president-trump-dc-st-johns-church-bible-protest-floyd.html.

[6] Robinson, Marilynne. “Slander.”  What are we Doing Here?  Picador, 2018, p. 313.

[7] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-secretly-mocks-his-christian-supporters/616522/.