I did not want to believe the cartoon at the top of this
post when I first saw it. I did not like the use of the word “Evangelicals”.
Painting with a bit of a broadbrush, I thought, and statistically I still
think. “I am an ‘evangelical’”, I told myself, “and worse still, for some, an
evangelical with white skin from Arkansas, southern USA, but I most definitely
do not and will not excuse unrepentant adulterous philandering for the petty
pragmatism of party politics. Surely these are only nominals, people who have
not darkened the door of a church in years.”
But then far too many pastors, preachers, and other
committed Christians for my comfort began making their sentiments known, before
and after Trump became president. As his first year in office has shambolically
progressed from one scandal to the next, enthusiasm has not seemed to wane.
People used to call Ronald Reagan “the Teflon President”, because nothing bad
or scandalous seemed to stick. Trump is more like the Velcro President -
everything seems to stick but those who should care - and have in the past! -
don’t really seem to. Tragically, as much as I hate to admit it, this cartoon
has proven somewhat right time and again - especially among white ”evangelical”
southerners, some of whom are on my friends list. I have been saddened as even
servants of God who I have loved and respected have taken to singing the
praises of a man who, had his name been “Bill Clinton” would have been decried
from pulpits across the land and lobbied against to the point of impeachment.
It has been quite revealing to observe eisegetical pontifications about respect
and submission on the one hand and exclamations of divine favour and salvific
purpose on the other about a man who had his name been “Barack Obama” would
have been run out of office and at the very least politically lynched (you’ll
excuse my intentional use of a word pregnant with painful historic meaning).
This is what happens when people are more ”white” than evangelical, when they
find more identity in their “Southernness“ than in their Saviour, when the
pragmatism of politics outweighs the principles they preach. It is tragic.
Where are the men? I have heard Trump heralded for his
“manliness.” What toxic definition of masculinity is this!? Where are those who
will preach biblical, holy and healthy masculinity, not the pelvic-thrusting
barbarianism of cultural machismo?
Where are the prophets? I have heard Trump praised for
“disrupting the status-quo”, “saying it like it is”, and “draining the swamp”.
On the contrary, he has further demonstrated a global status quo of depravity,
polluted the air with his ultimately self-serving profane pomposity, and added
another hue to the murk of hypocrisy. There was a time when men of God could
demonstrate prayerful, tax-paying, good work-supporting toleration of a
democratically elected and removable-if-need-be President without that becoming
praise-filled, truth-twisting, bad work-ignoring celebration, when spiritual
leaders like Nathan the prophet would say “You are the man”, and mean something
quite different from back slapping, fist-bumping “you the man”.
”But he spoke at the March for Life!” Wonderful. And just
like that the latest of many should-be damaging revelations - about an
adulterous liaison with a porn actress, who was paid off before the
presidential campaign - came and went with almost radio silence as people
gnawed at the bone of image-advancing bluster.
As ever, I am far less concerned about the President - who
is what he is and holds his position by election of the people and appointment
by God. I am very concerned about a vocal minority of my fellow Christians who
are defaming themselves - and by extension the beautiful, pure gospel we
cherish and proclaim - with mind-boggling hypocrisy and frankly, spiritual
adultery that places far too much trust in a sinful man to sort out a nation’s
problems.
Trump is not the Messiah - he’s a very naughty boy. Don’t
miss Jesus for Trump.
I was asked a good question of this article which, as it was on Facebook, I am posting here. After that, I will post my answer, which I hope is in some way helpful for anyone wrestling with the issues I have addressed.
ReplyDeleteThe question was:
Much to praise about this post, brother. But im struggling with a few points here. In general i find it strange that christians cannot acknowledge that two (dare i say, multiple) things can be true at one time. It's certainly true that trump has no biblical moral convictions. He lacks the fruits of the spirit because by all evidence the spirit is not in him! However does that discount his political currency? Does his moral failures mean he's a political failure given, especially, the current political and cultural climate that is quite literally hell-bent. To acknowlege this defames the gospel? This seems to be a "broad-brush" approach without a foundation to do so.
My answer was:
ReplyDeleteHi xxxxx - thank you for your interaction. You raise a couple of interesting points that, if I may, I’d like to isolate and reply to in a way that I hope brings clarity. Forgive me if I go on a bit, but I have a great deal of unpublished thought on this subject that seems good to include now (believe it or not there is more still left unsaid!). I will post a few comments as Facebook won’t let me post all of it.
“I find it strange that Christians cannot acknowledge that two (dare i say, multiple) things can be true at one time.”
In other words, someone can be a bad man and a good leader. I once had a Vietnamese friend who when I shared the gospel with him and made passing reference to “you might not be a bad man like Hitler”, he said “but Hitler was a good leader” and began to speak defensively of a man who was the poster-boy of all evil and tyranny in the 20th Century! That is an extreme example, but the reality is, across the board, many people (not just Christians) have difficulty acknowledging that two things can be true at one time, and react in different ways. My problem is just this, believe it or not. I am honestly quite sad that a great many people in the USA - people I have loved and looked up to, people who have been supportive of gospel ministry here, fellow Americans some of whom are people on my friends list who may be reading this now - fail to see (and say!) that Trump is a bad man. They had no problem pointing this out about Clinton, and even less problem about Obama. But now, because they like some of Trump’s policies (as do I, not because they are his policies but because it is right to be against abortion, it is right to hit ISIS hard, it is right to seek to improve employment in the nation and assist families that are struggling with healthcare, taxes etc.), they hypocritically excuse the bad behaviour they very eagerly pointed out in others. Though professedly conservatives, they indulge in the historic methodology of the left, never failing to practice Soviet whataboutery. For years they complained every time Obama blamed Bush for something. Now they complain endlessly about Obama. Point out Trump’s immorality, and like clockwork, “Well let’s look at Hillary. What about when...” But Hillary isn’t (mercifully) President. Trump is and should be held every bit as accountable as his predecessors. Instead, I see smoke and mirrors and ridiculous pieces of certifiably fake news used to support Trump and ridicule past presidents and present opponents (this week’s offering: an elderly sister shared a rubbish photoshop of Obama snogging David Cameron with a “The picture they don’t want you to see. Share the hell out of it!” caption).
“It's certainly true that trump has no biblical moral convictions. He lacks the fruits of the spirit because by all evidence the spirit is not in him!”
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you see this. I’m afraid not everyone does. I have seen a Charisma News article quoting James Dobson in the headline “Donald Trump has accepted Christ” shared more times than I can remember. They revel in every “God bless America” that comes from the President and lose their minds in ecstasy when he says “Merry Christmas”. This Christmas I thought that Obama must have been the White Witch of Narnia reincarnated as a mixed-race middle aged black man, that America had suffered eight years of winter but never Christmas, but Aslan has come forth as Trump, a typological Christ for America come to save the nation and reestablish a long forgotten holiday. I am only barely exaggerating, and while I cannot speak from your observations and experience, I can speak for mine. If Trump so much as professes or gives lip service to be a Christian, he is worthy of church discipline and the voice of Christian leader across the nation saying “Whatever he claims, he is not of us or of the Lord.” Instead, forgetting that Christ’s kingdom is not of this world any way, pastors and church members have become incredibly defensive apologists for him, aligning themselves more strongly as a result with his politics than Christ’s principles.
“However does that discount his political currency? Does his moral failures mean he's a political failure given, especially, the current political and cultural climate that is quite literally hell-bent.”
ReplyDeleteI am far less concerned about Trump’s currency than I am Christians’ consistency, integrity, and indeed credibility to faithfully proclaim and uphold Scripture’s authority and biblical morality. I wish the best for my country as much as anyone else, and that means I’d rather Trump’s administration not be the cataclysmic failure it could be or the embarrassingly shambolic circus it has been. But I will say this: I remember in the 90s when a president’s morality apparently discounted his political currency. I remember the adultery, the lies, and the response - both in state and in church. Some of the very men who preached the loudest then do not so much as whisper a negative word now. They are more likely to express annoyance about his intemperate tweeting than his habitual lying and sexual immorality. “God bless President Trump!”, I’ve seen several times since the March for Life and the State of the Union address - and it is said as though he deserves God’s blessing! Conversely, God’s blessing of Trump would be entirely of long-suffering grace and people have been judged for less than he has done.
Trump’s moral failures (which in any case have barely if at all been recognised in some quarters) should indeed have implications for his political career - not least as he has quite publicly claimed to uphold “Judeo-Christian values”. Two biblical stories spring to mind, one of which I alluded to in the original post. that have somewhat different endings. King David committed adultery and engineered a cover-up. The prophet Nathan went to him and proclaimed truth. David repented but still faced consequences in his family and kingdom that reverberated throughout the rest of Israelite history, pre and post-exilic. King Herod took his brother’s wife for himself and John the Baptist went to him and said “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife." John was imprisoned and later beheaded for his faithfulness. While Nathan and John are heralded for their principled stand on the one hand, those who would speak similarly to or about Trump are treated quite poorly. Those with higher profiles like Russell Moore, who have spoken similarly of Trump’s sins have been mocked, ridiculed, and castigated by the President (Moore is “a really nasty guy”) and fellow Christians. Those with lower profiles, like me, are simply isolated: defriended by some, ignored by others, and people who once did even little things like written words of encouragement or liking a status have long since gone silent. I did get a message from an anonymous account once that said, “you do not live in AMERICA so shut up garbage mouth and i doubt if your a pastor. ass hole”; I’ve been asked by a Christian in the US why I even care seeing as I no longer live there, have had others make insinuations about my politics that are simply untrue, and have been lectured about all that is apparently wrong with England and how we are apparently experiencing a massive invasion of violent jihadist Muslims and could use a Trump here etc. etc. But mostly, it’s just silence. At least I still have my head. The difference between the scenario faced by Nathan or John and us? David and Herod were kings, who could be removed only by abdication, revolution, or death. Trump is a democratically elected president who can be removed by impeachment or forced resignation during office, or by election at the end of his first term. There is no push in either of those directions that I have seen, even though his would-be replacement Mike Pence is a far more suitable man.
“To acknowlege this defames the gospel? This seems to be a "broad-brush" approach without a foundation to do so.”
ReplyDeleteWhat is the “this” that is being acknowledged? The spiritual adultery of investing Messianic levels of hope in Trump to cleanse DC of corruption, the nation of its many ills, and the world of carnage and terror? The political hypocrisy of politically and pragmatically having a far lower standard for one person than was rightly had for others? Trumpeting the alleged accomplishments of the President (let’s be honest: they are very heavily a group effort), while turning a blind eye to his sin (a kindness not extended to others)? Upholding Trump as an example of manliness and truth, when church members behaving similarly would be reprimanded at best and removed at worst for the same behaviour? Those were the points of my post and yes, they do defame the gospel and neuter any commentary given on moral or ethical issues.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for writing such a good article,Thank you. Publishers of Spiritual Books
ReplyDelete