Are You a Christian and Approve of Trump? Please Read This!

If you identify as a Christian, and have supported and perhaps voted for Donald Trump up to now, perhaps because you were concerned about inflation, immigration, or changes in American culture, please read on. And, especially, if you supported or voted for Donald Trump because he seemed to support what you consider to be “biblical” values concerning gender, sexual relations, and abortion, please read on.

First of all, as a Christian, please watch the news carefully, to see if President Trump actually holds to “biblical values” or is using them as a wedge issue to gain more and more power. If he seems to be using God to enjoy power, then beware and resist.

Second, think about the most fundamental biblical values of all: love of God above all things and love of neighbor as self. Jesus himself said “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22.40).” So, if Trump only uses God, he actively opposes God. And if he causes us not to love our neighbor as our self, then he actively opposes God; and Christians should beware and resist.

Third, consider that the entire Bible considers love, respect, and care for the legal rights of aliens as paramount in love of neighbor. In the first five books of the Old Testament alone we hear 52 times that we should not mistreat an alien. Why? Because we ourselves come from alien stock. As Christians we identify with the Jewish story, and Deuteronomy 15.15 speaks to our souls: “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. On account of this I command you this thing.” Be kind to aliens!

And, if we respect God’s will, we must recognize that aliens and all immigrants are extra vulnerable, and so to love them we must give them the full protection of our laws. Exodus 12.49 commands us, “There shall be one law for the citizen and for the alien who lives among you.” Our immigrants, even if they have broken laws, are vulnerable, and so they deserve more justice, not less.

If God has commanded us this way, how can we tolerate the giddy way the Trump administration is trying to gain more power by arresting and deporting millions of people hurriedly, claiming that they do not deserve due process? Especially knowing that fewer than 10% of them have broken any other law than desperately trying to live in the “land of the free and home of the brave?” How can we tolerate the way families are separated, and individuals spirited away from one another, and sent to prisons in foreign lands, or in alligator infested swamps, where we would not even want our cats or dogs to be sent?

Fourth, but certainly not finally, consider that absolute love of God demands that we resist anyone who aspires to usurp God’s absolute power. Consider whether or not this is the most frightful thing about approval or support of Trump. With the pitiful acquiescence of Congress and the Supreme Court, and with the very eager and hungry assistance of his political appointees, Trump is amassing absolute power. He is abusing his position and the law to intimidate city and state governments, universities, corporations, law firms, museums and other cultural institutions. You may excuse these moves saying he is “draining the swamp,” or “getting things done,” or fighting reverse discrimination or anti-Semitism. But think! Think! Is he and his allies not simply using these as pretexts to amass more and more power? Is he supposedly seeking efficiency in those endeavors he does not favor (diversity, equity, inclusion, environment), while lavishing billions on creating new armies for his personal domestic agenda?  Is he not also, by encouraging radical gerrymandering, and manipulation of the census system not trying to abuse and twist the foundation of democracy itself? What if a Democratic president were doing these things? What would you think or say about that?

Think: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!”

Part of me wants to conclude by writing, “If you have approved of Trump…if you have voted for Trump…please, for the love of God, consider these things before it’s too late!”

But I believe it’s never too late because God is still in charge. It could be that God is now using Donald Trump to punish us for being complacent about our true biblical values. It could be that this is our wake-up call. Certainly love, and not fear, will eventually win out. Certainly the truth that diversity, equity, and inclusion are Godly ideas will win out. Certainly we will learn that cooperation among nations is much better than zero-sum competition and the “art of the deal.”

But to help bring our nation back from the brink, and back to the favor of God, if you have approved of Trump in the past, PLEASE, PLEASE WAKE UP!