Christian silence on Trump

I ask the following, with apologies to Sarah Palin, of my Christian friends who are unabashed supporters of President Donald Trump: “How’s that ‘Cyrus anointing’ working out for ya?”

I’m not trying to be snide or anything, but I can’t help but wonder just how they feel he’s improved the country morally or spiritually since being inaugurated, especially with scandal after scandal being unearthed, most recently revelations that his namesake son, interested in getting dirt on Hillary Clinton, met with a Russian lawyer. That’s leading many, primarily but by no means exclusively on the political left, to believe that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to throw last year’s election.

Indeed, according to conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, “[W]e know now that Donald Trump’s son, his son-in-law and his campaign manager all took a meeting in which it was explicitly promised that damaging information on Hillary Clinton would be supplied as ‘part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.’ ” 

And yet, a photo appeared last week with a number of pastors laying hands on the president. Indeed, recently Pat Robertson interviewed him, and during that interview he said that Russian president Vladimir Putin would have preferred her. (Which is false on its face — when she was Secretary of State she actually told him off.)

This isn’t “fake news,” my friends — this is the real deal.

I would think that a man interested in governing by consistent Christian principles would focus on making things better for everyone, not just his side of the political fence, and adhere to the rule of law in the process. But even conservative commentators have mentioned, among other things, his contempt for an independent judiciary and the Constitution, with some (who, to be fair, were never on his team to begin with) taking him to the woodshed.

This is not just an ongoing political crisis, although it certainly is that.

So he appointed a Supreme Court justice who might overturn Roe. v. Wade. Was that sufficient reason to ally with someone who cannot otherwise but sabotage Christian witness for years down the road? (Court decisions can be reversed, you know.)

I don’t see Trump being impeached anytime soon; it would take a Democratic-majority Congress for that to happen and of course that’s no guarantee. But I would hope that one of his major Christian supporters has a change of heart and say, publicly, “I was wrong”; doing so would likely do more for evangelistic efforts and the Kingdom of God more than demanding a “return to our Christian roots.” It seems to be, as things stand now, a case of winning a battle but losing the war — in this case, for the souls of men.