Life without Trump

Has anyone noticed just how quiet things have been in Washington, D.C. since now-former President Donald Trump has left office? It’s simultaneously boring and comforting not to have to notice the new regime in not only the White House but also in Congress.

And it’s not simply Trump and his political sycophants and enablers in the Republican Party that have gone virtually silent. We also have heard barely a peep out of evangelical leaders who not only supported him through these last four years but predicted — falsely, as things turned out — that he’d be in the White House for eight. I don’t know what they’re doing, but a part of me hopes that they’re now afraid to show their faces.

What’s even more gratifying to me personally is the collapse of the QAnon cult that held that Trump was going to bust members of the media and Democratic politicians that were engaging in a child-sex-trafficking ring, an accusation with no basis in fact. Many were hoping that the storming of the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 would spark those mass arrests; instead, some of his erstwhile followers have now dismissed him out of hand, calling him “weak.” (Which most of us already knew.)

And on top of that, social media outlets, citing violations of terms of service, not only banned Trump in light of the riot but some months previously also began shutting down QAnon-related accounts, prophetically citing the potential for real-world violence.

Here’s hope that the calm we may feel now produces some healing from the abuse that this nation has suffered over the past four years. But more than that: Similar to the Truth & Reconciliation efforts in post-apartheid South Africa, we need a full accounting of what actually happened and why so that it’s never repeated.

Some are saying that the second impeachment trial of Trump, tentatively scheduled for next month and which I believe to be just, isn’t necessary because it would “divide the country.” Nonsense, since the country already has been divided for four decades; he simply exploited that. We also know that he’s completely unrepentant so, although I don’t see him as returning to the White House, it’s up to us to make sure that he’s never in power again.

Above all, we Christians who did support him — of course, I’m not in that number — ought to take a look at ourselves to consider how we went wrong. Perhaps we focused too much on political and cultural power to allow the light of Christ to shine through. Perhaps we saw Trump as a messiah to rid the world of the “ungodly,” never mind his lack of commitment to any, let alone Christian, principles. There’s no question that our support of Trump has hurt the witness of the Gospel.

If we turn back to God with our whole hearts in humility, know what will result? The revival that people say that they want.