I think it may be time for Kingdom of God-loving Christians
to pray that President Donald Trump is removed from power.
In part because of any anticipated blowback, I do not say
this lightly. Those of you who know me
know that I have never had any love for him; I’ve always felt that his
arrogance, thin-skinnedness, unwillingness to work with those that disagree
with him, coddling of dictators and other things have put this country at risk.
But this isn’t primarily a partisan issue to me. My reason for saying
so is simple: In idolizing Trump — and let’s call it by its name, idolatry — too
many Christians and their leaders, whether in the pulpit, media or political
arena, have sold God out for the sake of temporal political power and in the
process blasphemed Him. As a result, He’s eventually going to put much of evangelicalism
on the shelf, which He does when people rebel or otherwise become useless for
His purposes.
Well, what about Paul’s command to pray for our leaders (often
used as an excuse to divert from Trump’s corruption)? Well, that comes with a
caveat: One of the purposes of prayer is to transform the person praying and
that in doing so God’s character shines through. Besides that, in those days
the corrupt Nero was emperor in Rome and the early church had no power to
change political leadership, so part of prayer was to remain strong for the
purposes of withstanding persecution. Eventually, the Roman Empire was
essentially destroyed not by power or might but because the faithful outlasted
it.
Some others might think: Don’t you want Christian
principles to hold primacy in our nation again? No, because it simply isn’t,
and never has been, the political system’s or the culture’s job to reinforce what
we believe. Expecting the laws and such to do so represents nothing less than
lazy evangelism, if for no other reason that conversion takes place only when
people see that lives are changed.
Not coincidentally, I see no sign of repentance from Trump
despite the insistence of some that he’s a “baby Christian.” As Michael Gerson
wrote in The Washington Post, “The very thing that should repel evangelicals —
Trump’s dehumanization of others — is what seems to fascinate and attract some
conservative Christians. It is yet another example of discrediting hypocrisy.”
Well, what about abortion? (That's an issue because Trump has nominated justices who belong to the right-wing Federalist Society to the Supreme Court.) Wouldn’t overturning Roe v. Wade
please God? Not necessarily. Several things about the abortion issue that folks
don’t understand: 1) Until the late 1800s abortion was actually legal; 2) When
it was made illegal it was done so by that day’s liberals, with God, faith or
religion playing virtually no role; and 3) Evangelical Christians didn’t even
become heavily involved until the late 1970s — and it turns out that many were
prodded by segregation, with abortion being used as moral cover.
We need to remember that, ultimately, the Kingdom of God is
about love, not simply what Martin Luther King Jr. called “emotional bosh” but in
the Greek known as agape, which can be translated as “justice,” whatever is
right and best not only on a personal level but for society as a whole. That’s
what we should be seeking, not political power to push people around with, as
Gerson wrote, “the ultimate harm … to the reputation of faith itself.”
As I have said before, it’s either Jesus or Trump. We need to choose wisely because eternity is at stake.
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