A prophecy against Donald J. Trump

Mr. President, from the time you campaigned for the White House you have acted shamefully and maliciously. You have used the powers of the presidency to bolster your “brand.” You exploited the longstanding divisions in this country for the sake of power, supported blatant racism, used derogatory names for people in both major parties who opposed you, denounced allies and consorted with foreign dictators.  All these were bad in their own right. 

But with your stunt of forcibly moving peaceful demonstrators away from the rectory of a boarded-up Episcopal church and taking a photo in front of it holding up a Bible, perhaps to signal to your “evangelical” supporters that God was on, shall we say, “your side,” you crossed a line. And because of that action, He Himself is going to take you out.

For if you ever read that book that you were holding up, you’d understand that He demands more than lip service to an ideological agenda and won’t countenance the nationalism to which you and others subscribe as congruent with Christian faith and practice. Basically, you violated the Third Commandment.

The real issue is that you refuse to humble yourself, deflecting blame for bad things even when you caused them and accepting credit for good even when you had nothing to do with them. You have always demanded to be worshiped instead of directing your heart to the only One Who is worthy of such — in essence, you’re trying to usurp His throne.

You yourself must know that we’re going through unprecedented times, what with major changes in the environment, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic — which you originally referred to as a “Democratic hoax” — and now demands for justice and riots in the streets of major cities due to the asphyxiation death of an African-American man courtesy of a white policeman in Minneapolis.

But in the cases of the latter two, you responded by insulting state governors, insisting that those who have put their states on lockdown should open them up even though it isn’t clear that the crisis has passed, largely because you fear the electoral consequences of the stalled economy, and those that haven’t put down the unrest in their cities by calling them “weak.” That isn’t leadership; that’s arrogant bullying.

You haven’t even shown much compassion, if any at all, toward the over 100,000 Americans who have lost their lives to the coronavirus or George Floyd, the name of the man who died at the hands of that cop (who, as I write, is facing second-degree murder charges).

And that context makes your photo-op even more egregious.

Because I am not God, I will not offer a timeline as to when He will remove you from the pedestal on which you have placed yourself — quoting former president Barack Obama, that’s “above my pay grade.” But you have mocked, blasphemed and vexed Him, and He would not be true to Himself or His Word if He didn’t do so. 

One of my favorite passages in that book you held up is Micah 6:8, the New International Version of which reads: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” 

Hear this word, Mr. President: Absent true repentance, you are doomed.

One difference between 9/11 and COVID-19

Last week former president George W. Bush narrated a “Call to Unity” video produced by the George W. Bush Presidential Center that was encouraging Americans to remain strong in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak. President Donald Trump, in response, complained that Bush, were he interested in promoting unity, didn’t back him during the impeachment trial earlier this year.

As though one had anything to do with the other.

That may lead to another question that I know that some people are thinking: Why aren’t people rallying around President Trump the way they did around Bush immediately after 9/11? The better question is, however, why would they do so?

When Trump was campaigning two of his primary promises were to ban immigration from a number of majority-Muslim countries, thinking that doing so would counter terrorism; and building an impractical wall between Mexico and the United States to keep Mexicans from coming in. Meanwhile, President Bush has a Latina sister-in-law and said, emphatically, “We are not at war with Islam.”

More to the point, however, Bush notably didn’t endorse Trump for president four years ago and was caught muttering after Trump's inauguration that Trump’s inauguration speech contained “some weird s___.” (It should be noted that Bush, a devout Christian, likely doesn’t use that kind of language regularly.)

Bottom line, Trump and his supporters didn’t, and probably still don’t, understand that you can’t run a campaign on ethnic and religious division and expect everyone to be united behind you whenever a major crisis hits. That’s why, when it comes to the U.S.’s response to COVID-19, he’s continually being second-guessed.

You may recall that he was originally denying that there would be a major problem in the first place, saying falsely that widespread testing and protective gear for front-line workers were readily available and insisting that the pandemic would blow over in a matter of weeks with few fatalities. Basically, he’s always been far less concerned about what was good for the country than how he’s regarded in the here and now — which might explain his outburst — as well as his own financial well-being.

Now, Bush got a lot wrong when he was in the White House, most notably about invading Iraq, and history will not look on him favorably for that. But Bush never attempted to use the split that already exists in this country for partisan gain the way Trump has always done. That makes Bush at least credible in delivering a message of hope at a time when we may need it.

Trump — the antichrist?

Recently author Benjamin L. Corey published a piece on his “Formerly Fundie” blog called “Could American Evangelicals Spot the Antichrist? Here Are the Biblical Predictions:” — and, in his mind, they lead to President Donald Trump. Indeed, Corey made 20 specific claims mentioned in Daniel, II Thessalonians and Revelation that, at least on the surface, seem compelling.

Now, I’m not going to say that Trump is the antichrist — indeed, in my faith tradition, Reformed, there’s actually no such thing as one (only a spirit of such). That being said, if I were a dispensationalist I’d be quite concerned.

What happened? How could we have become so hoodwinked?

The first problem — and yes, it is a problem — is that, in America, the Christian faith has always had a lot of authority as part of an “establishment.” And as much as present-day evangelicals try to deny it, outside forces for decades have harnessed it and, in the process, subverted it. That’s one of Satan’s favorite tactics, to worm his way in undetected to try to corrupt the church’s witness.

The present hullabaloo began in the 1940s, with industry being battered after the Great Depression (which, arguably, began with disastrous policies that it championed). According to the book “One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Created Christian America” by author and historian Kevin Kruse, it reached out to pastors to promote itself as inherently virtuous, most notably in the South, and also to oppose FDR’s New Deal. (We see that today, mostly in Christian radio and on Christian TV.)

Then you have the beginnings of the “religious right” in the late 1970s. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it started not with an opposition to legal abortion but with resentment toward President Jimmy Carter’s rescinding of tax exemptions for then-all-white “Christian” academies formed to circumvent court-ordered desegregation of public schools in the South. One Paul Weyrich, not a Christian to my understanding, connected the dots and brought the religious right into alliance with secular power-brokers. And I hope you’ve noticed that, despite all the money that’s been spent on Washington lobbyists over the past 40 years, there’s been literally no improvement in the spiritual climate.

There’s a reason for that — based on the sheer number of passages in the Bible, God actually has one primary concern other than worshiping Him; it’s that the poor and powerless are uplifted not by individuals but by political decisions and the culture. And that’s the one thing the “religious right” doesn’t want, because anything that would cost it power it fights tooth-and-nail. Not for nothing does it call anything that gives the poor more of a voice “socialism,” which it calls materialistic and atheistic even though, with the civil-rights movement, some of it came straight from the Word. (Indeed, Jesus often reamed out the Pharisees because, I suspect, their maintenance of religious traditions didn’t cause any change in anyone’s state.)

This is where the focus on economic power has corrupted much of the evangelical church and many parachurch ministries. Things like legal abortion and gay rights, which secular conservatives don’t really care about, have become the focus of evangelicals because they raise funds but, as I mentioned, have little impact on the culture, which would include preaching repentance to these same secular conservatives.

Enter Trump, who threw us some bones in promising to nominate justices to the Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade, and as a result we prostrated — some of the more cynical of us would also say “prostituted” — ourselves before him. Meanwhile, the nation is hopelessly divided and he’s shown himself to be an incompetent administrator, directly leading to the present COVID-19 crisis.

If Trump is the antichrist and we Christians miss that, it’s because of our failure to take God at His Word, including our allowance of temporal political and financial concerns to seduce us. And who knows where that will lead?

It’s not just ‘the economy,’ sweetheart

Recently the American Family Association published a screed complaining about just how the current quarantine as the result of the COVID-19 virus is hurting the American economy. Coming from that group, which is likely funded by big business and supportive of President Donald Trump, such commentary I take with a grain of salt.

Such groups have never consistently argued for Biblical principles in public life anyway, so why would they have any authority to speak God’s truth now? What we’re seeing now with the current pandemic is the utter incompetence of Trump; while it’s true that the coronavirus has, among other things, affected billions in lost wages, the real issue to the wealthy is the hit to their portfolios, including Trump’s. And since when is that a “moral” issue?

Back in the 1990s, when Bill Clinton was president, the political right was doing its best to de-legitimize him but utterly failed; one reason he survived his impeachment on frivolous charges was due to the economy, at the time during the so-called dot-com boom, and he remained popular toward the end of his administration. (Clinton was founder of the business-friendly Democratic Leadership Council.) The same happened during the “Great Recession” of 2008, which combined with the lobbying scandal that had enveloped the Republican Party two years earlier and resulted in Barack Obama reaching the White House.

Concerning today’s crisis there’s been precious little, if any, concern about grocery store and healthcare workers, now on the front line of the pandemic. Nor do people seem to care about those who work in restaurants and bars — I’m a musician, so many of my fellow “cats” are suffering as well due to loss of gigs. And then you have the tens of thousands of people who have died as a result. Demanding that the economy open up thus isn’t “pro-life,” as many like to call themselves.

The problem is that such Christian groups, seeking to hang onto political power at all costs, don’t call out Trump for thumbing his nose at Christian “principles” and end up trading in their prophetic witness in the process. Not coincidentally, this represents the same thinking that causes Christians to support autocrats without regard for the rights of those that they may disagree with. And God is not pleased.

Closed on Easter Sunday

Due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, I won’t be attending church on Easter Sunday, which of course is in two days. It will be the first time in recent memory that I’ll be home on Easter, which is in one sense traumatic because I’ve been in my church’s music ministry for over 20 years, but it — like most churches — will be shut down. (Rather, most with the technology to do so, including mine, are livestreaming services over the internet with a limited staff involvement — a pastor will deliver a message and a small worship team will provide music.)

But, sadly, not all churches.

A few rebels — and that’s what they are, rebels — plan to hold some kind of public service. Recently one pastor in Washington County, southwest of Pittsburgh, announced a big blow-out and other larger congregations in the South have decided to defy authorities and hold public worship services.

Many folks, but I don’t, believe that holding services in the midst of this pandemic is about filling the offering plate. Rather, folks simply don’t like being told what to do, insisting that government telling churches how and when to operate impinges upon their freedoms per the First Amendment. But such defiance in this case isn’t a response to persecuting the church, what they complain about; rather, it’s about saving or preserving lives.

Moreover, and more importantly, given the contagion of the COVID-19 virus, such churches are demonstrating a lack of love for God and their fellow man by insisting on holding services and thus not at all concerned about what’s best for their neighbor — which means that they don’t really love God either, especially according to 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. (True love isn’t selfish, proud or rude and doesn’t seek its own way.)

My church, a mega-church in an urban area, is closed for the time being, as I mentioned above. But it recognizes that it doesn’t exist simply for its own sake but to serve the LORD and the community in which it’s located, and because of the latter it enjoys quite the reputation in the neighborhood; in that context, remaining open at this time might sabotage any future ministry.

Would all churches understand the impact of their decisions to close or remain open on people to whom they might want to reach out.

An unrequited love

Occasionally I’m asked why so many people who criticize what he does and how he operates hate President Donald Trump. Wrong question, truth be told.

Truly, we critics don’t hate him. If there’s any hatred here, it’s on his side of the political fence.

It has dawned on me recently that, for all the talk about Trump supporting Christians, he doesn’t respect us — at all. In fact, if we Christians were to call him out on his immoral behavior he would persecute us; we know this because he falsely called “Christianity Today” a “far-left publication” after its then-editor Mark Galli did so late last year.

Bottom line, the “81 percent,” what exit polls refer to as the percentage of white evangelicals who voted for him in 2016, are in fact trapped in a feeling of unrequited love. Despite what they may say, Trump doesn’t love us or anyone else — he’s simply using us for the sake of power.

“But we’re using him to get Christian values back in public life,” you may protest. No, by supporting him you’re actually sabotaging Christian values.

What Trump can really go for, and in fact was elected to promote, is a form of heretical Christian nationalism that, if anything, has been rendered obsolete by the Gospel. And yes, that nationalism is itself inherently based on hate of some “other” — no concern whatsoever for those who are suffering, especially under the current worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

That is why, as much as many of Trump’s Christian supporters refer to some great spiritual awakening under a Trump administration, it can never truly happen. There’s nothing inherently attractive about those who spend their time and energy spewing anger toward targets deemed “unworthy.”

Moreover, Trump clearly desires and demands worship but, unlike our God, isn’t at all benevolent. In this crisis in particular he has shown his proclivity to favor those who flatter him. And let’s remember the doctrine of “common grace,” which God bestows on all people, His or not — that flies in the face of Trump, who divides folks into friends and enemies.

Clearly, Trump doesn’t love God and for that reason can’t love anything or anyone else. Let’s not be fooled into thinking that he loves us.

Message through the coronavirus

It seems that whenever the United States undergoes any trauma — take the war in Iraq and 9/11 as examples — folks who belong to the “religious right” try to tell people that the presence of gays and legal abortion were to blame. The same is being said today with the coronavirus pandemic.

It could be that the situation in which we find ourselves today is indeed the result of God’s judgment, but not in the way they believe. Rather, I suspect that He is judging much of the church on how we have always regarded the poor and powerless, which by the way is the second-most addressed issue in the Scriptures. Mind you, I’m not talking about “charity”; I’m referring to a general sense of empowerment, which would include adjusting the political system to allow folks to make their way without charity.

And guess what they would call that? “Socialism.” Which indicates to me that their own addiction to power, often practiced in the name of religion, sabotages the very spiritual awakening they say they want.

Let’s go back to the history of Israel, which remained in the Promised Land for 490 years but was exiled for 70. The number of years in both cases are significant — part of the Levitical law included returning parcels of land to their original clans every 50 years at part of the Year of Jubilee, but there’s no indication that Israel ever practiced that, the result being rampant economic and social inequality.

Today we have a president, supported by a majority of evangelical Christians who believe that “fake news” about the virus is designed to hurt him politically. This same president has shown no empathy toward those infected with the virus, insisting that his chief priority is getting the economy — that is, the stock market — going again and even saying recently that he wanted to see packed churches on Easter Sunday, which of course is just two weeks away. (Medical experts are saying that things will get worse, not better, over the next few weeks and likely beyond.)

And look just whom the quarantine is primarily affecting — folks who work in service industries such as restaurants and taverns, especially those that support live music (which means that many of my fellow musicians are out of work) as well as many retail outlets. And then you have overworked medical paraprofessionals, grocery store workers and warehouse employees, many of whom don’t make that much money in the first place and thus don’t own any stock.

I learned a couple of years ago that what we know today as the “religious right” was originally funded by industry groups. While there’s nothing wrong in itself with having money, even a lot of it, we seem to forget that whatever we have ultimately belongs to God and should be used for His purposes. It thus could be that depressing the stock market due to the coronavirus is another of His ways to let us know that we’re on the wrong track.

Sadly, I don’t think that message will be heeded.