Evangelicals in the Age of Trump: "Poor Jesus"
Mar 21, 2018
Commentary abounds these days about evangelicals and their support of Donald Trump. We know that our evangelical friends are growing weary of all this. But the issue is a legitimate one, and evangelicals themselves should be, more than anyone else, curious about what is happening with them and to them.
We at Toward the Truth are regularly in conversation with people of varied belief systems – some Christian, many not – and many ask us, some with incredulity, What is going on with evangelicals these days?
Most understand the desire of evangelicals to elect a president who will make the “right” Supreme Court nominees, and likewise understand the commitment of evangelicals to certain moral issues, like opposition to abortion and gay marriage and concerns about gender identity issues. What they don’t understand is the allegiance to the ignorance and immorality of Donald Trump and the rejection of central Christian doctrines of care for the poor, justice for all, and the notion that loving money is a root of all evil.
Evangelicals will do well to realize that their current critics have valid questions. Much is at stake for evangelicals who are serious about their witness as followers of Jesus.
We share our friends’ questions, and we are deeply concerned for our evangelical sisters and brothers. We are deeply concerned that the typical response of evangelicals to legitimate questions is to claim “persecution,” reverting to the narrative that the opponents of evangelicals are servants of the devil and assuming that evangelicals are the sole proprietors of truth and the Christian way.
The support, and in many instances embrace, of Donald Trump puts an end to the fiction that evangelicals occupy such lofty ground. To the contrary, evangelicals in vast numbers have shown themselves to be the very thing they have so long said they oppose – those who embrace lies and deceit, lack compassion, and forsake love of neighbor. These are stern words, but their truth seems evident.
As one (non-Christian) friend exclaimed when mulling this present reality, “poor Jesus!”
At first we had concerns about how all of this would affect people’s views of Jesus and the gospel. Now, more than 1,000 days into the Trump era, we realize that Jesus will be just fine. Among the numerous people we have talked with, including people of different faiths and those of no faith, virtually all have no trouble distinguishing clearly between Jesus and his teachings and the public stance of people they know as “evangelicals.” This is notable because in effect they are concluding that evangelicals aren’t really Christian at all.
That is good for Jesus. It should be sobering for evangelicals. Good that so many continue to inquire about the truth of Christ. Sobering that the questions are raised not in response to seeing evangelicals’ good works (a la Matthew 5:16) but rather in response to their glaring inconsistency (a la Luke 18:11). Good that people can easily distinguish between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr., Tony Perkins et al. Sobering that a significant body of people who identify as Christian stray so far from the One they claim to follow.
As we go about our everyday lives, we find people as eager as ever, if not more so, to inquire about Jesus. But we find people more repulsed than ever by American evangelicals. For this evangelicals have no one to blame but themselves. It is not persecution they are facing, but the truth.
Our fear is that too many evangelicals’ minds have been darkened to it.
There is, of course, good news for evangelicals. One aspect of Jesus' teaching they preach so freely to others is the very remedy for their own souls: repent. Repentance is the one act that may - may - restore some credibility to their witness. The watching world would sit up and listen to someone who would repent of their self-assuredness, their superiority, their unkindness, their lack of love, and, yes, their allegiance to Donald Trump. If the evangelical gospel is true, Jesus himself offers grace only to those who repent their self-righteousness in exchange for love of God and love of (even the most sinful and unlovely) neighbor. Only those who repent in this way are truly worthy of the name “evangelical.”
We at Toward the Truth are regularly in conversation with people of varied belief systems – some Christian, many not – and many ask us, some with incredulity, What is going on with evangelicals these days?
Most understand the desire of evangelicals to elect a president who will make the “right” Supreme Court nominees, and likewise understand the commitment of evangelicals to certain moral issues, like opposition to abortion and gay marriage and concerns about gender identity issues. What they don’t understand is the allegiance to the ignorance and immorality of Donald Trump and the rejection of central Christian doctrines of care for the poor, justice for all, and the notion that loving money is a root of all evil.
Evangelicals will do well to realize that their current critics have valid questions. Much is at stake for evangelicals who are serious about their witness as followers of Jesus.
We share our friends’ questions, and we are deeply concerned for our evangelical sisters and brothers. We are deeply concerned that the typical response of evangelicals to legitimate questions is to claim “persecution,” reverting to the narrative that the opponents of evangelicals are servants of the devil and assuming that evangelicals are the sole proprietors of truth and the Christian way.
The support, and in many instances embrace, of Donald Trump puts an end to the fiction that evangelicals occupy such lofty ground. To the contrary, evangelicals in vast numbers have shown themselves to be the very thing they have so long said they oppose – those who embrace lies and deceit, lack compassion, and forsake love of neighbor. These are stern words, but their truth seems evident.
As one (non-Christian) friend exclaimed when mulling this present reality, “poor Jesus!”
At first we had concerns about how all of this would affect people’s views of Jesus and the gospel. Now, more than 1,000 days into the Trump era, we realize that Jesus will be just fine. Among the numerous people we have talked with, including people of different faiths and those of no faith, virtually all have no trouble distinguishing clearly between Jesus and his teachings and the public stance of people they know as “evangelicals.” This is notable because in effect they are concluding that evangelicals aren’t really Christian at all.
That is good for Jesus. It should be sobering for evangelicals. Good that so many continue to inquire about the truth of Christ. Sobering that the questions are raised not in response to seeing evangelicals’ good works (a la Matthew 5:16) but rather in response to their glaring inconsistency (a la Luke 18:11). Good that people can easily distinguish between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr., Tony Perkins et al. Sobering that a significant body of people who identify as Christian stray so far from the One they claim to follow.
As we go about our everyday lives, we find people as eager as ever, if not more so, to inquire about Jesus. But we find people more repulsed than ever by American evangelicals. For this evangelicals have no one to blame but themselves. It is not persecution they are facing, but the truth.
Our fear is that too many evangelicals’ minds have been darkened to it.
There is, of course, good news for evangelicals. One aspect of Jesus' teaching they preach so freely to others is the very remedy for their own souls: repent. Repentance is the one act that may - may - restore some credibility to their witness. The watching world would sit up and listen to someone who would repent of their self-assuredness, their superiority, their unkindness, their lack of love, and, yes, their allegiance to Donald Trump. If the evangelical gospel is true, Jesus himself offers grace only to those who repent their self-righteousness in exchange for love of God and love of (even the most sinful and unlovely) neighbor. Only those who repent in this way are truly worthy of the name “evangelical.”
