The Biblical Case for Voting Trump
I open with some caveats.
One, I am not the most astute scholar or student of the Scripture, though I love it dearly. I have done my best here to be succinct, but I fear that may in places come at the expense of argument. For that I am sorry and already cautious. Second, I do not assume this piece will be on its own persuasive, but I hope it will be convicting to those who take the Scripture seriously and desire to earnestly be faithful to its entire outlook, not to verses in isolation. Third, there will be some who accuse me of the same cherrypicking of Scripture I would accuse others of doing. That’s an unavoidable argument online.
What I have attempted to do here is anticipate and respond to some of the arguments I have heard made concerning voting for Trump based on Scriptural rationale. This certainly doesn’t include everything I would like to say about that point, but it does include some basic refutations. This is a summary, at best, but it gets at the incongruity many of us who hold orthodox Christian faith feel when our brothers and sisters who claim to love and know the same Lord willingly submit themselves to endorsing evil. With that, I ask your consideration of these points as you approach Election Day. There is more at stake here than the moral high ground. There is, ultimately, the issue of whether or not our morals are rooted in the Scripture or simply in our greeting card version of it.
Argument 1:
Trump is a born-again Christian, a baby Christian in fact, and we should vote for Christians.
The marks of true conversion are seen in the fruits of that conversion. Paul is only one example of this. That said, conversion need only be dramatic in proportion to how unlike Christ a person is when they convert. An honest man who occasionally drinks to excess but hurts no one save himself has less of a sinful habit to correct than a man who talks about grabbing women “by the p***y.”
Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked. — 1 John 2:3–6 NRSV
It might be suggested in response that the grabbing women “by the p***y” comment is a decade old and therefore is not fair game in evaluating someone’s faith, if indeed Trump converted as recently as last June. I would accept this position if and only if Trump had followed his stilted apology with a continual show of repentance.
By insisting, repeatedly, that it was mere “locker room talk,” he denies the fundamental principle of Romans 2:4, “Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (RSV)
Even the babiest of baby Christians is responsible for the basic tenant of Christian faith, which is that repentance—a turning away from sin, not excusing it or downplaying it—is an essential part of truly believing the Gospel. Moreover, sexual sin, like assault, is never downplayed in the Bible. “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates. But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” (Revelation 22:14–15 ESV)
Second, aside from Trump’s lack of repentance, we are confronted with the lack of fruit indicative of true conversion. According to Scripture, indications of true conversion are the spiritual fruits of, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22–23b) Today The New York Times published a list of all the people Trump has insulted on Twitter alone.
I’d ask you to think critically about how this is evidence of true conversion. We’re not talking about a few mistakes and missteps here and there. We are talking about a pattern that appears fundamentally opposed to the indication of true conversion, in addition to a lack of repentance that is necessary for conversion.
“Ariana Huffington is unattractive, both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man — he made a good decision.” — Trump
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” — Jesus (John 13:35 ESV)
For this and for too many reasons to name, I am left to conclude that Trump is not a Christian in the first place. Therefore, there is no Scriptural evidence to vote for him on the assumption that he believes Jesus is Lord and that he is not.
Argument 2:
Trump is a Secular Leader that Will Be Good to Causes that Orthodox Christians Care About
Really just read this piece, but I said I would be dealing with Scripture, so I’ll take a crack at it.
Many point to Caesar as an example of a leader who holds secular power and then suggest that Jesus says very little of the man, except we should render unto him what is owed him. Some say because of this, a vote for Trump fall under the Scriptural grey-area of choosing the lesser of two evils. I will address that in full below, but I want to first clear up some misconceptions about the alluded to passage.
And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to entrap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true, and care for no man; for you do not regard the position of men, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a coin, and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were amazed at him. — Mark 12:13–17 RSV
A detail missed in this passage is the pivot from rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. The latter is a crucial and biting remark given the context of the scene.
Jesus asks for a coin and notes the likeness on it is Caesar, but it would not have been a likeness alone. The inscription on the coin would read translated, “Tiberius Caesar…son of the divine Augustus…” The coin was a declaration of Caesar’s godhood, a blasphemy to any Jew and certainly one to modern Christians. When Jesus bitingly adds, “And to God the things that are God’s,” it is done so both as a rejection of the blasphemy but also a warning. Jesus is implying the occupying power of Caesar will have its say for a little while, but the lie of his godhood, like all lies, will be found out by the true God.
That this scene takes place in the Temple is also telling. The Jewish leaders are asked to bring into the holy space a literal reminder of the occupation by not only an ungodly force but one that mocks the very fundamentals of their belief. Moreover, Roman taxes could be paid only with Roman coins, so Jesus is highlighting the incongruity of their concerns. The occupying force has no ultimate consequence to the Kingdom of God, but these leaders have been able to maintain some corrupt farce of power in the midst of it. Their own lack of true concern with this question reveals their faith has been undermined by their occupiers. They are pleased to cling to power, even if it comes at such a high cost.
Note, too, this interaction follows the parable of the wicked tenants, which tells of the repeated failures of, among many things, earthly governments to recognize and listen to the direction of God. This would of course include things like repentence, but it would also include being wary of putting trust in those wicked tenants to accomplish the work of God in the first place. At their best behaved, the tenants still beat the servant of the Master who sends word to them. It is in this spirit that Jesus reminds the disciples in Matthew 20:25, “‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.’”
But perhaps others are tempted to turn to Paul in Romans for justification. In Romans 13, Paul reflects:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
I’ll politely sidestep Trump’s own failure to “pay to all what is owed to them,” and instead focus on the assumptions often brought to this passage.
First and foremost, Paul writes this in a time and place in which there wasn’t much of a choice as far as government was concerned. The Roman Empire was exactly that, an Empire, and Christians didn’t have the luxury of choosing their leaders or pushing back on their occupation. (Though you should read up on Jewish resistance, like that at Masada.) We must read this passage in light of what comes before it. Just lines above in Romans 12:14–21, Paul instructs:
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.”Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Paul first reminds fellow Christians to persevere in face of persecution brought by the hands of their government. More than that, he warns them to try and not make things right for themselves but to leave that to God. He doesn’t instruct them to avoid persecution or to try and avoid it through avenging or correcting the system they cannot control. Rather, as best they can, live in peace within the circumstances they have been given. Paul portrays the government as able to execute justice, even in so far as it follows God’s larger will, but within an awareness that Christians are being imprisoned and killed.
We should be wary to assume too quickly that Paul thinks this is ideal, given his own familiarity with the Hebrew Bible. It would seem more likely that Paul follows the Hebrew Bible’s pattern of seeing the occupying and capturing forces of Israel as ultimately used by God for a superior good, often in spite of themselves.
We see this in Jeremiah, in which the often misquoted 29:11 assures the people that God has a plan for them but only after a series of verses about how they are going to live in captivity for 70 years. It’s the same pattern we see in the return of Israel to Jerusalem in the narrative arcs of Esther, Nehemiah, and Ezra, where a foreign king and power ultimately opposed to God is used in spite of himself for the good of God’s chosen people. One could even argue that this is the tenor of the Pharaoh who does know Joseph, for Joseph himself says to his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” (Genesis 50:20 ESV)
Of course the mention of Joseph brings with it the difficulty of reckoning with the aftermath. Joseph’s captivity in Egypt which eventually includes a Pharaoh who, knowing him not, enslaves his people for 400 years is a good reminder that just because God will bring something purpose does not mean God purposed it. (Romans 8:28) The people of Israel—as they would eventually be named—never needed to be in Egypt in the first place, but the actions of Joseph’s brothers resulted in an interim of good and then centuries of ill. I raise all of this to suggest Christians might want to be wary of appealing to any particular Caesar as an obvious agent of God. They can be, but in spite of themselves, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13 ESV)
Appealing to Paul’s argument concerning government powers who hold dominion over you seems a hard way to justify voting for someone, given his context did not allow for this sort of thinking. Paul was a citizen, but most of his audience—women and slaves—were not. Furthermore, given the preceding verses about persecution, Paul appears to be appealing to the same sensibility as he does when speaking to those married to non-Christians. After first clarifying that he is speaking and not the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 7:12, he goes on to reason that the faithful spouse might eventually bring the other spouse to faith by choosing to remain and show love and fidelity. In a similar way, Paul argues that Christians should not abandon the material, real world they are a part of. At the same time, they must recognize the limits of the governments of the world to realize the Kingdom of God.
To that end, claiming to vote for Trump out of some argument from Scripture about the good of government is a bit like saying the Israelites wanted to be in captivity in the first place for their own good.
Well.
Argument #3:
Trump Is a Great Leader and Will Help Us Be a Great Nation Like all the Other Nations Who Don’t Take Us Seriously Anymore
Excepting that equating America to Ancient Israel is bogus, let’s go ahead and run with this logic and see what the Bible has to say about it:
So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” When Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice and set a king over them.” Samuel then said to the people of Israel, “Each of you return home.” — 1 Samuel 8:10–22 NRSV
Argument #4:
Trump Is the Lesser of Two Evils
This argument appeals to a sense of larger Christian responsibility. Since he’s not Clinton, he’s the best choice.
Here’s the thing: if you can’t vote for Clinton because of morality than you have absolutely no ability to vote for Trump by the same measure.
We can liken this to someone acting like David when Nathan came to him in 2 Samuel 12 after the King had coerced Bathsheba into sex. They find the story of the man who has lost his last lamb to a rich man who has stolen it repugnant, but they don’t recognize how the story illustrates their own wrongdoing.
The emperor has no clothes.
Trump’s racism, misogyny, xenophobia, pride, and scores of other qualities are sin. Sin, which, as of a year ago, he did not believe he needed to repent of.
Before someone raises the great banner of, “What about Hillary and abortion?” Let’s keep with the logic but also remind ourselves of the Scripture:
These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. — Proverbs 6:16–19 KJV
Neither Trump nor Clinton are coming out clean from this one if this is the logic and metric we use. Even so, only one candidate has been the darling of so-called Evangelical leaders who allegedly take the Bible and its measures seriously. There’s no moral high ground here according to Scripture, so arguing someone is choosing between the lesser of two evils doesn’t quite hold up. Moreover, Scripture finds the position of choosing the lesser of two evils a repugnant stance to begin with.
“Abstain from every form of evil!” Paul declares. (1 Thessalonians 5:22 KJV) And if indeed someone believes it to be a choice between two evils, then may they heed the words of Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (1:1 ESV)
We are left to ask who an individual is ultimately responsible to? The argument could and should be made that this is a question about the Last Judgement and how seriously we should take the commendation in 2 Timothy: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (4:7 ESV)
It would seem we are responsible exclusively for our own morality and faithfulness. Under this criteria the biblical case for voting Trump is a weak, if nonexistent, one.
There is no defense for voting for him, perhaps no more blatant than the obligations all Christians have to do good when they know that there is good to do. (James 4:17) It seems clear, from these pericope alone, it cannot be to vote for him.
But the Bible Does Say a Bit More than We are Responsible Exclusively for our Own Morality and Faithfulness
Here we must address the last bit, the question of who to vote for.
I will not tell you, but I will hold up to you the many Christians who are willing to vote for Hillary, who are willing to vote for Evan McMullin, who are willing to vote. I leave out those abstaining because I disagree with their decision, again from a biblical perspective. No matter who you vote for, I place these pieces of Text in front of you for our consideration.
If Romans 8 says we are grafted into the family of God, which includes the promises made to God’s chosen people, we have been blessed to become a blessing ourselves. (Genesis 12:2) If we are to be a blessing ourselves, then when we find ourselves in circumstances that are not ideal, that do not reflect the values of the Kingdom of God, we are to nonetheless seek the good of those who surround us:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. — Jeremiah 29:4–7 (NRSV)
It would also seem prudent for us to seek to further whatever values of the Kingdom of God are present in our culture, which include such commands as:
For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat. When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm, the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was stilled. — Isaiah 25:4–5
And further,
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” — Matthew 22:34–40 ESV
In Matthew’s text, the command to love our neighbors as ourselves follows Jesus’ commentary on paying taxes to Caesar. The Lord appears to intend us to seek the benefit of our neighbors as much as ourselves. If you vote for a candidate purely out of belief in what it will get you, you sin. All the Law and the Prophets hang on the responsibility we have to one another.
Vote this election, but do not vote for Trump because you believe the Bible supports you. Far from it. The Bible commends you to vote in the interest of your community as much as the interest of yourself. Trump campaigns actively against such thinking.
Vote for your neighbor as yourself.
Vote for the good of the city you are exiled in. Live in such a way as to draw others to Jesus. Ignore this at your peril. To not put too fine a point on it, we will all, each of us, give an account on the Last Day. Jesus is merciful and rich in that mercy, but let us not tax such goodness on his part for the bastard comfort of sinfulness today.
This is a biblical defense of how we approach this election.
It does not include any room to bow down to the spirit of Caesar in Trump.
