Supporting Donald Trump Damages Our Christian Witness
I am a Christian, and an independent Baptist. There may be no more reliable anti-Democratic Party voting bloc in America than independent Baptists. The reasons are numerous, and include that party’s antipathy toward preborn children, marriage properly defined, religious liberty, parental rights, and support for Israel. (At the same time, Democratic Party governmental leaders are on our prayers lists, and most of us even mean our prayers for them.)
But there is now not just opposition to the progressive agenda, there is a fear among us, and her name is Hillary Clinton. That fear manifests itself in supporting Not Hillary Clinton, and his name is Donald Trump. It’s not called by the name of fear, but rather an appeal to not “wasting” our vote, an appeal to supporting someone with a chance to win on the chance that he will not be so bad as Hillary Clinton. But it looks and sounds and smells like fear, and not the one fear — that of God — that the Bible allows and commands.
Have we, as some say, arrived in the mess our nation is in because for too long we as Christians have not been engaged in the political arena? So that we need more “legislative rallies” and “capitol connections?” Or is the opposite true — that Christians have been so focused on the political arena that we have paid less attention to, as Jesus put it, our “first love?” I do not know. It may be that this is simply the way the world is headed and we have nothing to do but play the part to which God called us in the world as it exists. But to do this, we must recognize that our witness for Christ is compromised by our witness for Trump.
We are not to put our trust in princes, but what else do we call support for someone who says that he alone can solve our problems?
We say all human life has inherent worth deserving of protection from conception, but what does it say to support someone who has lived his life being “pro-choice in every respect” and who defends Planned Parenthood?
We say we believe in sexual purity, but what does it say to support someone who has bragged about his infidelities, engaged in voyeurism, and objectified women?
We say we cherish the institution of marriage, but what does it say to support someone who has not cherished his own and who has sought to break up others’?
We say we love the nation of Israel, but what does it say to support someone who praises possibly Israel’s greatest threat, Putin’s Russia?
We say we value truth and honesty, but what does it say then to ignore the lies, the shortchanging of contractors, and the stiffing of creditors, and further to excuse the fraud that was “Trump University.”
In other words, a support for Trump is a sacrifice of virtues we hold most dear. And armed with these conflicting positions, how can we expect anyone to accept our testimony that Christ is preeminent, that our hope is in Him alone, that to die is gain, that we are His ambassadors?
“But the Supreme Court!” No, that is not sufficient.
“But Dole, Bush, McCain, and Romney weren’t perfect!” No, they were not, but I will not engage in your moral equivalency between them and Trump.
“But Hillary Clinton!” I am not afraid.
Trump could offer me the whole world, but I would deny the offer all the same.
To say that you will at least be holding your nose while voting for Trump does not help. We are not voting for a platform and we are not voting for a vice president. We are voting for a person to fulfill a public office. Our vote for a person — and our admonition that others do so as well — is our support, and when that support is given to one like Trump, it makes our declarations of support for a host of Biblical virtues appear less genuine, less important than worldly position and comfort.
I’d like to convince people that the parade of horribles they see resulting from a Hillary Clinton presidency are not so inevitable. The office of the presidency, including its power to nominate Supreme Court justices, is not so powerful so as to be able to destroy our constitutional order or who we are as a people.
But, ultimately, so what. If Hillary Clinton and her Supreme Court nominees take away our churches’ tax exemptions, push us further toward European-style socialism, and even take away our guns, so what. None of that compares to whether we maintain a consistent, faithful witness for Christ.
Christians should not support Donald Trump. Our calling is greater and higher than political victory. Our trust and faith in God is sure. Let us demonstrate it.
