Trump 2.0: A concerned evangelical view

The return of Donald Trump to the White House should be a matter of concern; not panic, but concern.

It should, at this point, be stated clearly that my contention is not based on an expectation that US electors (including evangelical Christians) should become Democrats. Nor that there is something inherently wrong with the historic Republican Party. My case is that the matter is rather simpler: there is something inherently wrong with Donald Trump and the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement (which has, in effect, become the Republican Party). I would also argue that there is something significantly wrong with the US section of the international evangelical movement; and this is shown in its deep commitment to Trump and to MAGA.

The greatest threat to life on the planet (that God made and gave us to steward) is human-caused climate change. It is happening. It is a fact. There is every sign that the US under Trump will pull out of urgently-needed action in this area. US evangelicals, who ally with his ‘climate change is a hoax’ mentality, are in denial about reality. And their end-times preoccupation – Christ will soon return, so it doesn’t matter anyway – should carry the health warnings: ‘You do not know the day or the hour’ and ‘It might be a long time yet.’ Plus, trashing God’s creation is not a good position to defend.

Trump’s blatant and repeated attempts to overturn the US democratic process in 2020-21 (when overwhelming evidence indicates Biden won) should give cause for concern over how the US system will fare in the next Trump presidency. Whatever the faults of ‘liberal democracy,’ it protects minorities, ensures representation, involves due process in law, and constrains governments because, when they lose, they leave office. Those who are prepared to undermine it – or ignore its undermining by others – in order to pursue particular items on their agenda, risk it being replaced by something much nastier. Look at history.

Trump and the MAGA movement have hardwired aggressive, abusive rhetoric into the US system. There are faults on both sides, but nothing at this level in recent history was experienced until Trump’s ascendancy. This coarsening of the political discourse – allied with dishonesty on an industrial scale – should be a matter of concern to those whose agenda should include graciousness, honesty and courtesy. Coarse and dishonest behaviour leads to coarse and dishonest systems.

The rules-based international order – established since 1945 – is flawed and in need of reform. But breaking off into divisive and aggressive nationalist positions raises the real risk that something far worse could replace it. Plus, a global tariff war, of the kind promised by Trump, will cause economic turmoil instead of addressing problems in the world-trade system in a proportionate way. For Christians it should never be ‘My nation first’. This is because we are committed to kingdom principles which transcend national self-interest. I believe that ‘Christian Nationalism’ is a contradiction in terms. Yet the Trump-MAGA movement, and many evangelicals in the USA, have apparently signed up to it. Look at history. It does not end well.

There is no New Testament authority for imposing Christian values on society. There is no warrant there for theocracy or, what is termed, ‘dominionism’. There is only an authority for humble witness and service. Christians declare and persuade, we do not impose. Many US evangelicals appear to think that Trump offers them an opportunity to discipline a recalcitrant society into shape. They will search the New Testament in vain for that authority, or for validation of such a deal.

The Trump-evangelical alliance promises an approach to complex Middle Eastern policy that, I believe, is frequently based on a simplistic and erroneous interpretation of prophetic Scripture. I don’t think Trump believes any of it, but he has made his deal with US evangelicals and will deliver on their questionable agenda in this area.

Now, many will ask: What about abortion? What about illegal immigration? What about traditional morality? What about inflation? What about conflicts over gender identification, and sexuality? Why have I not engaged with these? My answer is that we certainly need to engage with, debate, even disagree over, these issues. But Trump promises to embody an existential threat to systems, structures and culture that go far beyond any of these issues (important as they are).

In conclusion, we await the implementation of a Trump right-wing agenda (supported by huge numbers of US evangelicals) that promises defence of ‘traditional Christian values’, while also seamlessly promoting: opposition to gun control, anti-vax theories, the profits of carbon-based extraction industries, Christian Nationalism, and the assertion that universal healthcare is some kind of communist plot. And the extended bundle is presented as somehow expressing Christian values. I think there is a problem with this.

Read a different evangelical view here