‘I can’t avoid writing about Donald Trump...’

I know it’s tempting, but I can’t avoid writing about Donald Trump. Having been at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C., the impact of Donald Trump and how Christians should respond looms large.

So to the US Capitol, where just a week after President Trump’s inauguration the talk of the town was of the first set of executive orders being fired off, calling a national emergency on the southern border to stop illegal migration and USAID freezing all aid programmes.

Since 1953, The National Prayer Breakfast (NPB) has, as it says on its website, “united leaders, friends, and attendees across the political spectrum for one, simple purpose – prayer”.

First, the good – Trump attended in person, which was a return to the precedent set by Eisenhower but broken by Biden. He made clear his commitment to religious freedom, to investigating anti-Christian bias in government, and to the biological reality of only two sexes, male and female.

Next, the bad – Trump was blatantly partisan, divisive, and belittled his political enemies. Finally, the ugly – most Christians present vociferously commended him.

Whilst, when he finished speaking, the event returned to be a National Prayer Breakfast (rather than a National Political Breakfast) and united in prayer, it was Trump’s speech and the reaction to it which left the biggest impression on me. Are we as Christians, in our engagement with the world and politics, ready just to be bought off by sectional interests, or are we just becoming too comfortable with the world?

There is a rightful backlash against so-called identity politics, not least in America, but maybe we are guilty of shying away from a distinctive Christian identity.

Listen to an early Christian writer defend the identity of Christians anywhere, in contrast to everyone else: “For the Christians … dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all.” (The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus written sometime between 130 AD to 200 AD)

This reminds us of the words of St Paul, which are as relevant to us now wherever we are – particularly in Washington, Westminster or Philippi: “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Phil. 3:18-21)

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