Can Any Honest Christian Still Support Donald J. Trump?

At first I was simply curious. What was it in Trump’s announced policies, promises, programs, tweets or Executive Orders that would cause any thinking person to support him? The answer popped to the surface. A significant portion of American voters are political conservatives, and their position merits respect. 

As much as I might like them to be, not all Americans are liberals or progressives. There are millions of honest folk who get up on the right side of the bed each morning, and stay on the right side until they fall asleep. What they think about taxes, labor unions, the size of government, immigration and capitalism flows from a legitimately held conservative perspective. In my estimation these people may be wrong, but what they believe is evidence of a consistent political and social philosophy. Isn’t this philosophic division what undergirds any democracy? So the contest becomes one of persuasion, with each party making its best case as it attempts to recruit those in the middle who most often will decide the outcome.

At the same time, I have been struggling with a very different matter, which has more to do with one’s religious perspective than it does with one’s political prejudices. In the last election 81 percent of self-identified Christian evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, and still seem committed to him and his agenda. But here is the question that continues to haunt me: What in there in the ethic of Jesus that might lead a Christian to support Donald Trump?
A. clue. The other day I heard about a community that from its inception had drawn its water from inland wells. Recently the community discovered that as the tides in the adjacent ocean began to increase as the water warmed, their wells were being infiltrated by salty seawater that rendered the well water undrinkable. Could it be that these fresh water Christians have had their religion infiltrated by the rising tide of rightwing politics?

I discussed this perspective in four columns from June through September of 2017, but hesitated to arrive at any definitive conclusion. I have been hesitant to impugn the religious commitment of either Donald Trump or the evangelical Christians who support him. But now that hesitation has been seriously eroded.

The wall of caution was finally shattered when a month ago Donald Trump branded Haiti and the African nations as “shitholes,” and suggested that instead of people from those areas, we should welcome more white people from, say, Norway. That statement puts a capstone on a life of bigotry, racist policies, lawsuits and tweets, all of which have been well documented elsewhere.

This record is not only repulsive and un-American, it is also contrary to the heart of the Christian faith and the testimony of Jesus throughout his ministry. It stands totally outside anything that might be identified within the authentic Judeo-Christian tradition. If being Christian has only to do with personal ethics and not social ethics, how cam Trump be respected, Snd it has only to do with belief and not action, then belief provides the path to action., and what does Trump believe that results in his actions?

I ask the following of the evangelicals who voted for him and still support him. What part of the Trump agenda, policies or statements do you cite that identifies him as a Christian, and merits your allegiance?

If you hold that there is no connection between authentic religion and the rest of life, and that religion, basically the Christian faith, is only about saving souls so that they can be assured of heaven, I think you can still claim to be a Christian. But if that sums up what you believe about who Jesus was and what he taught, then by what evidence do you say that faithful Bible believing Christians have to offer that testifies to why any Christian ought to back Donald Trump? Whatever he believes and uses to support his racism bears little relationship to anything we know about Jesus and what he taught.

While judgment is to be left in God’s hands, I find no evidence that would lead me to call Trump a Christian, and no way that anyone who claims to follow Jesus should support him. I speak here only to those who cite a relationship between their Christian commitment and what Trump says and does. If you hold that you find no relationship between your faith and your support of Trump, I have no argument with you. But if you hold that your support of Trump is connected to your commitment to Jesus, I ask for the evidence.