For Heartbroken Christ-Followers After the Election.
This essay was written in the three days following the 2024 presidential election. I have let it sit for several days before publishing it in the hopes of ironing out my own destructive language and feelings.
also available via kindle and audio versions.
Introduction
I feel numb and alone; however, that simply can’t be true. It’s just the way this moment feels.
Numb is fine. It isn’t particularly novel and can even be a welcome friend in duress. In some cases, however, alone is unacceptable. Especially when religion is the catalyst. For this time, it is my own kind of Christianity that has initiated my alone-ness, it is a misuse of my own Bible that has caused wounds, it is within the halls of the fellowship that should be a soothing balm that I am often made an outcast.
I am writing today because for the last eight years I have returned almost weekly to the question: can someone follow Jesus and Donald Trump? In 2016, I thought his candidacy was an impossibility, a side-act put on by a grade-B entertainer to drum up business in his other investments. As moral atrocity after moral atrocity dawned into the public consciousness that summer, I took solace in what I believed were the oft-over-sensitive moral palates of uptight evangelicals. “Surely,” I thought, “the same ‘pearl-clutchers’ that have called for multiple Disney boycotts would never stand for this.” “These clowns have shot themselves in the foot by nominating a candidate who couldn’t pass a school district’s background check!” “They’ll alienate all of the evangelical base that Republicans have-to-have to win.” “What a shame” I said, as I still identified as conservative. An identification I dropped after republican failure to denounce January Sixth or the “stolen election” con; I now identify as an independent that trends conservative.
This revealed that I don’t know anything about the American church; I only thought I did. For the next eight years proved that this man’s sense of right and wrong was doubly worse than we knew in 2016.
My wife may protest this statement, but I’ll die on this hill: I am an optimist. I believe that humans will ultimately get better at human-ing as they keep going. So, after another eight years of immoral demonstration after immoral demonstration. After another eight years of statements and policies that ran in direct contradiction to Christ’s teachings, I allowed myself a little spiritual treat: hope.
Hope that the people who claim Jesus of Nazareth as Lord would again come to see life through the lens of His teachings. Hope that non-religious but ethical conservatives would have had their fill of filth. Hope that our neighbors would listen to the voices of the people who worked with him in the last White House, even life-long conservatives, who pleaded with the world against trusting him again. I was wrong. I will still try to stay an optimist.
However, I didn’t write this essay to address the problems with a Trump/Evangelical marriage; there are volumes of definitive and exhaustive writing on that subject and it seems to have made little to no change in our brethren. I am writing in this moment to build community, to light my torch (or maybe just a sputtering cigarette lighter) into this very dark day for our culture; and a much, much darker day for the Church. You may feel like you’re now alone in the basement of your church sitting in the dark, you may even be in the parking lot headed to your car never to return. And no one could blame you, we’re blowing it…big-time. But you are not as alone in your convictions as you feel. Not all of God’s people deride you. Not all of God’s people deride me. Let us turn on our lights and offer one another signs of peace. You are not alone.
A couple notes before we begin: What I want to say is directed to comfort the broken hearted and provide community for the Christian disenfranchised. If you are, as the dying woman I just prayed with in the hospital said, “celebrating the new president!” feel free to stop reading; this essay is not for you. Or, hear me out, keep reading and increase your capacity for compassion towards 47.6% of your neighbors.
Secondly, I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind today. We can take up the good fight of unpacking the implications of the incarnation another day. Right now, let’s focus on mending hearts.
Next, in the following, I am not attempting to provide a dogmatic “this is the way” overview of the subject. There will be other ways to look at it, there are other reasons for voting as people have voted. I won’t claim to cover them all and I’ll do my best not to judge those taking opposing stances. I am simply saying “these are good reasons” “these are biblical reasons” “these are reasons that come along side God-self” and “these are my reasons; they reflect my priorities, and they are Godly.”
Lastly, my stories and my perspectives are distinct, as are yours. I’ll share parts of my thoughts, experiences, and concerns, but, once again, not so that you can see “how to think about it” or “how to handle it” but so that a sense of fellowship might bloom between us and begin to grow outward to the flesh and blood companions of our physical lives.
Affirmations
Situations like this make healthy people ask themselves tough questions; tough questions that easily lean toward self-doubt. Especially when the loudest parts of the Christian sub-culture rarely, if ever, acknowledge the possibility of being a non-republican evangelical. When I realize that I’m in a minority 19% of evangelicals that entered a voting booth and did not vote for this terracotta-toned rerun I must ask, “is it me?” “have I got this all wrong?” Again, it’s healthy and normal to self-question like this.
In this light, hear me clearly: you are not alone, and you are not simply “wrong.” You are not taking crazy pills, and you certainly are not being controlled by “the world” “the flesh” “the liberals” “the media” “the devil” “Disney” “Jimmy Kimmel” or any other of the evangelical cadre of Scooby-Doo boogeymen.
To follow are just a few ways in which by resisting a second Trump presidency you are walking in the footsteps of Christ, you are bringing the kingdom of God to more immediate presence in our world, and you are honoring Holy scripture. You are not being piloted by any sort of nefarious force, you are being nudged by God-self in the way He has chosen to lead you.
Let’s take a few moments and identify, celebrate, and agree upon the ways in which you and I are walking right along beside Christ during this tumult. This part might end up being overkill reading-wise; but it’s well worth overstating that you and I are not anywhere in the ballpark of being “against God” as many of our brethren would assume and then accuse and then eventually exclude.
Jesus was clear about how we treat enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. –Matthew 5 NRSVUE
We join Jesus in expecting a good world to love its enemies. You and I are rejecting any and all suggestion that the American military should be used against “the enemy from within”, or that Liz Chaney should have “guns trained on her face” for criticizing anyone, or that Rep. John Dingell is looking up at us from hell, or that Christian leader Russell Moore is a “nasty guy with no heart”, or…good Lord…I can’t keep making this list…I’m deeply ashamed of the state of things.
You and I are affirming Jesus’ words that this world only works, and only becomes more like the Kingdom, when we lay down our weapons and love our enemies by giving them dignity and praying for them.
You are not wrong.
Jesus Wept Over the Spiritual Blindness of His Culture:
41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” –Luke 19 NRSVUE
We are joining Jesus in his mourning. He knew his world was spiritually blind, He knew this spiritual blindness was leading it right into physical destruction, He knew this was all because they couldn’t recognize God even when He visited them in the flesh. And He mourned for the consequences they’d have to endure.
When we step into this broken-hearted mourning for the spiritual blindness of the evangelical church and our culture at large, we stand beside Christ is His Sadness. It is a great credit to you that what breaks His heart breaks your heart.
You are not crazy.
Jesus Raged Against The Synchronization of Faith and Business and Government
15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves, 16 and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” –Mark 11 NRSVUE
20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?” 21 They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away. –Matthew 22 NRSVUE
When we resist the idea that the Church and the government should be connected, we come along side Jesus in his zeal to keep the Church pure and free of worldly influences such as money and power. Keeping Church and State miles apart is essential for the survival of both institutions. It is no overstatement that, currently, the greatest threat to our society, and more importantly, the greatest threat to the Church, is Christian Nationalism.
Christ the Lord desires to keep his “bride”, the Church, pure and dedicated to Him and Him alone. When we vote against those who would mix Church, state, and business we stand beside Jesus in His zeal.
You are not alone in your anger.
The New Judaizers
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed! 10 Am I now seeking human approval or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. –Galatians 1 NRSVUE
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. –Galatians 5 NRSVUE
This is a circuitous one to describe, but an important point. Many times in church history, factions of Christianity have tried to “add in” another element that is supposedly required to be God’s child. It takes different forms that look something like this: You must have the Cross and the right _________.
In our current world, the situation reads like this: evangelicals overwhelmingly say, “you must have the cross and the right political party allegiance.” This isn’t the only current example, we also have factions of Christianity that would lay upon us “the right view of predestination”, “the right view of inerrancy”, “the right view of Church and State”, “the right view of sexuality”, “the right behavior”, or “the right denomination i.e. ‘type of church’.”
You do not need any of these things; to imply so is to red-pen alter the New Testament message. This could broadly be described as the sin of fundamentalism; the belief that there are “fundamental” things that one must ascribe to in order to belong.
You and I defend the good news (gospel) of Jesus when we resist having it “mixed in” with worldly or human-created things and concepts. The cross is enough, you and I need nothing else. We agree with the New Testament when we reject adding “party loyalty” to our faith.
You are not watering-down scripture, you and I are defenders of the true faith that the cross is enough.
Looking after the least of these
40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.” –Matthew 25 NRSVUE
Our votes must not only be for ourselves, but for the weakest members of our world. Any “America-first” doctrine is incompatible with Christianity because we are no longer firstly citizens of this country but, primarily, we are citizens of God’s new Kingdom.
When you and I vote against “America-first” politicians, we vote for the good of God’s whole family, the one to which Christians actually belong. When you and I vote for policies that advantage the poor we come along side God the Father and Jesus the son in their millennia-long efforts to bring justice to the disadvantaged. The phrase “God is always on the side of oppressed” is an unavoidable conclusion of both of our testaments.
You and I have chosen to be on God’s side in the eternal struggle between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”
Jesus teaches us to forsake the world
34 He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?—Mark 8 NRSVUE
Some of us, such as myself, find ourselves ideologically or politically “homeless” today. You may not feel this way with me, and that is ok. I feel at home or welcome neither in the left nor the right. I feel at home or welcome neither in the Church nor the world.
The way the New Testament describes “the world” is nebulous. This is good, because it allows the wisdom contained in scripture to apply to different situations over thousands of years by not being too time specific. However, in today’s existence, it is unavoidably clear that “the world” refers to all of the cultural tone-setters we feel battling daily for our attention and our very souls.
The world is being progressive; the world is equally being conservative; the world is every nation in existence; the world is capitalism; for others, the world is communism, or socialism, or even a monarchy; the world is the PTA; the world is kid’s sports; the world is consumerism; the world is your local economy; the world is probably the opinions of your friends and family even if they present themselves as religious.
When you and I say “no” to systems that other people believe to be essential or important, we are being obedient to Jesus who, without reservation, asked us to leave our world behind and go with Him to live in His world. At least once a week I tell myself, “It aint the kingdom, let it burn.”
Even if you and I’s choice of candidate was in some way “bad” for the world or the economy (which is a generalization I generally disagree with), it would still be a mistake worth making. I’m not making decisions for the world, I’m forsaking the world. I’m making decisions based on Christ, His teachings, and the coming Kingdom of God.
You are not walking into the wilderness alone like an outcast, you are following Jesus away from the world’s encampments.
You are experiencing criticism for not loving the world
18 “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. –John 15 NRSVUE
This is simple: being like Jesus will get you criticized. Not first by the world, first by religious folks. Don’t blink, don’t despair. It’s a great sign, and you are in the greatest company. If you were just like them, they’d love you. But being like Jesus makes being liked by humans an impossibility.
You are not being chastised by the righteous, you are being persecuted by the religious. Take heart, it’s how they treated our Lord as well.
Voting Against Commercialism and Wealth Accumulation
24 “No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. – Matthew 6 NRSVUE
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. –1 Timothy 6 NRSVUE
When you and I voted against the Republican nominee, we voted against the idea that amassed wealth was important, or even acceptable, in Christ-following circles. This is the candidate’s entire personality in a nutshell. The following account has shocked me for a few years.
When Trump participated in a Comedy Central roast in 2011 one of the joke writers shared that the following jokes were allowed, “Trump’s hair, all of his three wives, his penchant for models, his failed product endorsements, his failed casinos, his (failed) status as a business legacy, his weight and his relationship with daughter Ivanka.” Ouch, what a vulnerable list. There was, however, only one subject off the table. “According to Lee, who’s written for more than a half-dozen such roasts, the only wisecrack Trump didn’t want told was ‘any joke that suggests Trump is not actually as wealthy as he claims to be’.”
Loving money is the beginning of all wickedness. Jesus went so far as to detail the impossibility of seeking God and wealth at the same time. Picture a fork in the road, one goes to God, the other goes to the bank, and you can’t walk both paths.
Our vote affirmed Jesus’ words that loving and amassing wealth is incompatible with Godliness.
Your choice affirmed God’s resounding opposition of the proud and the rich.
Valuing the Truth
9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10 and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. –Colossians 3 NRSVUE
6 it (Agape Love) does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. —1 Corinthians 13 NRSVUE
There’s no need to belabor this point, the republican nominee uses false statements as a way of life and his fans accept that as a part of his personality. In April of 2022 at a rally in Selma, NC Trump stated, “I think I’m the most honest human being, perhaps, that God ever created,” prompting laughter from his own audience of super-fans. He has on at least three occasions admitted to using misinformation to reach desired outcomes including just recently admitting defeat in the 2020 election.
Way back with the “birther” movement in 2011, he began a political storm of strategic misinformation. If only it stopped there: the size of his inauguration crowd, Ted Cruz’ dad helped kill JFK, factitious reports of sexual reassignment surgeries, factitious reports of post-birth abortions, baseless claims of a stolen election, claims that Jan. 6 was an “unarmed” “love fest”, and the cartoonish “they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs.”
Inspired by this shamefulness, Oxford Dictionaries chose the term “post-truth” as their word of the year for 2016. Essentially meaning that something is made true “after the fact (post)” not because it is factual but because someone either wants it to be true or confirms it with their emotions rather than confirming it with reality. There’s a stunning Wikipedia page chronicling his demonstrably false statements that weighs in at a staggering 40 pages not including the 589 citations of both the statements and the proofs.
Not one of us would accept this low, low, low standard from our children or our partners. By withholding your vote from the republican nominee in this year’s election, You and I stood along side God in Christ in his desire for truth, truth, and more truth. Even if it’s inconvenient.
You have recognized and honored the truth, may it set your soul free.
Ephesians 5
5 Be sure of this, that no sexually immoral or impure person or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be associated with them –Ephesians 5 NRSVUE
This section of Paul’s letter is challenging to all of us, for none of us is without sin. But it has a stern warning for the church regarding whom they work alongside and with whom they align themselves. Since 2016, I’ve been gravitating towards the word in v. 7 translated above as “associated.” The NIV says “do not partner with them”; the ESV says “do not become partners with them”; both King James flavors say “be partakers with them”; and the CSB says “do not become their partners.”
This particular Greek word (symmetochos) is only found in two places (both in Ephesians) and for all of its potential nuances, it has a clear discernable meaning: what these kinds of people are doing, don’t do it with them. When you encounter a person with brazen sexual improprieties, when you encounter a greedy person, when you encounter someone who speaks with empty words (in my head I often refer to this as the “Trump chapter”), don’t join them, don’t align yourself with them, don’t support them, don’t share in their spoils, don’t celebrate their successes. Walk Away.
You have walked in faithfulness to the New Testament’s broader teachings of the Apostle Paul.
Affirming Sexual Ethics
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. –Matthew 5 NRSVUE
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” 17 But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Shun sexual immorality! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against the body itself. –1 Corinthians 6 NRSVUE
Oh boy, I don’t want to write this anymore than you want to read it! I’m going to take an Ephesians 5:12 approach to this “For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly.” So I’ll try and spare the salacious details.
Often, the progressive vs. conservative conflict within Christianity has been mis-framed by evangelicals by forcing the issue of LGBTQIA+ rights. This is petty and manipulative and uses disadvantaged human beings as props for a self-serving argument. However you define sexual sin (I wont be wading into that pool here), you must acknowledge that our scripture does not prioritize or identify any sin as being different than another. Sin is sin, or at the very least, we can agree that sexual-sin is sexual-sin.
Therefore, the young boy who peeped a playboy is just as culpable as the serial cheater and just as culpable as a “50 Shades” fan and just as culpable as whatever atypical type of sex you think gives your god “the ick.” Sexual ethics are sexual ethics, and we’re all covered in mud.
When you and I withheld our vote from the Republican nominee, we affirmed that God’s version of “good sex” is certainly (among other infractions of course) in opposition to serial philandering, three wives, prostitutes, porn stars, multiple rapes, multiple sexual assaults, taking 7 documented rides on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” plane, and it unquestionably opposes encouraging sexual assault because one is “rich.”
You are not abandoning biblical teachings on sex. You are standing up for them.
Immigrants
34 The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. –Leviticus 19 NRSVUE
The current republican platform is proudly anti-immigrant. There’s no way around it, it’s not even the “quiet part”, it’s a rally cry. Floating razor wire, the Muslim-ban of 2017, “build the wall”, “shit-hole countries”, the current promise of “the largest deportation effort in American history”, and the ridiculous “eating the cats, eating the dogs” lies. This is the administration’s primary rallying cry and its heartbreaking how many people responded to it in the affirmative.
God says no. Over and Over and Over again. For we were all (unless you are of native heritage) once immigrants. How could we ever look at ourselves in the mirror again if we shut the door behind us?
You are not a traitor, you are not naïve, you are a kingdom citizen who trusts Our Father at his word.
Kamala and Faith and Family
If you used your vote for the Harris/Walz ticket (there were other ways not to support her opponent) you were likely made to feel like you were voting for an opponent of Christianity or worse. I noticed this in spades after whatever happened at the “I think you’re at the wrong rally” incident with those juvenile zealots heckling and then playing a victim card.
You should know, Kamala was raised by a Hindu mother and a Christian father and attended both religious services. However, for the past 20 years she has been a member at the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco and has been pastored by Dr. Amos Brown the entire time. The night before she decided to enter the race for president, she called Pastor Brown and asked him to pray for her and her husband as well as the decision she had to make. He recalls praying Micah 6:8 over her to help her understand her calling. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/us/kamala-harris-religious-church.html
I’m not saying she’s a saint or even a religious leader, but you can’t say any of the above about her opponent. And you also certainly didn’t vote for any sort of anti-Christian crusader, you voted for the only candidate with a church, the only candidate with a pastor.
Why isn’t this common knowledge? The cynical side of me has a guess: conservative news didn’t want to portray her in a good light and progressive news didn’t want to risk her being associated with the social pariah of evangelicalism.
Not that it’s anyone’s business, but due to the wild myths and misinformation. Mrs. Harris has only wed once and is still happily married to her husband of 10 years, a lawyer named Doug Emhoff. She is an involved stepmother to his two children from a previous marriage, Cole and Ella.
You did not betray your faith, you voted for the only candidate who has meaningful ties to Christ’s Church and has maintained a traditional marriage.
What about abortion?
Many of us raised in conservative evangelicalism were taught, or maybe groomed is a better word, to be what’s known as a single-issue voter and there was only one issue: abortion. In the past eight years, Every. Single. Time. a Christian has attempted to defend to me why they have overlooked Trump’s moral failures and become his devotees, the only spiritual reason they can conjure is being pro-life.
So let’s have it out then. Did we turn our back on God by not supporting the Republican nominee? Admittedly, it’s not very easily simplified, but in broad terms, “no.” First, people wildly overestimate the power of the executive branch to influence law or accomplish anything really. It’s not what we often think it is, and they usually leave office with a long list of unfulfilled promises because they couldn’t get congress or the courts to consent to their to-do list.
Therefore, putting a president in or out of the White House is not going to directly, if at all, effect abortion rates. The repeal of Roe in 2022 was due to the sick game of musical chairs we play with supreme court judges and their deaths which does then involve President’s nominations for vacant seats. That does matter, I’m certainly not going to dismiss its grave consequence, it just isn’t a direct result. Notice that in 2022 Trump wasn’t even still in office to enact the repeal, it’s not a direct cause/effect relationship.
Secondly, and I can’t believe I have to say this, no one wants abortions to take place. I am utterly and profoundly ashamed of how many times, in my presence alone, some willfully ignorant evangelical has confidently blurted out that Democrats “want to kill babies.” Just this week one preteen on a church bus told another preteen that “Kamala Harris will make it legal to kill 10 year olds like you just because they don’t want them.” What I wouldn’t give for Christians to be people who love the truth rather than rejoicing in evil.
No. No one is trying to kill babies. No one sees this as a goal or a worthwhile life-purpose. All good humans want abortions to be a thing of the past. We can start the discussion from this point of sanity. What we have is not an abortion problem, at least to begin with, we have an unwanted pregnancy problem. The only difference between conservative and progressive perspectives is the method of intervention. It’s too much of a generalization, but as a start, progressives seek to lower unwanted pregnancies through education and pre-intervention and conservatives seek to lower unwanted pregnancies through religious texts and law enforcement (after the fact). Same goal, two different approaches.
Furthermore, many of us believers are opposed across the board to trying to legislate religion-based morality through secular courts. We’ll never make people holy by threatening them with legal action; Jesus doesn’t seem to want good behavior near as much as he wants pure hearts. There is no justification in scripture for Christians trying to use secular judges “who have no standing in the church” (1 Corinthians 6) to try and enforce the will of God. In addition, this approach supplants God’s desire for us to trust His retribution saying in Romans 12:19 (including a quote from Deuteronomy 32:35), “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.’”
For additional horrors regarding what happens when the Church starts using state courts to legislate morality, see John Calvin’s Geneva or the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Spoiler alert: it always ends in murder. We believers have no biblical justification for using secular courts and even have a shame-littered track record of when we’ve tried.
Finally, setting up Trump as a pro-life champion is flimsy at best and is likely closer to completely illegitimate. He began waffling on the issue as early as April this year when it came up in his home state of Florida indicating that he was reconsidering his previous pro-life status. He began backing off his anti-abortion stance throughout the summer dismissing it as a “political loser.” And finally, the republican nominee eventually came out against a full ban on abortion during this years VP debate (a correction to something Vance had said) saying on his social media platform, “EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT,” giving in to political pressure and seeking to gain favor with alienated voting populations. A vote for Donald Trump in 2024 was in no way shape or form a vote for a firm pro-life candidate.
Your vote against the Republican nominee absolutely did not support the murder of babies; this is the language of basic fearmongering, and you may excuse yourself from having to listen to it.
Encouragement
In this moment, the fire in the proverbial dumpster has already been lit. In fact, it has already burned all the way down into these foul and staining ashes over the past near decade. It feels like a huge, insurmountable mess. The kind of mess that would make you dread your Saturday all week because of the clean-up chore hanging over your head. Honestly, the kind of mess that would have me considering the sale of my own house just to avoid. In truth, there have been moments this past week where I felt so alone in my convictions, that I felt as if my evangelical Church membership had been automatically cancelled by the electoral college tally; no need to even return and make it official.
When I was growing up, quite far from “town” on a cotton farm, we burned our trash in a shaft dug deep in the earth (200-2000 foot deep in my child-like mind!) and it helped us move forward as a family. We literally set our “dumpster” on fire in moving towards a form of good and freedom from built up refuse. As far as I can devise, God the Father has the ability and the tendency to allow things to get exceedingly grim right before enacting a new solution out of unexpected nothingness. I pray that is this moment, if faith is believing in things you don’t yet see, then this is a moment of faith because I don’t see the way forward, or the way back to Christ’s teachings, for many of our Churches.
Be Visible.
The first step of faith I’m going to take is to make myself, and my convictions, visible. When this Trump vs. Christ debate has come up in private conversations, some of my conversational partners were surprised to learn two things: 1. that it is perfectly “Christian” to not be Republican and 2. They are shocked to hear that I am any different than them, they only saw the world their way and assumed I mirrored them. Being perfectly honest, their shock upon learning my views is quite parallel to my shock in 2016 upon learning that Christians would defy the New Testament and embrace Trump in the first place. We’re like two Baptists who didn’t expect to see each other at the liquor store.
It may cost me a career, it may cost me relationships, but it needs to happen.
Here’s why: I accepted my current pastor position in the Spring of 2016. At that point, a serious Trump candidacy was… well, there was no belief in a “serious” Trump candidacy; he was still a six-time bankruptee that had most recently been fired from “The Apprentice” for racist statements about Mexicans. Few believed that anyone would be shortsighted enough to take him seriously.
The vitriolic language ramped up, the race got intense, evangelical leaders began to commit apostacy in order to be seen as loyal to the party, and then on that fateful day in November, I had to go into hiding. Many of us did. Whether we realized it at the time or not, we went from being people who could go to church with a fuller belief of our own acceptance, to being people who knew that in order to be accepted at church we’d have to conceal our convictions. It stings even more to acknowledge that those convictions of ours were rooted deeply, unavoidably in scripture. We were ostracized from church culture, because of the Bible, by people who were, in fact, abandoning major parts of the Bible in order to remain loyally conservative (read: worldly). To the Christ follower, it was a day of mourning for the purity of the Church, and we weren’t free enough to mourn. What’s more, many of us had to maintain civility while the “grab ‘em by the pussy” guy was praised and celebrated in Jesus’ spaces.
For the first time in my 34 years of exceedingly (comically over abundant really) active church involvement, and for the first time in my 16 years of church employment (at that point), I had something to hide. And it had to be hidden if I wanted to stay welcome, not to mention in leadership.
Therefore, I need to be visible, in my own community and in the broader Christian context, because there are other believers like me (at least 19% of us), and I can only assume they’re likely hiding for the same reason I am. Because they’re afraid that they are alone in the way the Holy Spirit guides them, and alone in their understanding of Holy Scripture. Sitting in the basement, or on the outskirts of their church, of my church surely, wondering if there’s anyone with them in the dark of this exile.
I have a responsibility to bring a bit of light and bring the hurting together. Furthermore, I must have faith, that if the other 81% of evangelicals can be led by the Holy Spirit, then the presence of anti-Trump and pro-Christ leadership would enable the ratio to shift. It simply must be that many of them don’t know that it is even possible to leave the “evangelical norms” and walk towards Godly purity.
Be The Kindness You Want We Need To See.
Theres something I often think that Christian “culture warriors” overlook. Simply stated: it’s still true that “you can’t fight fire with fire.” It’s fashionable, trendy, the latest thing in the Christian subculture, to imagine oneself “combating” the world to try and “win” back the world as if it were territory on a History Channel map. The more passionate you are, the further you’re willing to go, we sometimes imagine that our “commander” will be even more impressed by our acts of zeal. Especially, somehow, if they cross the line into “hurting” those dirty sinners embodying “the world”, “the democrats”, “the gays”, “the media” or whatever specter believers have imagined into being their enemy.
One cold morning in 2017 I was discussing food delivery logistics with a boomer running a Christian food pantry. I was trying to duck the heavy conversation and figure out the details while shewanted to talk politics. It happens a lot as some people, knowing I’m a pastor, assume that I’m always ready for a good session of “sticking it to the libtards.” Ruins a whole lot of my days to know this is how people see me, and more importantly, how they see Jesus. She literally, not one stitch of exaggeration, said, “The problem is that Christians have spent too much time turning the other cheek, and now it’s time that we start fighting back!” I said immediately, “you can’t do that! You can’t just contradict Jesus like that using His own words!” She screwed up her face and just shrugged at me dismissively. If it weren’t for the home-bound hungry people, I might have walked off the job.
I still volunteer there every month for the past seven years. It must be so, homebound people need the food boxes, they don’t know and don’t care about the foolishness that went on at headquarters that morning, and truth be told… I need to remain in a loving relationship with those who would spurn the gospel of Jesus for the gospel of Trump. I remain in regular contact with that woman, encourage her consistently, and try to make sure she has what she needs to care for the needy.
Culture warriors have erred in their belief that they could fight the nastiness of the world by getting nasty themselves. We must not, as is in our power of self-restraint, make the same mistake and get nasty with the Trump folks in order to defeat them in the name of Jesus. Read his words slowly and thoughtfully,
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, 40 and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well. Matthew 5 – NRSVUE
There is but one way out of the cycle of hurting each other,
7 “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you.” Luke 6—NRSVUE
To receive pain, scorn, to be excluded, to be derided, to be criticized, to be persecuted by the religious folk and give. them. back…blessing. I hate it, it’s uncomfortable, and feels useless. But it breaks the blasted cycle! And that’s what we need. Not to deliver the final blow, but to end the game entirely, even if it means we lose. There’s a great saying, if not depressing, in the wisdom of the 12 steps, “you’ve got to surrender to win.”
1 Samuel twice records King David having the opportunity to kill a man who has made his life a living hell. Not inconvenienced him, not made fun of him, not derided him, not even left him out of a Christmas party. Made him homeless, tried to kill him, drove him away from his wife, and never let him settle in any place very long before bringing the threat of danger to his door…for over a decade. No one has ever treated me anywhere near that poorly. Twice Saul’s life is placed in David’s hands and twice David’s companions even paint it with a reasonably religious gloss, “God has given your enemy into your hand today” and twice David refuses to return Saul’s evil with evil. Cynics will point out that neither action caused Saul to stop pursuing him; true, but it was still the entirely right action. Because on the day of Saul’s actual death, brought on by an act of YHWH and not an act of David, David knew he had clean hands. He knew he did not take up the mantle of God’s job and try to be Saul’s judge, jury, and executioner in one moment. And, because of this, you and I are still acknowledging, and talking about, David’s moments of righteousness to this day.
If our little movement of the spirit will make the long-term difference that the world needs it to make, then we need to make actions like David and stay principled like Jesus. Evangelicalism has rejected basic decency in it’s embrace of the Republican nominee and the religious right at-large. Many of our brethren have rejected kindness in their dealings with us; however, we must not harm them if we ever want to be seen within the framework of Christ’s moral and spiritual good.
Then What?
Frankly, I don’t know yet what this means. Maybe I’m not an evangelical anymore, maybe I’m not a Baptist anymore, maybe I’m just not a Southern Baptist anymore, maybe I should continue to go to the church in my community and be a rebel that makes other people uneasy for a good purpose, maybe its time to start that new kind of monasticism I’ve been dreaming up, maybe I should become one of those old-hippie types that wont say they’re a Christian but calls themselves a “believer”, “Jesus-guy”, or just a “Christ-follower.”
But here’s what I know: as I said earlier, I’m not at home in the world, but I am no longer at home at Church either because of all the hiding I must do. I have awoken to discover myself as a leader in a movement that I hope fails (conservative evangelicalism). A movement that, I fully believe, needs to fail for the purity of the gospel and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. I had previously thought that if I stayed at the table and had supernatural Holy Spirit patience, I would be able to help turn the tide back to sanity, orthodoxy, and scriptural adherence. Last week really, really made me feel like a fool and took the wind out of my sails to the point of the annihilation of hope.
I also know these things: I will be able to look my daughter in the eye for the rest of my life. I can assure her that when a man suggested that she could be forcefully grabbed by her private parts and ejaculated upon as if she were a dog, I did not affirm him. Furthermore, in my own sinfulness, the only reason his nose isn’t broken on her behalf is simply that he and I have never been in the necessary proximity. The same goes for the duty I feel towards my lovely wife and the ocean of human dignity that I will always protect for her.
I will be able to say to my son when he inevitably encounters what the Republican nominee monstrously dismissed as just “locker room talk”: Real.Men.Don’t. I have never condoned or supported anyone who would speak that way regarding God’s daughters. I have never stood shoulder to shoulder with such an immature man/child and I will not take up the habit. Real men have no use for a boy that thinks or talks that way. Period.
I will not fear having to have a conversation with the Lord Jesus about this. About why party loyalty and/or views of what my country “needs” were placed as more immediately important than His teachings. He is the Lord (master, boss, el jefe). I am not, party is not, country is not: His words come first. I have countless sins to be sure. This instance will not be one of them.
I will continue to be ashamed and regretful that I have kept “hidden” for these past years. I also know that today is a day of rectifying that. Even if it costs me greatly, I will no longer remain silent, submissive, and cowed by majority rule but will speak towards the purity of my Messiah’s bride.
Whatever you choose to do next in your spiritual, ecclesial, and political frame of life, may it reflect the things you actually value. For me that list is Riley, Crystal, Shepherd, Christ, and Church. You are free to determine your own values. I pray you never forget and are set free by the following axiom: You are an eternal being, this country is a temporary annoyance at best. Don’t betray your integrity for it.
Could there be a rising?
So what about the dumpster fire? What could come from these putrid ashes? I was aware of, and once visited for a program, a church in the panhandle of Texas that was in a truly unique moment in its existence. A First Baptist Church in a tiny town (population 131: a Dairy Queen kind of town) found a little bit of a spark when a heavily Pentecostal, highly energetic, first-time minister in his middle age began filling their pulpit. It was invigorating and people began to drive 11 miles from the nearby larger town (population 12,115: a Pizza Hut kind of town) to attend services. It seemed like a success story and certainly had some good things taking place. After a couple years, the new members outnumbered the old members and a fight began: “Let’s move ‘First Baptist Dairy Queen’ to the “Big Town” and become ‘Pizza Hut Fellowship Church’.” Then, sure enough, after a bit of a skirmish, it came to pass. “Live and let live” I thought, and didn’t think about it again for another few years.
However, sometime later I encountered a university professor who had helped with the aftermath of that skirmish and corresponding relocation. The conflict had been nastier than I imagined: there was an original membership of the church that did not want that small town to be without a church and resisted the move. They were met with accusations of being “against God’s will” and “against God’s man” (the pastor). The pastor prayed for people’s deaths from the pulpit in order that they couldn’t resist “god’s” change anymore. In the end, the move was made, and the original building was ransacked from the furniture, to the electronics, and even down to the outlet cover plates. In my recollection, it ended up taking legal action to regain use of the original building and even the name of the original church. Today, there is thankfully a “First Baptist Church of Dairy Queen” once again. I think of this church unnaturally often.
This is how I feel in these broken days, and this is how I see myself and those who share my convictions. We stand upon a long-standing tradition of a Jesus-first worldview. We stand in a long-standing tradition that the Church and the government must remain separate for the good of the Church. We stand in the place of wisdom even held fast by Billy Graham as he refused to endorse candidates but ministered to all. We retain the beliefs about ethical conduct and civility that we received from the saints of our past. We hold fast to our heritage that the scripture must override culture, and not be bent to accommodate worldly trends even if they claim to be religious or conservative. We were told our whole lives “be like Jesus” and, foolhardy or not, were still trying to do it. And it feels as if the rest of the church has moved off and left us.
As a pastor, who’s simply trying to hold on to the tradition of faith I learned from my elders, I almost feel as if people are praying for my own death on the grounds of betraying the party (this is surely my emotions overacting, but my neighbor won’t look me in the eye or acknowledge me when I speak to her anymore!). As a pastor trying to lead a spirit-led, Jesus-first, Bible-honoring fellowship; I’m hosting a service after many have left to worship in another town called Republicanville. We’re starving for resources, not quite yet outlet-covers, but passion has shifted elsewhere (the massively successful local NRA banquet for example). I still know that if I were so much as “caught at the liquor store” I would likely be dismissed by the same people who zealously have the name of a class-A sexual predator in their front yard. Rarely do I attend a gathering at church where someone doesn’t make a sharp comment to praise this unholiest of leaders and deride other perspectives. I am walking around the bones of the abandoned church.
Maybe this is the moment when we must restart. Just like those small-town folks, I still believe our communities need a church. And they don’t need a busy, loud, boisterous wreck; power-hungry for worldly influence preaching a gospel of certainty and world domination. They need the tender healing of the good news, they need the life-giving principles of the messiah, they need reassurance that the hope is in the next world not in the controlling of this one, they need grace, grace, and more grace.
You and I may have to reopen the Church in a sense, this could look a number of different ways because of our seemingly infinite differing situations.
This will be traumatic, don’t underestimate that.
As frustrated and embarrassed as I have been with Baptist life throughout my adulthood and my professional ministry, I have rarely considered leaving it. And when I did, I really only considered jumping towards Baptist-adjacent groups like non-denominational churches or Methodist churches on the other end of the spectrum. But I never considered a drastic shift because it felt… wrong, I suppose. It felt too dramatic and traumatic. I’ve guilted myself into placing it out of my mind by saying, “if all the good young leaders leave Baptist life, who will be there for the next generation?”
In my efforts working in a 12 step recovery program, I’ve said 100 times, “you can’t save someone else, you can’t even save yourself, that’s God’s job.” It’s high time I hear myself, and I want you to hear me too, “you can’t save your church, you can’t even save yourself, that’s God’s job.” Don’t succumb to the voice of guilt and remain in a fellowship where the real you isn’t welcome. That helps no one. When you can’t bring your “whole” self and your “whole” convictions to the fellowship, your God-given talents are not going to be “wholly” used to grow the church as Paul outlines in Ephesians 4. It doesn’t help the Church for pseudo-you to be hanging around with a fake smile, and it certainly doesn’t help you or your family grow in Christ-like-ness. Ironically, it will only breed more counterfeit Christianity.
There are a number of denominations that have never “bowed the knee” to the religious right as YHWH told Elijah in 1 Kings 19 and Paul refenced in Romans 11. I suspect that a great many of us will seek them out and explore them as places for us and our family to grow and worship without having to hide. There is always the house church movement, which has long seemed to me to be the most biblical of fellowship models. Own nothing in common, use your gifts equally, know people at a deep and personal level not possible in the forward-facing-pews type of church.
A great, perhaps too great, hope is that some of us get to stay where we are. To stay within the fellowships, and children’s ministry efforts, and traditions we have grown to love and belong to in these past few years. For sure, it will take two things: our courage to risk rejection as we begin to fully “re-represent” Christ in our fellowships; and it will take grace and understanding from others within our church contexts. In all reality, most of us need to try this one first and it’s horribly stressful even to imagine. God-speed.
Maybe this dumpster fire could facilitate some of us the freedom to begin again, to re-imagine what Christian fellowship should and should not be, or to carve out a new place for ourselves within Christendom. Perhaps even carve out a new place for ourselves to exist wholly and within the fellowships of Christendom we already know well. Maybe if the majority of evangelicalism runs off to join Pizza Hut Fellowship Church, or a new type of church called First Christian Nationalist, those of who are left can build a church that will serve the next generation in the way it must be served in order to hear and be changed.
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 the work of each builder will become visible, for the daywill disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. 14 If the work that someone has built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a wage. 15 If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire. — 1 Corinthians 3 NRSVUE
May we, the broken-hearted people of Jesus but no longer conservatism, be saved through this miserable fire.
Amen Amen.
Meditation
To conclude this fellowship of brokenheartedness, let us return to an ancient sea of peace and wisdom known as a Psalm. In my own personal experience, the best way to deeply internalize these ancient writings is through repeated readings in a way reminiscent of Lectio Divina practices. Read it once and get your head around it. Go slow, and don’t let the familiar phrases cause your mind to rush. Think about each line after you’ve read it. Pause at each Selah and reflect upon that stanza.
Psalm 46–NRSVUE
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
6 The nations are in an uproar; the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice; the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord;
see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations;
I am exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah
Sit in silence for a few moments considering which words or phrases remain with you from the text. If it helps, jot them down on paper nearby.
Next, let’s examine the same Psalm in the paraphrase of long-time pastor and biblical language scholar Eugene Peterson known at “The Message.” It often offers me great benefit through his gift of breaking down the structure of ancient languages. He has helped me to reconsider the words in my own mind and in my own lingual context. Read this slowly, considering each line as before.
Psalm 46—The Message
1-3 God is a safe place to hide,
ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
4-6 River fountains splash joy, cooling God’s city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
7 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
8-10 Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.
“Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything.”
11 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
Sit in silence for a few moments considering which words or phrases remain with you from the text. Again, If it helps, jot them down on paper nearby.
Finally, I want to share with you something of my own spirit as an example of the purpose of meditating on the Psalms. If the Psalms are meant as patterns of thought for us to internalize and then emulate, then it stands to reason that we must begin to see the Psalm in our current situation and our current situation within the Psalm. Thus, I will print below a mangled version of Psalm 46 that includes my thoughts interjected. This is what this Psalm means to me in the pressing context of today’s tempest. It is simply my example of how this ancient wisdom merges with and then reshapes my understanding of life. My interjections will be italicized.
Psalm 46—NRSVUE with alterations
1 God is our safe place and protector right now,
he is really close to our heart in this moment’s fears and stresses.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the Church should change,
though the foundations of our very society begin to crack,
3 though our world roars loudly as it threatens decency and civility,
though the strong things we counted on seem to quiver.
Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God inhabited by the pure-hearted of God,
God lives here with us, and it is Holy because of that.
5 God is in the midst of the city; nothing meaningful or eternal will change;
Every morning sees his restoring power again and again.
6 Our society is in a tailspin, our personal security feels wobbly at best.
but at His voice, it could all even just disappear if he wished.
7 The same God who has innumerable servants in the angels, is here with us in the struggle;
He is the safe place we thought our world was supposed to be.
Selah
8 Come, take a look at everything he’s already dealt with during his time as God.
9 He has ended every previous war;
no nation has created a threat he hasn’t disarmed;
no nation has created a defense that can stop his desire for peace.
10 “Stop trying to fix things yourself and acknowledge that I’ve got this!
I am bigger than your country;
I am bigger than the whole world put together.”
11 The same God who has innumerable servants in the angels, is here with us in the struggle;
He is the safe place we thought our world was supposed to be.
Selah
the new desert 
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