Is there a biblical case for Trump (part III of III)
Voting for freedom rather than a “fighter” allows Christians to stay consistent in their faith and politics.
Tune into Fox News any night, and you’ll notice Christian Republicans are quick to identify sin in secular society. Christians have long been a source of constructive cultural criticism, but we have increasingly – and alarmingly – transformed our critiques into demands for change and called on the government for help. This trend is most evident in Christian support for Donald Trump, who, ironically, doesn’t appear to be a Christian himself but promises us government power in exchange for votes.
Instead of chasing political power, I propose a course that aligns with both Christianity and conservative principles: vote to preserve democratic freedom and release our grip on efforts to entrench faith-specific beliefs in law and culture.
Now bear with me, because the term “freedom” gets used so often, it’s easy to overlook the profound implications it has in our system of government. Freedom is the conversion factor that takes our exclusive religious views and gives them standing in secular society. It’s the conduit through which we express our beliefs publicly without fear of persecution. It’s the social contract language within which we constructively co-exist with the secular world, satisfying both our civil and religious commitments. And because Christianity must be the choice of every individual, freedom is also the best environment in which to practice and share our faith.
Freedom is deployed chiefly through the preservation of our country’s longstanding institutions. These include upholding the rule of law, protecting First Amendment rights, acknowledging the legitimacy of election results and providing a steady hand to oversee the peaceful transfer of power, to name a few.
Therefore, freedom – and the policies that maximize it – should be the centerpiece of our political agendas and the lens through which we evaluate candidates. This approach frees us from making every cultural issue a religious litmus test for good or evil. It means we don’t have to support candidates who pander to our faith nor shy away from those whose lifestyles differ from ours.
Applying this to the 2024 election, it releases Christian republicans from any obligation to support Mr. Trump. Nothing about our Christian faith suggests we need a candidate to promise us legislative victories in exchange for looking past egregious character failures. We don’t need a cultural enforcer against the Left. We need a candidate with sufficient integrity to respect America’s institutions that guarantee freedom of faith for all people.
As it stands, we’ve put ourselves between a rock and a hard place. For example, when we excuse Mr. Trump’s antics, such as the conspiratorial accusations that Haitian immigrants are eating everyone’s pets, but denounce VP Harris for her LGBTQ+ views, we’re simply choosing one sin over another, which isn’t Biblical (James 2:10). It’s here we must realize Christianity doesn’t give us a political ultimatum for either party. The Bible, representing pure Truth, cannot logically endorse one party as if that party also embodied the full Truth. So we find ourselves in a position with asymmetric options. If we can’t acknowledge this, we’ll end up backing ourselves into a corner, saying things like, “It’s just locker room talk” or “January 6th was a day of love”.
Our tactics in politics exist on a separate plane altogether from our role in the Church. Instead of trying to discern degrees of evil, we should ask, “Which candidate is more likely to ensure our institutional freedom flourishes, so I can use my words and actions, not government power, to influences others?” This approach appropriately relegates government and politics to a subordinate position below our faith, so we don’t have to fight in the trenches of political culture warfare. It liberates Christians from the mental gymnastics required to claim Trump is somehow good for Christianity or conservatism. We don’t have to tie our integrity up in knots to justify his bully tactics and irreverent antics.
As Thomas Jefferson, a key architect of America’s religious freedom, wisely said, “The legitimate powers of government reach actions only, not opinions.” I fully support standing boldly for our beliefs, but it’s not our job to cleanse sin from culture. Christians are indeed called to address morality but only within the Church, not outside it. We do no favors to God or others by insisting non-Christians pretend to hold the same exclusive moral code without heart change. Relying on an agenda to maximize freedom isn’t perfect. In fact, it can be quite messy having to tolerate our neighbors’ choices we may personally reject. But that is the mission field Jesus sent us into.
Surely Christians have higher aspirations than simply treating the symptoms of a fallen world rather than the disease. Or have we lost faith in the power of the Gospel to change hearts so much that we must insist on wielding the power of the State?
No candidate is perfect. But certainly there is a stable option with sufficient moral character to guarantee freedom through the protection of our institutions. This election, let’s choose freedom over control. Let’s not feel beholden to vote for our party’s nominee and, instead, trust in our system’s ability to uphold freedom by supporting a different, perhaps unlikely, candidate.
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