Apparently, the 12-day War is ending, all thanks to Trump\u2019s God-gilded realpolitik. What do I mean by this? Allow me to show you by recounting recent geopolitical events that demonstrate how Trump has ushered in a new era of God-gilded realpolitik.<\/p>\n
At 5PM on Monday, June 23 President Trump announced the end to what he has dubbed \u201cthe 12-Day War.\u201d His announcement on Truth Social states<\/a>:<\/p>\n CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED! Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World. During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL. On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, \u201cTHE 12 DAY WAR.\u201d This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn\u2019t, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!<\/p>\n DONALD J. TRUMP, After assessing everything that has happened in the past 12 days, and more specifically since Saturday, there are some concluding takeaways that are consequential for the public witness and display of a Christian ethic to the world. After all, Trump, through his rhetoric, has propped himself up to be a global example of Christian political ethics and leadership. But what kind of a Christian ethic is this, really? Frankly, Trump\u2019s ethic is an ethic of God-gilded realpolitik. In Trump\u2019s mind, using technological and militaristic power to demonstrate superiority and intimidate your enemies is much more expedient than a Jesus ethic from the Sermon on the Mount. So do that and then rub God language on it. This appears to be the mantra of the Trump administration Christian ethic.<\/p>\n On Saturday, June 21, the president took to Truth Social to announce the successful completion of a tactical bombing mission on three known sites of nuclear research and development in Iran (Cf. Heather Cox Richardson, Letters to An American, June 21, 2025<\/a>). At 10 PM, the president gave an address where he detailed the success of the mission and its consequences. Two excerpts of his address are worth noting:<\/p>\n There\u2019s no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight, not even close. There\u2019s never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago\u2026I want to just thank everybody\u2026in particular, God\u2026And I just want to say\u2026we love you God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel. And God bless America. (Donald Trump, White House Presidential Address, June 21, 2025<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Men love to marvel about what they accomplish through modern technology. They love to demonstrate their power, autonomy, self-sufficiency, and security to the world. We see this in the First Testament Tower of Babel bible story from Genesis 11.<\/p>\n Then they said, \u201cCome, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scatter over the face of the earth. (Gen. 11:4)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If you know this biblical account, you will recall that God did not tear down their Ziggurat. He confused their language. Sometimes knocking down humanity\u2019s towers of ascent are less effective than humbling him by confusion.<\/p>\n I was first troubled by the president\u2019s remarks because his sense of security and power was grounded in militaristic technology and achievement. I was troubled by how arbitrarily he wielded militaristic power on behalf of the People of the United States, and by his pride in what humanity has accomplished by doing so. This feature of his God-gilded realpolitik should trouble us.<\/p>\n But we should also be deeply troubled at the presumption that God is on the side of someone who appears to be the aggressor and agitator in warfare. From all appearances, Netanyahu and Israel seemed to be the aggressor to Iran, and Trump\u2019s unilateral decision to intervene and bring the U. S. into the conflict, without congressional approval, seemed to escalate this aggression. But to justify all of this, he simply rubbed a little God-language to rationalize his actions. Many have called this heretical. Minimally, its using God\u2019s name to justify whatever you autocratically think is right. It\u2019s God-approved subjectivism.<\/p>\n Did the acts of Israel and United States meet the demands of Just War criteria? There is much to ponder here. In some ways, yes. In other ways, no. First, intelligence pointing to the capability of creating weapons-grade uranium does not on the surface meet the criteria of self-defense or defending others from attack. No violence or offense had occurred. Creating heavy water and near weapons-grade uranium may simply be created to produce nuclear energy. Second, Trump and J. D. Vance adamantly argued that war had not been declared on Iran by the United States. The U. S. merely engaged in a tactical mission, something it has a history of doing. Third, these premature acts of aggression seem to point to the fact that Israel and the U. S. failed to exhaust all peaceful options to de-escalate the crisis. Trump\u2019s bravado on Truth Social seemed menacing rather than that of someone aiming to pursue peace. Some of Trump\u2019s demeanor portrayed one who valued making arbitrary decisions at the last minute, on a whim, and as an exercise of autocratic power. What will history say about the ethical practices of Israel and the U. S.? What will the United Nations have to say? It will be interesting to see more on this in coming days.<\/p>\n All of this reminds me of Francis Schaeffer\u2019s influential essay, \u201cOur Society\u201d, where he discussed what happens when Christians turn away from the absolute authority of God\u2019s Word as a source for their social ethic and moral law. He argued:<\/p>\n As the Christian consensus dies, there are not many sociological alternatives. One possibility is hedonism, in which every man does his own thing\u2026A second possibility is the absoluteness of the 51-percent vote\u2026If there are no absolutes, and if we do not like either the chaos of hedonism or the absoluteness of the 51-percent vote, only one other alternative is left: one man or an elite giving authoritative arbitrary absolutes. (Francis Schaeffer, \u201cOur Society\u201d in Evangelical Ethics<\/em>, edited by David P. Gushee and Isaac B. Sharp, 32<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When Schaeffer published this article in 1976 he had been convinced that the United States was becoming secularized. The drug culture and the passing of Roe v. Wade signaled the bad fruit of hedonism and the loss of Christian moral influence. He anticipated the danger of dictatorial, authoritarian, and plutocratic power\u2014the kind of power that seems to be the trajectory of the current political climate in the United States.<\/p>\n It seems that the evangelicals, who followed after Schaeffer, have since traded off the ideals of a liberal, pluralistic democracy for a sort of Christian Nationalism that has emerged from wedding MAGA and evangelicals. But I don\u2019t think this is because evangelicals have departed far from Schaeffer\u2019s own trajectory. Frankly, Schaeffer appears to be a sort of Christian Nationalist as well. Really, I think evangelicals today have simply realized the consequence of what it means for evangelicals to pursue power in a market society. It means that militarism trumps humanitarian work. It means that policing the 10\/40 window is prioritized over praying for it. It means demonstrating technological and militaristic superiority is more expedient than being meek and peaceful. It has opened the way to the arbitrary rule of an autocratic who employs a God-gilded realpolitik.<\/p>\n So what do Christians do in response to the new age of the God-gilded realpolitik? Well, foster a Jesus ethic, built around the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount<\/p>\n Here is a brief proposal of practical ways that Christians can build an ethic that cuts through the countervailing spirit of our age.<\/p>\n
\nPRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSanctifying Technology<\/h3>\n
A Christian Response to God-Gilded Realpolitik<\/h3>\n