When conservative Christians blinked

So it’s 2017.  All joking aside.  In a matter of weeks, Donald J. Trump will be our president.  In some ways, Trump was a unifying individual.   Over the years, both sides of the aisle found reasons to dislike him.

To the liberals of America, he represented the unbridled avarice that came do define post-1980 America.  To the conservatives, he represented the hedonism and decadence that came to define modern America.

And yet it was the conservatives who blinked, and looked the other way.  While many didn’t vote for him, many did.  Despite his behavior, his rhetoric, his vulgarities, his deplorable treatment of women, his race-baiting demagoguery, conservatives went to the booth and picked Trump on election day.

I get that there are reasons.  There are always reasons.  But there is a difference between a reason and an excuse.  I get that the left, drunk in its arrogance and assurance of victory, thought nothing of defining those conservatives as deplorables, as racists, as human bilge who were getting what they deserved.  I get that conservatives looked at Trump, at Clinton, and back at Trump and saw no meaningful difference.  And I get that conservatives, seeing people excuse, defend, and even cheer the racist and phobic language aimed at them saw little to lose by supporting him.

Nonetheless, support him they have.  A wild card, a man who clearly can get what he wants.  And yet a man who has confounded our ability to figure out what he wants.  Even in the waning days of the campaign, you had people convinced he was just in it for a publicity stunt.  Even some of his staunchest supporters weren’t sure.

And now this man, this man of questionable values and contemptible behavior, this man who people can’t figure out because we don’t know where he stands on virtually anything, this man who stood against what conservatives have believed for generations, is going to be president.

Should we pray for him?  Of course.  Should we hope he does good and not evil? Naturally.  Is there a way to oppose Trump that has nothing to do with Christ or righteousness?  You bet.  Are some who oppose Trump no better?  It can’t be denied.

Nonetheless, he is coming to the White House with a giant badge that says ‘Conservative Christians approve this message.’  And the minute – the second – he departs from the narrow way, then those Christians had best be the first to stand up and scream in protest.  They have mud on their hands already.  Adding mud to their face won’t improve their appearance.