I’ve been grieving that Donald Trump won after this last presidential election. This feeling is common for most of the people who didn’t vote for Trump’s administration. What I’ve found interesting, though, is that despite Christians who are thrilled, significant numbers of followers of Jesus who did vote for Trump also feel unsettled and aren’t celebrating.
Why are there still so many Christians across the board who feel somber about Donald Trump’s reelection? What does that show us about our faith?
The Christians Who Are Excited About Trump
My kids came up to me with their phones, showing me the happy-dances and shove-it-in-your-face victory people they follow on social media were posting about Trump’s victory. They were concerned. They kept asking me in a variety of ways what boiled down to the same question: “How can these Christians feel good about this, mom?”
It has been a hard question to answer. And like my kids, I wonder if these people know God at all. Maybe I am too far removed from these christians who claim to follow Jesus in my spectrum of belief to understand where they are coming from.
The Power We Hold
As soon as the election finished, I went to the Ezer Collective in Minneapolis, an equipping conference for women leaders. We didn’t talk about the election. But we did talk about power: the abuse of power, recognizing our own power, how to use our power like how Jesus did, and being empowered by the Spirit of God.
Although the system of politics wasn’t covered, these truths about power undoubtedly applied to it.
The Framework of Micah 6:8
On the way to the conference, watching the snow fall from the full windows at the Denver airport, my thoughts kept returning to the most renown verse about justice in the Bible:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Where do we see power here? Walking humbly with God is surrendering our power to God’s jurisdiction. Loving mercy can be interpreted as relinquishing our power on behalf of others in need of grace, despite whether they deserve this love or not. And then, most easily seen, we have acting justly–leveraging our power to provide justice and foster systems of justice.
This is what is good.
The Sober Christians Who Voted For Trump
While I was at the conference, my husband went to a few meetings with fellow believers. These ones appeared to have voted for Trump. But they too weren’t gloating as they collected themselves in prayer over our nation.
“Can we really be glad that “our man” won? If anything good comes of this, it is only a delay, a short respite from evil.”
Another woman pointed out that just like the Israelites asked for a King, and God told them that was a bad idea, she warned of the consequences of the new “king” we will have in office. Just because Christians wanted Trump for president doesn’t mean they aren’t aware there will be negative effects.
Trying to Deepen My Empathy
Although one part of me feels betrayed by friends I thought couldn’t vote for Trump, but did, the other part of me understands. Just as I encouraged my kids to be gracious to those who voted for Trump, I also wrote to my other readers at Authentically Elisa about my tension of living in middle spaces, of choosing to be anti-inflammatory. But the only reason I have this perspective is because of my background.
I came from a Christian + politics = Republican background. I embraced an unintentional version of Christian Nationalism. I grew up and still live life within a sub-culture of evangelicals. I worked at a crisis pregnancy center. I intimately know fear of not pleasing my faith community (which I used to equate with God) with my civic-duty. I remember how downing-out loud the elevated justice issues in this culture were for me.
Over the decades, my perspective of what living as a Christian politically looks like has changed drastically (you can read about that shift here). I was not and am not alone in this. This happened as we asked these questions in regards to how we used out power:
- What does walking humbly with God look like in our politics?
- What does loving mercy look like as we elect representatives and vote on prepositions?
- What does practicing justice look like within this sphere of power we have?
The Christians Who Didn’t Vote For Trump
I try to wrap my brain around voting for a leader I see as unrepentantly devaluing people made in the image of God. I hate seeing Trump pushing policies that hurt these people. I am appalled by his character, not only in how he treats people, but in how he practices justice. While filling out my own job application, I couldn’t help but note that to the degree Trump has overstepped laws, he wouldn’t even be able to get a job as a substitute teacher!
I continually have to address my own bias, praying that I won’t hate Trump. I remind myself of how, the last time he won an election, God used it to push me further to walk into my own circle of influence to carry out Biblical Justice.
What I find especially strange is that I know plenty of Christians who would never let their daughter date a man like him, while willingly electing him to lead our country. Or I know others who would kick anyone else with these characteristics out of their church! (Not that I’m a fan of that either.). But to see these same people vote for this person as a leader is incomprehensible to me.
The Christians Who Found a Third Option
And yet, this is also why some Christians, for the first time ever, left a blank in the space for president on their ballot. It is why others voted independently for the first time. They resisted “the lesser of two evil” method of voting, finding a third option. And they too aren’t celebrating.
My above list are some of the same reasons my fellow followers of Jesus who did vote for Trump get stuck, too. It is why they feel unsettled. They feel sober, because to at least a degree, they aren’t blind.
How Different Are We?
A writer acquaintance of mine wrote an article about how, despite the major character flaws and imperfections of Trump, we still have to give up our rights for good. She wasn’t happy about it, but she still encouraged people to vote for him for the sake of others. Her argument bothered me.
And yet I wonder if she isn’t too different than I am. We both love Jesus. She prioritizes different justice issues that I do. But she does care about the unborn, like I do. She cares about families, like I do. Her view of gender and marriage might not be nuanced, but I believe her love for others is genuine across the spectrum. She would be there in a heartbeat for people who might be hurt by policies that Trump supports. But ultimately, for whatever reasons, she thinks a majority Republican government practices “what is good” better.
Is it not merciful to recognize she is blind, instead of condemning her? Isn’t this what loving mercy is? Especially because I surely might be blind in other ways, too. I just don’t know it yet.
Wherever You Are Right Now
If you are grieving Donald Trump’s reelection, like I am, I am right there with you. Or if you are grateful he won, while still feeling somber about it, I appreciate that as we grow towards God together, we will look more and more like him in how we use our political power.
Our government is where we get to work out how to follow Jesus. So as the months unfold, and the next president steps into the Oval Office, let us endeavor to love mercy and practice justice. And most of all, let us walk humbly with our God as we pray for our nation.
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