Jerry Falwell’s Support for Donald Trump is Smarter than You Think

In fact, Falwell’s endorsement of Trump goes in exactly the right direction, as opposed to Michelle Higgins using the platform of InterVarsity’s Urbana conference to endorse Black Lives Matter as “a movement on mission in the truth of God” (is that like saying “doing God’s will”?). This assertion about Falwell looks all the more plausible after reading Derryck Green’s post about evangelicals and Black Lives Matter.

Green objects to journalists who say that evangelicals follow Jesus and Paul to support Black Lives Matter but attribute partisan politics to believers who don’t:

It’s noteworthy that the piece argues that progressive Christians support Black Lives Matter because of the teachings of Jesus and Paul — a thoroughly religious reason, of course — but conservative Evangelicals don’t support the Black Lives Matter because of their unflinching loyalty to the Republican party — a thoroughly political, non-biblical reason. It’s a passive way to commend progressive Christians (and by extension, the author?) for their fidelity to the Bible and dismiss conservative Evangelicals as playing politics. The Times doesn’t hesitate for a moment to consider that one reason conservative Evangelicals refuse to support Black Lives Matter is that its leftist agenda and confrontational tactics contradict the gospel’s rendering of mercy, love, and reconciliation.

I wonder why it would be wrong to support a political candidate for political reasons. Sure, loyalty to a political party can be provincial and tribalistic. But if the Bible does not speak to matters like immigration or carbon emissions or single-payer health insurance schemes — which it doesn’t, folks — then doesn’t that leave Christians having to use political judgments to justify support for political candidates? And if Christians do find biblical reasons for supporting candidates — ahem, what do you do with non-Christians like Muslims? — doesn’t that alienate those citizens who don’t share Christian beliefs about the Bible, God, and morality? I get it. It’s wonderful when Christianity looks progressive, tolerant, and winsome, though where you find that even in Jesus’s life is a mystery. But if you look at the history of the planet, Christianity’s involvement in politics has never been bi-partisan or unifying. More often than not, it has produced deep disagreements and raised the stakes of politics way too high.

That is why Jerry Falwell’s reasons for endorsing Donald Trump, though in my view not as informed about the checks and balances that should impede a president or the nature of the presidency as I would like, is a breath of fresh air. It’s all about politics, not about identifying the Lord’s anointed:

In my opinion, this nation needs a citizen legislator who is a tough negotiator, one who has gone head to head with the best business minds in the world and won, a businessman who has built companies from the ground up, and who will use those experiences to be tough with China, ISIS and nations that are taking advantage of the United States by stealing our jobs.

In short, we need someone to bring this country back from the brink and make America great again in the same way that the right team of professionals helped make Liberty great again between 1987 and today.

Finally, it was not my intent to compare Trump to Jesus Christ in my introduction at Liberty. I know that all of us are sinners, and only Jesus was perfect.

I do believe Trump is a good father, is generous to those in need, and is an ethical and honest businessman. I have gotten to know him well over the last few years and have come to admire him for those traits.

I do not believe, however, that when Jesus said “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” that he meant we should elect only someone who would make a good Sunday School teacher or pastor. When we step into our role as citizens, we need to elect the most experienced and capable leaders.

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