Can Democracy and Evangelical Christianity co-exist? I used to think so. Now, I’m not so sure. Democracy does not matter in that world.
Here is just one of the many sincerely alarmist articles about some plans that Mr. Trump, with the full support of the Evangelical world, has floated to dismantle many of the safeguards to our democracy should he win the 2024 Presidential election.
Sadly, these ambitions have been on display since before the 2016 election. Nearly eight years ago, I wrote the following story (note: for the biblically knowledgable, this is a clear take-off of a passage in Luke 10)
A woman walks up to Jesus and says, “What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus answers, “Love God with everything you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself.”
She responds, “I feed the hungry, offer help to the refugees from war-torn countries and advocate for health care for those who can’t get it. I’ve fought to raise the minimum wage and work tirelessly to eliminate corruption in our government. Don’t you think I’ve got the “love God, love your neighbor” thing covered?”
Jesus’s answer:
One day, a group gathered at a local home to strategize how to stop Trump from turning the US into his personal profit center while eliminating free speech and civil liberties, shredding the societal safety net, and selling the US soul to Russia. They were drawing up action plans, drafting letters and assigning committee memberships.
Suddenly the door slammed open and a white man walked in carrying a sign that said. “I voted for him–get over it b*******.” His t-shirt proclaimed, “Lock her up!” on one side and displayed a Nazi symbol on the other side.
He sauntered up to a woman wearing hijab, the traditional head-covering for many Muslim women, and yanked it off her head, screaming, “You got a bomb in there?”
Standing toe-to-toe with a Latino man and well-known attorney, he spewed spittle, “I’m going to toss you over that wall and keep you out.”
The hostess stood nearby holding a tray of canapes. He smashed the tray away, pushed her up against a wall and whispered. “Your p**** is now mine, and don’t you forget it.”
Then he stomped out, flipping the bird at the horrified people, got into his Confederate flag-covered truck and peeled off.
Several gathered around the Muslim woman as tears of shame streamed down her face. One phoned the police to complain. Another ran out the door to grab a photo of the man’s license plate, planning to hunt him down for a bit of private revenge.
Suddenly, they heard the sickening sound of squealing tires. They spilled out onto the street. Half a block away they could see smoke rising from the truck.
A quiet message of “He deserved it” was passed from eye to eye. A few smirked. One called 911 but was put on hold and couldn’t get through.
Suddenly the Black housemaid raced out and ran down the street. She yanked open the driver’s side door and pulled the by-then unconscious driver out. While others watched and yelled at her to get back, she dragged him to the side of the street. Moments later, the car burst into flames.
She pulled off her scarf and wrapped it around the bleeding man’s head, gently dabbing the blood away with a clean handkerchief from her uniform pocket. When the ambulance appeared and loaded him for transport to the local hospital, she followed.
The man didn’t have health insurance. His family had left him and he had just been kicked out of his apartment for non-payment of rent. He had been laid off from his factory job five months previously and had been unable to find work again.
The hospital bandaged him and discharged him quickly, telling him he had suffered a major concussion along with several broken ribs and needed much rest to recover.
The housemaid took him to her house, still displaying “Clinton/Kaine” signs, and installed him on the living room couch.
She had to return to her cleaning job but called on some elderly widows from her church to keep a watch on him and to fix nourishing food. She also arranged for her daughters to stay with relatives for a while.
The community nursed him tenderly until he was back on his feet. Someone found a beater car for him and a local mechanic got it in running condition. Ten days later, he snuck out in the night, smashed the remaining Clinton/Kaine signs and left without a “thank you” or “goodbye.”
Then Jesus turned to the questioner and said, “Have you got a better handle on what I mean by ‘loving your neighbor’ now?”
The person who asked the question said, “So I’m supposed to show mercy on someone who genuinely hates me?”
Jesus said, “Do you want mercy shown to you? If so, you’ve got to start the cycle instead of waiting for someone else to do it. Go, continue to stand up to oppression and live faithfully. Absolutely. But you still must offer mercy to those who differ from you. This is the only way to love God with everything you have.”
Seriously? Love our enemies?
And herein is the whole problem for those who truly want to follow Jesus: He’s apparently pretty serious about loving our enemies.
So, how do we, who claim to love Jesus, go about loving a man whose stated goals are anathema to many? Mr. Trump’s autocratic ambitions are on full display, and they need to be taken seriously. He wants power at any cost and the fragility of our democracy is a gift to him.
Now I ask, Is it possible to love the enemy and still defend democracy? And by still defending democracy, we also must acknowledge that our system of democracy means universal suffrage, so the very people who will likely make sure that Mr. Trump lands back in the Oval Office GET TO VOTE!!! And every one of those voters is deserving of love and respect.
The theological underpinnings of Evangelicalism support Mr. Trump
The more I wrestle with this, the more I consider my many years in Evangelicalism and its theological underpinnings.
A major player here is the fact that the basic theology points to the utter rightness of Mr. Trump as the proper person to be running the country.
I’ve written about that extensively here. I hope you will take the time to read it.
Those good folks are not going to abandon Mr. Trump. And should he end up losing the 2024 election, there likely will be violence in the street. Not because his supporters are bad people, but precisely because they are good–and fully believe in their correct position here.
It is very difficult to change the minds of devout believers. And those very devout ones are serious about their cause. We who disagree with them also have a responsibility to love them AND to vote in ways that will indeed preserve our democracy.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In