The 2024 US presidential election kicked off final week with Donald Trump's landslide victory in Iowa as he seeks the Republican Occasion nomination. His choice because the Republican nominee is beginning to appear inevitable, particularly now that Ron DeSantis — certainly one of his main opponents — has dropped out of the race and thrown his assist behind Trump.
A staggering 53% of those that name themselves white evangelical Christians mentioned they voted for Trump in an Iowa exit ballot. If that is repeated throughout the nation, he could be re-elected to the presidency on extremely tribal, faith-based suggestions.
It’s really baffling to most British Christians that so a lot of our American counterparts can assist a person of Trump's – hardly Christian – character and actions. And this time, the prospect of his election threatens to destabilize all the world, as he proposes to withdraw assist from Ukraine and withdraw from NATO.
It’s a supply of consolation and encouragement to me that the UK is much much less politically tribal than the US when it comes to faith. I’ve many cross-party friendships with Christian MPs. We will share a religion and on the identical time disagree on politics.
However the depths of America's divisions have trampled the center floor of politics. We will see this within the UK to some extent after the protracted disagreements over Brexit, the Corbyn years and the present (profitable) makes an attempt by the Reform Occasion to include Tory immigration coverage into their agenda.
In America, the variations are deeper and wider. There, politics appears to have became a query of salvation: vote for the chief who’s almost certainly to save lots of you from the threats you suppose are knocking on the door.
Trump's workforce has tapped into the worry many right-wing white Christians have that liberal, Islamist and Marxist forces try to destroy society. They used “Make America Nice Once more” to advertise a cultural Christian id that their supporters say is beneath risk. It’s based mostly on saving America from a hostile world. And so they use extremely non secular, quasi-messianic language, akin to within the broadly shared “God Made Trump” video, which portrays him as God’s chosen caring ruler to protect American tradition and “a shepherd of mankind who won’t ever depart them. or depart them.”
It's unbelievable to us, it appears to hit the spot. One Trump supporter was quoted within the New York Occasions as saying, “He's the one savior I see”. One other mentioned the election was “a part of a non secular battle,” with Trump anticipated to dish out “retribution to all who’ve promoted evil on this nation.”
After all, many additionally oppose Trump's nomination. A nationwide ballot that gave 2024 voters a Trump vs. Biden, reveals that 76% of white evangelical Protestants assist Trump, as do greater than half of white Catholics and white non-evangelical Protestants. In contrast, 79% of black Protestant voters assist Biden, together with two-thirds of religiously unaffiliated and non-Christian non secular voters.
I’m actually not suggesting that individuals of religion ought to solely vote for Democrats, nor am I suggesting that no Christian may ever vote for Trump, however I do worry that many white evangelicals are being duped by Trump. Once they dismiss his character and actions as irrelevant, they typically quote Jesus' phrases from Mark 12:13-17. The Pharisees tried to catch him by bringing him a Roman coin and asking if they need to pay taxes to Caesar. His reply was “render to Caesar the issues which can be Caesar's and to God the issues which can be God's”.
These verses are used to argue that individuals ought to preserve their religion within the non-public sphere. By all means, present love, kindness and forgiveness in your private life. However in a political battle, you possibly can safely abandon any pesky Christian values. On this context, it’s argued that it’s okay to behave with malice and anger, divisiveness and tradition conflict. Completely different guidelines apply and the tip justifies the means.
However I don't suppose that's what Jesus meant. He actually had one thing rather more radical in thoughts, which is equally disturbing and distasteful to the left and the suitable. You see, the coin bore Caesar's picture, so Jesus shrugs and says it must be given to Caesar. However Genesis 1 tells us that not like coin, people bear God's picture.
Jesus is saying right here that you just belong—and may give up utterly—to God. Christians are known as to use and reside the teachings of Christ in each a part of our lives. So you should not adapt your religion to fit your politics, however you should humbly adapt your politics to be true to Him whose picture you bear.
So allow us to pray for this important election within the US and for Christians to make use of their votes correctly and faithfully. And allow us to additionally pray for these with out religion that they won’t be discouraged from Christianity – or Christ – by the willingness of so many to deal with Trump as the brand new Messiah.
Within the Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis, the satan tries to lure a brand new believer away from the religion by getting him to give attention to the eccentricities of some Christians quite than the miracle of the actual Jesus. Allow us to pray that non-Christians won’t be deterred from inspecting Jesus' direct attraction to them present in John 3:16.
