Trump tricks Christians into supporting policies Jesus would abhor
One of the central concepts in morality is that “the ends do not justify the means”.
Yet that is precisely what many Christian today have been persuaded to do - to suppress their discomfort with immoral policies and immoral people for the sake of achieving a specific goal, like nominating a more conservative Supreme Court justice. Some have even acknowledged that compromise, comparing the former President to King Cyrus - an immoral leader who nonetheless carried out God’s will in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew, presents a warning about the kinds of people who might try to lead us morally astray in this way:
“Beware false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.
You shall know them by their works....
... a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit”
Donald Trump has proven to be a false prophet, claiming the mandate of Christianity wherever he can while performing clearly un-Christian and immoral acts, yet gaining the support of the mass of conservative Christians by promising them conspicuous victories. With the promise of a Supreme Court justice and with rhetoric about respecting religion, he has overcome good people’s discomfort with grave sins by convincing them that those ends do justify the means of reluctantly supporting him.
He has intentionally separated young children from their poor and desperate parents, an act the Pope called “cruelty of the highest form”. But the ends justify the means.
He has slammed the door on desperate refugees from war-torn areas, in defiance of the Parable of the Good Samaritan and of international law. But the ends justify the means.
He has, as conservative Republican Senator Sasse has put it, “mock[ed] evangelicals behind closed doors“. But the ends justify the means.
He has claimed to be a defender of religious freedom while trying to ban entire religions from the United States. But the ends justify the means.
He has denied the dignity of the human person by accelerating executions. But the ends justify the means.
He has praised the dictator of North Korea, who murders Christians for their faith. But the ends justify the means.
He has turned neighbor against neighbor, sowing division and mistrust in our communities, as conservative columnist David Brooks has explained. But the ends justify the means.
He has repeatedly shown sympathy to white supremacists instead of promoting love for all God’s children. But the ends justify the means.
He is defying Jesus’ example of healing the sick by downplaying the pandemic and suing to remove health care coverage at the peak of its infections. But the ends justify the means.
The warning signs should have been clear. Jesus warned us against men who prize wealth over salvation (Luke 18:25), who are consumed by lust (Matt 5:28), who publicly praise themselves for their religious zeal (Matt 6:2) or their charity (Matt 6:3), even against those who dodge taxes! (Mark 12:16). We cannot claim that we were not warned that someone like the former President would come along to lead us away from the path of righteousness. Before claiming Christian virtue to get elected, Donald Trump had a history of mocking the faithful, vocally supporting abortion, and bragging about abusing women - making his current claims of being guided by faith highly questionable.
Surely no leader is perfect, so what should guide us? Especially in a two-party system, we will never have a candidate who supports policies that all fully align with our faith. That does not mean we should not engage - we are commanded by faith to be active in the world. I suggest that we can be guided by the Greatest Commandment:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
In prior elections, be it Carter vs Reagan or Bush vs Gore, we chose between leaders who had different perspectives but in their hearts loved their country and wanted to do the right thing - even if their philosophies told them drastically different things about how to achieve those goals. This election is different.
Donald Trump is not guided by love - and has a lifetime of business and personal dealings to prove it. We are his means to his end - to his self-aggrandizement and glory and wealth.
His opponent, Kamala Harris, is like all men and women deeply flawed. But she is a good and decent woman who loves others and wants to do the right thing, even if we might not all agree on how she thinks we should get there.
In a flawed world struggling towards a moral center, the choice in this election is clear. Choose Love.