Praying for the President

Last updated on: May 31, 2019 at 4:03 pm by Ben Witherington

Praying for the President 2019-05-31T16:03:41-04:00 Ben Witherington

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There is a story today on the news about Franklin Graham’s call for us to pray for President Trump this coming Sunday. Here is one version of the story……https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/30/us/franklin-graham-trump-day-of-prayer/index.html

I agree with Franklin that the President needs prayer. But we have very different views of this particular President, and frankly I’ve been very disappointed in Franklin for the way he has overlooked or turned a blind eye to the many sins of this President, past and present, in the rush to get certain pet agendas accomplished that Franklin thinks are Biblical.

I also agree with Franklin that our nation is suffering from spiritual attack. There is a being out there called the Father of Lies, the Great Deceiver, and he is using numerous of our politicians for his aims. I do not find it encouraging that President Trump, by one count has already lied while in office some 10,000 times, lied about his previous adulterous affairs, lied about his tax returns, lied about his business dealings, lied about Trump university, lied about his own past history, sucked up to ruthless dictators like Kim Jung Un and Vladimir Putin, alienated our allies, is busy helping the ruination of our beautiful country through getting rid of restrictions and rules about where oil and coal companies can drill or dig, has had ten of his cronies and even personal lawyers prosecuted and found guilty of numerous crimes, lied about the Mueller probe and its conclusions and the beat goes on. Yes indeed, it appears virtually certain this President tried to obstruct justice some ten times according to that report. Never mind our President being in denial about the Russian interference in our last election, which is one of the few things Republicans and Democrats are now largely in agreement actually happened.

It is possible that Franklin is right that God wanted Donald Trump to be our President. If so, it is like the case of Israel wanting a king, to which God said, you want a dictator instead of trusting me, fine— I’ll give you a flawed king called Saul who reflects your own worst tendencies and faults. In short, if Trump’s Presidency has anything to do with God’s will, it is a case of God revealing to us and punishing us for our own sins, which are many.

Our country has been suffering from truth decay for a long time. The problem with numerous of my fellow white Evangelicals is that they have mistaken civic religion for Christianity or so blended together nationalism with their understanding of the Christian faith that they can’t tell the difference. So, we should all be reminded that America is not the promised land, we are not Israel, and we need to stop mixing up our national self interests with Biblical principles which call for self-sacrifice, love for our enemies, generosity to the poor, graciousness to foreigners in need, rather than endless narcissism and jingoism. And I have one request of the Press—- stop assuming that Evangelicalism is synonymous with ultra right wing politics. Stop assuming all Evangelicals are like Franklin Graham in their political opinions. It is far from the truth.

So yes, I will be praying. I will be praying that Donald Trump gets down on his knees and has a genuine conversion, stops offering us his lies, and becomes the President Franklin thinks he already is. That indeed would be a genuine Biblical miracle.

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