Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Honest to God

Home
Progressive Christian
As a Christian, I Don’t Need a Christian President

As a Christian, I Don’t Need a Christian President

Last updated on: April 9, 2018 at 10:36 pm by Jayson D. Bradley

As a Christian, I Don’t Need a Christian President 2018-04-09T22:36:40+00:00 Jayson D. Bradley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“Do you renounce Satan and all his works?”
“I do renounce them.”
“. . . and all his works?”
“I do renounce them.”

In one of the most profound scenes in cinematic history, Michael Corleone stands in as Godfather for his nephew Micheal Francis Rizzi’s baptism. The movie intercuts the priest’s questions with scenes of the murder of the rival mafia heads. To give him an alibi, Corleone has planned the killings to coincide with the baptism. It’s a quizzical, emotionally wrenching scene that reveals a cultural Catholicism that’s completely divorced from the gospels.

While every mafioso in the movie would fight to defend the church as it represents a significant cultural identifier, their lives are entirely divorced from the reality the church represents. But there is no struggle to reconcile their lives with their faith—no cognitive dissonance.

The Christian Trump card

American Protestants struggle with this phenomenon, too. There’s a nationalistic Christian identity that runs through the foundation of the U.S. that looks more like an Ayn-Randian fever dream than the traditional Christianity. If you have any question, you only need watch the American political process.

Donald Trump recently met with hundreds of evangelical leaders on Tuesday, June 23. In the wake of that meeting, James Dobson came out to announce that Trump had recently entered into “a relationship with Christ,” going on to say, “I know the person who led him to Christ.” Within a week, Dobson was soft-pedaling this claim, “Do I know that for sure? No. Do I know the details of that alleged conversion? I can’t say that I do.”

Now, I have no desire to flesh out the ways that Trump appears to be more of a goat than a sheep. The bigger question is, “Why’s it so important to sell him to us as a Christian?” The answer is simple; evangelicals still have the power to turn elections.

Ever since Jerry Falwell Sr. established the Moral Majority in 1979, conservative evangelical Christians became one of the most courted political demographics. This was solidified with the growth of talk radio and The Christian Coalition.

What’s particularly telling is how quickly after the election it’s no longer important to be photographed coming out of a church. It’s even more interesting to note that neither Ronald Reagan or H. W. Bush attended church very often while in office, but the Clintons regularly did—and not only did Jimmy Carter attend every time he could, he also taught Sunday school.

Do we need a Christian president?

We need to be honest. It’s incredibly significant that the powers that be look at American Christians as people who’d rather a candidate identify as one of them than have any understanding of foreign or domestic policy. But you know they’ve done their research, and there are hundreds of political campaign managers helping their candidates learn what to say and how to act to make Christians think, “He’s/She’s a Christian just like me!”

In the meantime, evangelical leaders are courted with state dinners and meet-and-greet events. And even if political graft and promises are not corrupting them, they’re still falling victim to the deadly temptation of personal significance and influence that only influential people can give them. Meanwhile, people are seeing these evangelical leader’s social media posts and thinking, “Hey! I have that guy’s study Bible. If he’s hanging around with Trump, it’s got to be a validation of Trump’s commitment to my/Jesus’s values!”

But everyone seems to forget that, even though Jesus was born into a politically volatile environment, he eschewed political discourse. All of Israel was waiting for their Messiah to kick Rome out of Jerusalem and return it to the Jews. In fact, that’s one of the first things that the disciples asked after the resurrection, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)

Jesus’s message was that the Kingdom of God had come, and that borderless kingdom existed everywhere someone’s heart was submitted to him. He wasn’t interested in improving on broken earthly governments. Instead, he was calling people to draw people to his kingdom, to build his church—and that was done through the contrast of the two kingdoms, not by his followers taking control of the kingdoms of man.

Jesus’ tells his people to watch out for those who appear to be sheep but are ravenous wolves. This isn’t just false teachers. It’s anyone who would pretend to follow Christ while using Christians to feed their appetites. Instead, he reminds us not to look at the appearance or words of these sheep, but to look for their fruit.

As long as Christians are being used as shills to keep politicians in power, we might as well hang it up. We’re serving no Kingdom purpose.

As it is, I don’t feel any obligation to vote someone into office because they tell me they’re a Christian. That doesn’t tell me anything about how they think. Frankly, I’m not sure I want someone with a Lahaye-style Pre-Trib theological dispensationalism making decisions about the Middle East. It feels like too much U.S. involvement in Israel/Palestine turmoil is already influenced by questionable theology.

I don’t care if Trump’s a Christian or not

Whether Trump legitimately wants to follow Christ or not, has nothing to do with his ability to lead a country. I’d vote for a compassionate, informed, and intelligent atheist, Buddhist, or Muslim before I’d vote for someone who only has their identity as a Christian going for them.

If Christians are going to continue in their entrenchment in Empire politics, we’re going to be responsible for the outcome. We can’t continue to say we renounce Satan and all his works while fighting for political control.

Previous Post

April 5, 2016

Coming to Grips with Christian Hypocrisy

Next Post

July 16, 2016 3 Reminders for Turning Conversation into True Communication

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Ask Jayson Blogging Evergreen Giveaways Guest Posts Interviews and Reviews Jesus Matthew Politics Scripture Social Issues Social Media Spiritual Formation The Church Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2023 March 2022 May 2021 April 2021 February 2021 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 January 2020 February 2019 January 2019 November 2018 July 2018 June 2018 April 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 August 2017 April 2017 February 2017 January 2017 August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 April 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 April 2013 January 2013 December 2012 August 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Elisha received a double portion of Elijah's spirit.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE