We are Not Electing a Pastor and Chief

Last updated on: October 25, 2016 at 1:37 pm by Robert Hunt

We are Not Electing a Pastor and Chief 2016-10-25T13:37:24-06:00 Robert Hunt

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As Donald Trump’s behavior, verbal and otherwise has become increasingly outrageous his Christian supporters are growing more desperate. Hence, as I both read and hear (not least from pastor Robert Jeffress, one of Trump’s main Christian apologists) “We are Not Electing a Pastor in Chief.” Like all internet meme theology it is both right and wrong, but mostly misleading.

Let’s overlook for a moment that Trump is more a potential “monster in chief,” than merely a bad boy who doesn’t live up to the standards we ask of Christian pastors. Instead let’s ask about the underlying political theology that these Christians put forward under the rubric of “not pastor in chief.”

First we must realize that Jeffress and others have mostly given up justifying that Trump is a “baby Christian” who still soils his diapers with verbal poop; a Baby Herman of Who Framed Roger Rabbit fame complete with cigar, foul mouth, and a reach that exceeds his moral grasp where women are concerned. No, they’ll accept a lying, foul-mouthed misogynist as president.

Instead of trying to pretend that Trump is good, they’ve instead turned to the idea that goodness isn’t actually a qualification for leadership. Instead of worrying about character they’ve decided that character isn’t something you need to worry about. They assert that civil leadership requires only strength and attentiveness to maintaining order. Jeffress quotes Romans 13 in this regard, seeing God’s appointed rulers as “bearing the sword” on God’s behalf to punish wrongdoing.

Logically this theology of political power extends from an understanding of God’s appointed rulers over Israel, whose mandate often appears to be insuring obedience to the law. (They were also mandated to do justice, but this, like Paul’s admonition to pay taxes, is frequently forgotten.)

The damning sentence at the end of the Book of Judges “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes” sets the reader of the Bible for God’s appointment of Israel’s first king, as well as the role that the king will be expected to play. And although Trump can hardly be credited with having read the Bible, his strong assertion of the need for “law and order” and his promise to bring it will certainly resonate with Christians who feel that this government has failed to punish wrong-doers. When Trump suggested that women seeking abortions be punished, that undocumented immigrants be deported, and that stop and frisk be renewed he was speaking to this understanding of what governments are supposed to do: enforce the law.

But this idea of the purpose of government, which in the case of American evangelicals is refracted through Calvin’s aspirations for Geneva via the English Puritans and their American descendants, is a mis-reading of scripture, a misunderstanding of human nature, and a distorted understanding of God. Let’s look at the first.

It is a misreading of scripture because in our contemporary context Paul’s understanding of the Roman authorities is irrelevant, as is any reference to the kings of Israel. We live in an age of self-government. We are not a subjugated minority living under an absolute emperor.

The closest analogy to our situation in the Bible is the governance of those Christian congregations that were emerging in Paul’s time, each with its own structures of self-governance. Paul understood very well that he and the other apostles could not rule these congregations in the way that Caesar ruled the subjects of Rome. Paul and the apostles would have to both recognize a wide variety of gifts among the congregations and seek the consensus of those who also had their unique calling and gifts. They would have to demonstrate in life the calling and presence of Christ who had called those Christian congregations into being. They would have to lead by example, and that is why Paul calls out Peter in Galatians as “self-condemned” because of his failure to live according to his own principals.

This is also the basis for the leadership advice Paul gives to Timothy. Because for the self governing community the key attribute of the leader is that he or she represent to the community its own highest ideals, in the case of Christian communities the character of Christ.

Paul even wishes this quality of faithfulness to Christ on those worldly leaders, successors of Israel and servants of the emperor, toward whom he otherwise recommends obedience (but never loyalty). “Agrippa said to Paul, “Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?” Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that not only you but also all who are listening to me today might become such as I am—except for these chains.” (Acts 26)

In one sense, of course, evangelical leaders who claim that “we aren’t electing a pastor in chief” are right. In modern secular America leadership can’t be specifically Christian. America is not a Christian community that it can be expected to look to its leaders to demonstrate specifically Christian gifts and graces. But the demand that a leader exemplify the highest ideas of the community is the appropriate basis for a Christian theology of leadership in a situation of self-governance, which is the situation of the United States.

While America is not a Christian nation, it is a nation that has basic values and principles. And because we are self-governing we, like early Christian communities, should be electing someone whose life best represents the values to which we aspire. Character, the American character, is exactly the basis on which we should judge the candidates. Indeed this is all we can do, and this election will be a mirror that shows the American character.

Ultimately a theology of leadership for self-governing people isn’t, from a Biblical perspective, about making promises about policies and decisions. It is a theology that looks into the character of the leader and asks whether he or she has the gifts that best represent the genius of the nation, and has in life born the fruit that best represents the aspirations of the nation. We should not be electing a pastor in chief. And we certainly should not be electing the sword wielding wazir of an angry God. We should be electing the best of us, the best of who we are, and the best of who we hope to be.

In upcoming blogs I’ll take up the issue of how evangelical Christian misunderstandings of human nature and the nature of God have led to the same miserable results in political theology as the misreading of scripture regarding political leadership. Because only a robust and accurate Christian understanding of human nature can possibly be brought into a fruitful wider American understanding of the politics of a free people.

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