Why are Christians supporting Trump?

I have a question for my fellow Christians who ardently support former president Donald Trump in his bid to return to the White House.

What on earth are you thinking!?

Have you compartmentalized your faith from your politics or lost your faith altogether?

Seriously. As a Christian I fail to see how anyone who professes Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior can support Trump. The man is as deceptively evil as they come and yet he has hordes of evangelicals and other Christians throwing themselves and their cash at his feet and turning a blind eye and deaf ear to the truth.

Before I go on, I know many of you have wrongly pegged me as a RINO (Republican In Name Only). That’s fine. Name calling is part of the Trump game. I get it. But before you go, please take a minute to clear your head, open your mind, and hear me out. (And no, I’m not saying you should vote for Joe Biden. More about that later.)

Donald Trump is not the antichrist, but his words and actions show that he is the opposite of Christ. He purports himself to be a Christian, but that is just another one of his lies.

Who am I to judge his Christianity? I’m not qualified, but his words and actions are plain to see and understand. For example, let’s start with the 2024 election campaign and Trump’s recent convictions on all 34 felony charges in his hush money trial. Notice that Trump shows no remorse whatsoever for having an affair with a porn star, paying her money to keep it quiet, and conspiring to cover up the payments so none of it would negatively affect him in the 2016 campaign. He takes no responsibility for any of these actions.

What we do see from him is the equivalent of a magician’s slight-of-hand trick. He creates massive distraction with one hand while performing his magic with the other. Rather than face the facts, he distracts everyone by calling it a politically motivated sham trial. (Notice he never called Hunter Biden’s gun trial politically motived or a sham trial.) He distracts by badmouthing the court, the legal system, prosecutors, the judge and other court personnel. He was fined for multiple violations of a gag order in the case. Rather than respect the court of law and our legal system he has disparaged it and trampled on the good names and reputations of those who make it work. With that distraction on one hand, he hopes to get voters to forget his crimes and turn their backs on one of the cornerstones of American democracy with the other hand.

Not only is Trump a convicted felon, he is also one of three presidents to have been impeached (and not once, but twice). Trump now wears his felonies as a badge of honor and vows revenge not only on those he blames for the trial, but against those whom he feels didn’t do enough to support him in the process. In the days after his convictions, Trump repeatedly suggested that he could prosecute his political adversaries if elected in November. In a televised interview with Dr. Phil McGraw, the host said revenge and retribution are bad for the country and that Trump will not have time to “get even.” Trump replied: “Revenge does take time. I will say that. And sometimes revenge can be justified. Phil, I have to be honest – sometimes it can.”

In another interview Trump instead said that “based on what they (Democrats) have done I would have every right to go after them.” He has also tried to deny his frequent calls in the 2016 campaign to “lock up” Hillary Clinton.

More recently Trump has suggested that corporate leaders should be fired if they don’t support him.

“Business Executives and Shareholder Representatives should be 100% behind Donald Trump! Anybody that’s not should be FIRED for incompetence!” he wrote in a post on his Truth Social website.

Face it, Trump is angry, vengeful, hateful and overflowing with contempt. The Bible, however, commands us to respect authority, even if we don’t agree with it.

“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” Romans 13:1-2

Right after the verdict there was a popular meme going around on social media that said “Jesus was convicted in a sham trial and I still follow him.” That may be, but there are huge differences. Jesus did no wrong. Trump did multiple things wrong. Jesus accepted his punishment, even though he was innocent. While dying on the cross, Jesus asked God to forgive his tormentors. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34

Trump has done just the opposite. He has lambasted the courts, the legal system, court personnel, and witnesses in the case. He has vowed vengeance. He has been blaming everyone and everything he can except himself.

Those who follow Jesus know he gives us a much different directive. “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:44

Trump is unrepentant and refuses to take ownership of his crimes or to show any remorse, regret, or shame for what he has done and the harm it has caused. What’s worse is he has legions of his followers – including Christians – who believe his lies and spread his hate. Are you among them?

Let’s explore some more, shall we? Trump uses derogatory terms and name-calling when he speaks about anyone or anything he opposes. The Bible gives multiple warnings about taming the tongue. Among them:

“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” – Jesus, Matthew 15:18-20

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Ephesians 4:29

Trump also lies – a lot! During his presidency he was caught making false or misleading claims 30,573 times according to the Washington Post. The Toronto Star calculated that he made an average 6.1 false claims per day between 2017 and 2019. Most everyone knows that the Bible speaks very clearly about lying. It is most famously stated in the ninth of the 10 commandments: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Exodus 20:15

Also: “Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:11-12

1 John 1:6 says, “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.”

Trump claims to have fellowship with God but walks in darkness. Remember during Holy Week before Easter when Trump started selling $60 Bibles tainted with copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Pledge of Allegiance, and the handwritten lyrics to the chorus of Lee Greenwood’s song God Bless the USA? All of those documents are great for America, but not for Christianity. They are not part of the holy scriptures and should never be mixed with them.

“Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.” Deuteronomy 4:2

“Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again,” Trump wrote in one of his Bible sales pitches. “As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible.” (By the way, you cannot make anyone pray. It’s unconstitutional.)

He also prattled on with fearmongering rhetoric that is lacking truth.

“Many of you have never read them and don’t know the liberties and rights you have as Americans, and how you are being threatened to lose those rights. … Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back and we have to bring them back fast,” he said.

Religion and Christianity are missing? Since when? That last I looked they were in abundance and being freely practiced everywhere in America.

Trump was photographed holding up a copy of his Bible, saying, “It’s my favorite book.” If it’s his favorite book, he obviously has not read it, or if he has, he definitely did not understand it. It’s my opinion that the purpose of his book sale is to fundraise and propagandize. He said the proceeds from the sale of his book will not go into his campaign, but where else are they going if not to him?

In addition to being convicted of 34 felonies and twice impeached as President, Trump also faces more felony charges for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election and his part in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, among other things. He faces four federal charges for attempting to obstruct the certification of the election on Jan. 6, 2021. He faces 10 indictments for attempting to overturn the election results in Georgia. And he faces 40 counts for possessing classified documents at his home after leaving office.

In the Georgia case, a recorded telephone conversation has Trump demanding that election officials find him more votes in order to overturn the result.

“So, look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state,” he says in the recording.

His charges in the Jan. 6 case stem in part from him imploring Republican senators and Vice President Mike Pence to not certify the election. He also failed to call off rioters for hours despite numerous pleas from aides and his own children. Since then, he has gone on to praise the rioters as “warriors.”

The one thing that has been consistent with Trump is his lust for power and wealth. He is an egotistical megalomaniac hell-bent on holding the highest seat of power in the world. It’s not about making America great again; it’s about making Trump great. That in itself goes against what the Bible says in Philippians 2:3: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

If you don’t believe me that Trump is only in it for himself, he said just as much on June 22 while addressing the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference in Washington, D.C.

“You have to get out and vote, just this time. I don’t care, in four years you don’t have to vote. But Christians can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. If Joe Biden gets back in Christianity will not be safe in a nation with no borders, no laws, no freedom, no future.”

Did you catch that? In one breath he said evangelicals must get out and vote, but they don’t have to when he’s not running. Then he implies that Christianity will not be safe if Biden is re-elected.

Wow! Just – wow! How can anybody believe that?

So again, I ask you my brothers and sisters in Christ, how can you get behind this man? Is moral character not important in a leader? You might argue he is the lesser of two evils. I wouldn’t say that President Joe Biden is evil, but I do think he is misguided in his politics and policy and suffers from dementia and other ailments of advanced age. I do not believe either man is fit for the presidency. As American Christians we should not be forced to choose between these two men – the lesser of two evils. Why can’t we choose between the better of two good candidates? There have got to be alternatives. Which Democrat and which Republican are worthy and how do we get them on the ballot? I don’t have that answer, but I pray they can be found in time.

(Joe Southern is a professional journalist and columnist with more than 36 years of experience in weekly and daily newspapers.)