Dear Evangelicals
Here are my pleas to a group of people who are worshipping out of both sides of their mouth.
The following is a series of facts, researched articles, information and common-sense opinions and observations (from a Christian) intended to prompt other Christians to ask questions of themselves and those around them. What I’ve found to be true of Trump supporters and Republicans in 2020 is that when faced with facts and information to the contrary of what they want to believe, they shut down — because they cannot defend someone who is indefensible. Also, there isn’t any logic involved in supporting Trump except he ran for political office as a Republican. Good enough? Good enough! Maybe there a lot of people out there who simply love C-list celebrity/failed businessmen who don’t pay their taxes. I don’t know.
What I do know is that shutting down lines of communication isn’t a real solution, nor will it create any kind of positive change in this election. If we can have honest conversations (not stubborn debates) based on truth and reality then maybe, we can find common ground based on truths and rid the United States of the disease of Trumpism.
In order to avoid being a total hypocrite, I will admit outright that I have plenty of blind spots and that I am not perfect. However, none of you are voting for me to be the leader of the free world.
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Dear, evangelicals.
Donald Trump is not a Christian. He says he is, but he can’t name a book, verse or Testament (Old or New) of the Bible (his “favorite book”) he likes—and he also lies constantly. Nothing about his life suggests his faith is real and as anyone can tell you, roses don’t grow on apple trees. You can’t say you’re one thing when you act like the opposite of that thing on a daily basis.
He’s claimed he doesn’t ask for forgiveness from God, he shows no contrition for his lifetime of aggressive immorality and he doesn’t embody any of the fruits of the Spirit Paul writes about in Galatians: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” His life aligns strongly with the seven deadly sins of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.
Our president is the very opposite of Jesus Christ, the person Christians ascribe their title from and claim to follow. Yet, evangelicals are arguably Trump’s largest base of support (four fifths of evangelicals backed Trump in 2016) and they will play a large role in deciding this year’s election. This fact is amazing in a really terrible, depressing way — especially for fellow Christians.
I’ve heard people (evangelicals) tell me they support Trump because Mike Pence is a super Christian or because Trump has a spiritual advisor. Get out of here. If I tell you I’m an astronaut because my sister’s mother in law used to date Buzz Aldrin, does that make me an astronaut? If I say I’m a dog, because I have one, will you believe me? Hillary Clinton worked with Mother Teresa to open a home for infants in D.C.—that must mean she’s pro-life, right?
You’ve been duped by Trump because he wants attention and power. That’s all it is. And he uses Christianity to get it. For a better understanding of how the Republican party hijacked evangelicals many years ago with lies, fear and promises, give this article a read. It’s long, but informative.
Trump got elected president in large part due to the fact that evangelicals voted him into office. And four years later I have yet to understand, even a little bit, how people who call themselves Christians can support support Trump and claim to follow Jesus Christ. It’s the absolute worst and makes zero sense.
Dear, evangelicals.
You might support the president because he pretends to care about abortion. He doesn’t care about kids, your kids, my kid, immigrant kids, poor kids or half of his own kids. He couldn’t answer straight about women he’s slept with getting abortions, and he’s changed his mind on the topic from one extreme to the other in the past 20 years. Why? For votes. He doesn’t care if babies are born, how good their schools are, if they get shot at school, what they eat for lunch, or what happens to them after they’re born so stop thinking Donald Trump has any concern for babies. He does not—but he knows you do, so he pretends. Why would you believe a serial liar when you know his motives are entirely disingenuous?
To be clear: I don’t like abortion; nobody I know likes abortion. But I also know I shouldn’t decide what other people do with their lives — it’s hard enough to do right with mine. I know the Bible says not to murder. It also (just in the commandments) condemns a number of things our president is widely known for: adultery, stealing, coveting, false testimony and idolatry. I also know that not everyone is a Christian and many believe life is a cosmic accident and we’re all here as a result of evolution. Should Christians be in charge of what everyone does? Did Jesus tell everyone in the middle east what to do and then use his power to politically strong-arm them into submission? No. That’s not free will. Speaking of free will, democratic policies promote sex education and provide access to birth control which, unsurprisingly, reduce unwanted pregnancies—Dem policies help people make better decisions with that free will (what a neat idea). Meanwhile, evangelicals keep waiting for the Supreme Court to do something as the rest of the country falls apart. And the SC will do something someday, but abortions are never going to fully end. If you want to limit unwanted pregnancies from happening, vote for the party that implements plans to prevent them. Vote for the party that tries to create the kind of society people actually want to birth children into.
Also, abortion is only a single issue. Do you know how many other ways you can vote that shows you care about people, babies, the elderly, the homeless, college students, the hungry, young parents, the mentally ill and the marginalized? Lots. There are many, many other issues and ways you can plainly show your Christ-like love for humanity in an imperfect world. Also, you can be a pro-life democrat—and also, here is a pragmatic POV from the super-conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. If the WELS has an open mind on this issue, so can you.
It’s OK to use information to think a little bit deeper about your convictions. It’s OK to doubt your doubts.
It’s not OK to be America’s morality police and then elect—and support—an unbelievably immoral person. At best, that doesn’t make any sense. At worst, you’re an incredible hypocrite. (Dems are hypocritical too, but 4/5th of evangelicals didn’t support the Democratic candidate in 2016, so let’s get back to the matter at hand)
Some people think that because Republicans oppose gay marriage, the party is more Christian. These are the same people who think that homosexuals choose to be gay like how I chose to be straight, tall, and too much like my mother. The Bible is a wonderful book in many ways and many of its lessons are applicable and wise. It was also written when the world was flat, women had no rights, there wasn’t the benefit of history or science and the homosexual no-no’s in the Good Book were primarily intended to get people to stop raping each other for sport. Context matters. The Bible condemns lots of things (because of the time in which it was written) but it does not condemn monogamous, loving same-sex relationships—the kind of normal, healthy relationship that many people I know are a part of. I realize I’m oversimplifying the topic, and I realize I just linked a scene from The West Wing, but the bottom line is that it’s not black and white as many evangelicals make it and they’re demonizing an entire group of people because that’s what many evangelicals have been told to do.
Conservatives cherrypicked some verses in a big book to ensure it’s a voting issue — another way to make it US VS. THEM. Another way the Republican party has hijacked the religious right.
I could use multiple verses in the Bible to condemn everyone I know. Heck, I can use the Bible to spurn Donald Trump in myriad ways. Does that matter? Are you, evangelical, going to tout your beliefs about holy matrimony and then go vote for the adulterous, thrice-married, multi-affair having, porn star hush-money paying, pussy grabbing president? Hahahahahahahahahahaha.
That’s funny.
You might think this is a Christian nation and the R party is the party of capital G, God — but we are not, and they are not, so forget that. It’s a myth. Jesus’ teachings, to the core, consistently, cannot be practiced by either party (or any government) so neither Dems nor Repubs are the party of God for this country. With minimal digging, you can find that we are a country that started with genocide and was built by slaves whom Christians abducted, owned, worked, controlled and killed in the name of God. This is not a Christian nation. It was simply started by Puritans who decided God would be a good backbone to support their racism, greed and power — that’s nothing new and is still common; using God is a popular way for corrupt men to keep and maintain that power.
Big huge deep breath.
And, maybe you think Donald Trump is a good man, blessed by the hand of God, because you believe his chest thumping and boasting about how successful he is/was as a businessman (not really) or how great the economy was doing in his first three years. Quick fact check: it was better under Obama. Ultimately, liars hate the truth and so do the people who believe the lies so they continue to buy the fiction.
If you want to vote like a good Christian, vote for the candidate who shows grace, compassion, forgiveness and decency to his or her fellow human being — that ain’t Donald Trump. Vote for the candidate who has ambitions to help the poor, the marginalized, the homeless, the hungry and the sick. That’s not Donald Trump.
Here is an incredibly small list of links that further cement the point. None of these things are hard to find or believe if you pay attention to some kind of real, actual news source (BTW, if you don’t like the news, it’s not fake — it means you might need to rethink what you believe). The information and facts below should be common knowledge by this point.
Greed — all he cares about is himself, his wealth and his ego.
Adultery — takes a long time to find this information (just kidding, it doesn’t).
Abuse of Power — over and over and over again.
Deceit, Lies, Misdirection — by the end of summer, the president hit 22,000+ lies or misleading statements since taking office. We hold 12 year olds to a higher standard. #SMDH
Cruelty, Collusion, Corruption and Crime — this is not a short read.
The Environment — not exactly a good steward of God’s creation — because he doesn’t care.
Repeated Indecency — “Hey, kids. Look. That’s the person I voted for to be your president.”
Attacking the Poor and Immigrants — wait, weren’t Jesus, Joseph and Mary, poor immigrants?
Charity Fraud — when you’re allowed to get away with crimes your entire adult life, you aren’t going to just stop.
Taxpayer Thievery — and this, just for effect and in case you think Obama was just as bad. Nope.
Hate Groups Are on The Rise — “Trump has made people in the white supremacist movement move back into politics and the public domain.” Hate thy neighbor, right?
Evangelicals, people of God, followers of Jesus, if all that isn’t enough and you have another three hours to really get a good look at the abhorrent man four fifths of you elected to be the president, and still support four brutal years later, listen to this and this — it’s a two part podcast filled with facts about Donald Trump’s life. Who he is, how he got this way and some of the endless people he’s wronged along the way. At times, it’s actually hard to listen to.
Absorb the facts. Stop bending your brains and ignoring decades of investigating, reporting and information Trump has Tweeted or given in interviews — again, it’s not hard to find the truth if you’re open to it.
As I mentioned earlier, you cannot defend someone who has gone out of his way to be indefensible, yet people try. When Mark Galli, the former editor in chief of Christianity Today took a look at the facts and denounced Donald Trump during his impeachment, theology professor (and noted evangelical) Wayne Grudem used his imagination (and cherry-picked verses from scripture) to fire back. Here is The Atlantic’s breakdown and response to Grudem’s mental gymnastics.
The problem is this: I don’t think a single evangelical will read this and reconsider his or her thoughts or voting stance next week. Why? Because people would rather be dead than wrong; if Hitler ran for office as a Republican, GOP voters would figure out a way to believe he’s the right man for the job. Sadly, as long as they’ve already hitched their wagon to Trump and keep their eyes and ears glued to Fox News they’ll continue think they’re right. But they’re not. And today, as COVID cases continue to surge as this bumbling president continues to shirk responsibility and blame everyone else for his failures, countless people have to suffer and die because of it. Look at his lazy response to a crisis that’s killing more people in this country than two wars and tell me he values human life.
With your support and love of Donald Trump, evangelicals, you are showing the world that you love this clown more than you love Jesus Christ.
And that’s a huge problem.
Trump supporters are driving people away from the church, and ultimately Jesus. One of my many concerns is that people ignore the gospels to soothe themselves and whatever fear they’re told to have and so they turn to an idol who says he can save them — the idol is Trump. And it makes me mad that so many men and women in this country are too incurious or scared to find the truth and figure any of this out on their own. So, here are my pleas to an audience of people who have for years refused to have eyes to see or ears to hear the truth.
Dear, evangelicals. Your hypocrisy is in the spotlight and repelling people from God and the church. It’s not Jesus’ fault. It’s not because the gospel isn’t inspiring. It’s because the evangelical church and what the church stands for in America — judgment, hypocrisy and now, Donald Trump — is so wrong. You stand for the opposite of what Christianity is when it’s at its best — Jesus. Most decent, thinking people in 2020 do not want to be a part of anything that supports Trump and therefore, they don’t want to be a part of many churches in this country. And I don’t blame them.
Dear, evangelicals. Having power, having the feeling that you’re in power because the president claims to be a Christian is not Christian. It’s the opposite. It’s self-serving, not selfless. It’s what Constantine did. It’s what Hitler did. It is what other horrible men have done. You’re harnessing your hopes to a wildly immoral person because you think the Republican party is a Christian group of people (God’s Own Party). It is not. Clinging to earthly power at any cost (especially at the cost of the poor, the sick, the elderly and the immigrant) is the opposite of Jesus’ life and teachings. If you feel threatened by whomever the Republicans are telling you to be scared of, stop. Jesus didn’t come to save you from saying “Happy Holidays” and he didn’t come so that you can be powerful and in control. If you think so, you’re missing the point entirely.
Dear, evangelicals. If you believe the devil is at work in the world, deceiving people and telling them lies, you are right. If you believe the devil isn’t lying and deceiving you as you support this president, you are wrong. You’ve blithely bought the conspiracy theories and lies; you bit the apple and you should be embarrassed — not emboldened. But that won’t happen. It took hundreds of years for this country to be ashamed of slavery (orchestrated and maintained in the name of God) and we still haven’t done much of anything to make it right. The Nazis used Martin Luther’s teachings to unite German Christians in support of Hitler and there are plenty of white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers out there right now, too (like Trump). You think you’re supporting the right guy, but you’re not. You’re being conned by an exceptional snake.
Dear, evangelicals. If any of you can accept all these truths as a reason to look in the mirror, think about the risen Christ you claim to follow and the fool you’ve helped put in the White House please, vote against Donald Trump next week. You don’t think you can vote for Joe Biden? Fine. But if you claim to be a Christian, you cannot vote for Donald Trump. If you choose to applaud this man and the party that empowers him — maybe I haven’t been clear, so we’ll go through this again real quick: Trump is the very opposite of the Christ you claim to follow. He’s a racist pagan who attacks, bullies, lies, cheats, harasses, steals and manipulates non-stop. He doesn’t care about the marginalized, he doesn’t care about babies, he doesn’t care about creation and he does not care about you. He cares about himself. That’s who he is. That is his pattern of behavior and it’s well documented.
If you’ve read all this, and all the articles I’ve attached, you know there isn’t any reason for you, evangelical, to vote for Trump, So then you have to ask yourself if “sticking it to the libs” and four more years of chaos, disorder, deceit, oppression and anti-Christian behavior is worth your perceived feeling of being right about the old conservative Republican ideology that doesn’t even exist anymore. As any reasonable, considerate Christian or non-Christian member of society can tell you, it’s not.
In Matthew 13, Jesus uses the parable of the sower to describe the hearts of people: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
At the end of that chapter, Jesus was rejected for his teachings. So it goes.
Start seeing. Start listening. Start understanding and stop being a slave to lies. You were not born to be tricked by some grifter — and then, somehow, be proud of it.
Dear, evangelicals. Do not vote for Donald Trump.
