It’s not a presidency. It’s a cult.
The Babylon Bee, a religious satire website, nailed it—Evangelical Christians would vote for Satan if he promised to overturn Roe vs. Wade, support the Second Amendment, and claim to be Republican. How else do you explain the messianic adoration they have for Donald Trump?
It doesn’t matter that he couldn’t name a favorite Bible verse (I recommend he use John 16:3—look it up for a good laugh). It doesn’t matter that he’s a serial adulterer, which is what got President Bill Clinton impeached. It doesn’t matter that he curses frequently and brags about sexual misconduct. It doesn’t matter that he lies so frequently that it’s easier to count the times he hasn’t lied. He pays lip service to issues important to Evangelical Christians, and he’s not a black Democrat or a strong woman.
What’s interesting is the Bible actually predicts that “the elect” will be deceived by the Antichrist. In Christian folklore, the devil never comes with horns, a tail, and a pitchfork. He comes as everything the person or group of people ever wanted. Jesus was offered political power many times, and he always refused. Satan even offered him world domination in exchange for his worship, but Jesus stayed true to his mission. When his followers realized he wasn’t going to seek political power, they shouted “Crucify him!” and threatened to riot if the Romans didn’t comply.
I am a convert to the Mennonite tradition. We strive to live by the Sermon on the Mount—love your enemies, live a pacifist lifestyle, work for social justice, help immigrants and the poor, advocate for prison reform—the stuff we believe Jesus would do. We look at Emperor Constantine’s takeover of the Church in the Fourth Century as one of the low points of Church history.
Trump is Constantine. He pays lip service to Christianity and demands their loyalty even though his own faith is dubious. When Constantine passed the Edict of Milan, which gave Christians the freedom to worship, the Church became corrupted by political power. Heretics were persecuted, even banished, and other religions were suppressed, finally culminating in Emperor Theodosius I declaring Christianity the state religion. Centuries of religious bloodshed followed and it continues even today.
I remember watching Trump’s rise to power and wondering how so many so-called Believers could be deceived. Only Christian authors Phillip Yancey and Max Lucado spoke out against Trump, but they were drowned out and accused of not walking with Jesus. Now people, especially young people, are leaving Evangelical Christianity in droves because it’s obvious they’re more concerned with political power than saving souls—something Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson pointed out in their book Blinded by Might: Why the Religious Right Can’t Save America.
The problem, in a nutshell, is that Evangelicals want to force change, not let change happen when the Light of Truth sparks within the individual. They want to force an outside-in approach, when Jesus taught an inside-out approach. The only person power never corrupted was Jesus—sadly, his followers today fail to follow that example.
Jesus rejected political power every time it was offered, yet he changed the world simply by living his life, declaring his message, and practicing what he preached. The early Christians followed his example, taking the message to those who would listen and getting involved in changing the world by starting with what they could do—they stopped gladiator games, they adopted babies who had been left by the side of the road to die, they refused military service, they forbid capital punishment, they fed widows, they let women hold leadership positions. They caused such a disruption in Roman society that in Acts their enemies call them “these men who have turned the world upside-down”.
One person can do so much. And all of us are one person. A single snowflake is no problem. But when a bunch of snowflakes combine, they become an avalanche.
Winter is coming, Emperor Constantine.
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