Donald Trump is a spiritually dangerous choice: a Response to Wayne Grudem

I admit, I’m addicted to this election. It has provided endless hours of entertainment, anxiety, hilarity, disgust, and incredulity. But last week, a sobering thing happened that registered heavily on my radar as a follower of Jesus: Wayne Grudem endorsed Donald Trump for president bringing his full weight to bear as a theologian and professor of ethics. Grudem’s book, “Systematic Theology” is a mainstay in most seminaries and his endorsement will ease the anxieties of many conservative evangelicals who feel keenly the tension of voting for someone as obviously unchristian as Donald Trump.

I’m not too surprised by the myriad Christian leaders such as Jerry Falwell Jr. who have come out swinging for Trump so far. After all, Trump seems to know us better than we know ourselves. He knows that there is one thing conservative Evangelicals in our culture hunger for more than anything else (hint: it’s not Jesus). So in a recent meeting with Evangelicals, Trump made his case plainly to the applause of his born-again audience:

“…And I say to you folks because you have such power, such influence. Unfortunately the government has weeded it away from you pretty strongly. But you’re going to get it back. Remember this: If you ever add up, the men and women here are the most important, powerful lobbyists. You’re more powerful. Because you have men and women, you probably have something like 75, 80 percent of the country believing. But you don’t use your power. You don’t use your power….”

It’s easy to imagine how evangelicals who stand to gain power and influence through a Trump presidency could jump on the bandwagon. But Grudem at least appears to be arguing from an ideological perspective. As far as I know, he has not been offered a spot on Trump’s “Evangelical Advisory Board” (though as it happens, he DID sit among Rubio’s evangelical advisors). What this means is that respected Christians leaders and theologians are now attempting to develop a serious and sophisticated apologetic for supporting Donald Trump.

Thankfully in the last few days, a number of excellent rebuttals to Grudem’s article have surfaced from thoughtful Christians who see through Grudem’s irenic tone to the abundant fallacies of his argument. Theologian Scot McKnight says it well in his article:

“Instead of coating with Christian make-up Donald Trump’s obvious lack of Christian convictions and character as Wayne Grudem did... he should have reduced his endorsement to the following sentences:

1. Evangelicals need to align themselves with Republicans. (That is, Grudem is saying “I believe the Republican party is closest to Christian convictions.”)

2. Hillary Clinton is a Democrat and so deficient that one cannot vote for her as an option. (That is, Grudem is saying “I cannot in any way vote for Clinton or the Democrats.”)

3. Donald Trump is the Republican nomination.

4. Therefore, vote Trump.”

Instead, Mcknight argues, Grudem used his authority as a theologian and ethicist and “affirmed the unaffirmable and defended the indefensible about Trump... Vote for him, Grudem,” McKnight says. “Just don’t pretend your years of teaching Christian ethics lead to an endorsement of the man’s character, even if you think he is a good candidate with ‘flaws.’”

Grudem argues that Christians should pragmatically evaluate not only Trump as a candidate, but the kind of nation that would result from a Trump presidency. He discusses at length the profound impact Trump could have on the Supreme Court and what that would likely mean for abortion, gay marriage, and religious liberty. He even goes so far as to say, “Such a court would likely overturn Roe v. Wade and return abortion laws and the regulation of abortion to the states.” This of course rests on the likelihood that Trump is genuinely prolife, will not go back on campaign promises, is generally honest, and is not simply pandering to his conservative base to get their votes, all of which Grudem incredibly seems to assume on faith. (For a moderating opinion on Grudem’s apocalyptic vision of a liberal Supreme Court and the “Trump card” this has been for the Republican nominee, check out this article.)

From this argument, he jumps into a general defense of Republican policy, going so far as to claim that Christians “ought to” support lower taxes, decreased spending, and a stronger military. This to me is simply irresponsible coming from a theologian. I’m certain Grudem feels sincere convictions about taxes and the military, but they are not theologically superior convictions nor should he not pretend they are.

But my real concern about Grudem’s article and the idea that 78% of white Evangelicals will exercise their “Christian conscience” in voting for Donald Trump in November is that in the end, we just might get everything we want: political influence, a conservative supreme court, stricter immigration policies, tougher abortion laws, and greater religious freedoms (for Christians anyway). But in the process, we will lose our moral clarity, our prophetic voice, even our very souls. Seriously.

If Grudem’s unlikely vision becomes reality, Evangelicals may enjoy an unprecedented season of political power and a legislative environment friendly to evangelicals, their policies, and their institutions, but not their gospel. Because we will so blunted and morally bankrupted by the back-breaking work of contorting our spiritual convictions into a Trump-style conservatism that there will be no gospel left for us except “stay safe, destroy our enemies, and fight for our rights.” We will find ourselves slipping away from the Jesus we first loved to a Jesus who agrees with all our opinions and blesses all our agendas. We may in the end gain the political influence we crave but sacrifice our spiritual and moral substance in the process.

What I saw at the RNC a couple weeks ago and throughout the Trump campaign was the emergence of a truly Satanic culture built on fear, bitter vindictiveness, the muzzling of opposition, a shared hatred of a common enemy which Pastor Mark Burns identified as “Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.” Like a personality cult, what is left of the Republican party now orbits around the whims of a single individual. All of this is dressed up in a Christian façade to ease the conscience of Evangelicals who want so desperately to believe that they are voting for what Grudem calls, basically “good, but flawed” candidate who will faithfully represent them and their conservative interests.

To really wrap our brains around a vote for Trump, we will need to soft-pedal his narcissism, foolishness (see John Piper’s excellent article, “How to Recognize a Foolish Leader”), and unrepentant sin (I still don’t see a shred of evidence to substantiate James Dobson’s claim that Trump is now a “baby Christian”.... See also Matthew 7:16.)

To truly support Trump as Christians, we will need to stop calling these things “evil” and start calling them (as Grudem does) “flaws” or (as author Eric Metaxes writes), “foibles, peccadilloes, and metaphorical warts.” Both authors make a limp-wristed effort to identify the concerning qualities of Trump’s campaign but then essentially sweep them under a rug by essentially saying, “He doesn’t mean that stuff. He’s just being a blowhard. And even if he is a tyrant, congress and his advisers will keep him in check so no big deal.”

In dressing Trump up as a basically good (even Christian) candidate now, we have already begun eroding our conscience and blunting the edge of our moral clarity. We have become complicit with a personal evil which will—no matter WHO’S on the cabinet—translate to systemic evil, which Christians will no longer possess the moral clarity to identify or challenge.

Should we bomb the families of terrorists? Well, Grudem states this is merely a “mistaken idea... that he must later abandon.” And the spitefulness, the vindictive behavior, the sexism, the demonization of Mexicans and Muslims, his hesitance to rein in “angry fringe supporters”?

“These are certainly flaws,” Grudem says. “But I don’t think they are disqualifying flaws in this election.” In fact Grudem states clearly, “I don’t think it is right to call him an ‘evil candidate.’ I think rather he is a good candidate with flaws.”

This moral ambiguity and hesitance to call evil what it is should be a jarring wakeup call for evangelicals. Because if America DID start “taking out” the families of terrorists, or rounding up Muslims, or passing discriminatory laws and executive orders targeting immigrants or minorities, we would at that point be so morally numb that we may simply sit on our couches bemoaning “what a pity it is that it should come to this” and then change the channel reminding ourselves that we picked a “good candidate with flaws.” And since white evangelicals would be the last group to suffer under such policies, we could keep on soft-pedaling, insisting that it is “business as usual.”

Beyond the theological and moral gymnastic required to airbrush Trump’s candidacy from a Christian worldview, I’m watching Trump actually change the beliefs of evangelicals far more than they are changing him. While evangelical leaders insist they are asking Trump “tough questions” I’m watching these leaders slowly begin to embody the anxious jargon and hateful rhetoric once reserved only for Trump’s fringe supporters. It concerns me greatly when I observe the rudest, most sarcastic and spiteful Trump supporters on social media also quoting the most bible verses. Some of these people are family and friends. And people like Grudem are giving them permission to absorb into their lives the very “flaws” which we whitewash as the “lesser of two evils”. In other words, Donald Trump is discipling evangelicals and we are letting him.

The outcome for Christians will be the qualities Paul describes in 2 Timothy 3, which already fit Trump so perfectly:

“There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”

So let me make a recommendation not as a matter of politics but as a matter of Christian conviction: have nothing to do with Donald Trump. Have nothing to do with the personality cult, which has become his whole platform and policy. Do not vote for him. Do not excuse him or defend him. Do not embrace him, even as the “lesser of two evils.” No matter what he offers, stand against him and the truly evil foolishness that his life and policy engenders.

Lest you think I’m judging him too harshly, listen to these words from James: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

You may think I’m unfairly singling out Trump when so many politicians are wicked and corrupt. The reason I’m doing so is because while I do believe character counts in any leader, James has more to say about the “bombastic” leader (or teacher) with an untamed tongue, which “makes great boasts” (James 3:5). This is not “just another flaw.” He says that those who cannot control what they say will also be unable to control their bodies (v.2). Their words will be like a rudder that steers a ship or a spark that ignites a forest fire (v.4-5). In this case, the angry narrative and “bombastic” language of Donald Trump are not benign “mistaken ideas”. They are the rudder and spark that will steer and ignite a nation toward deeper fear, anger, and division. And if we get sucked into the gravity well of this narrative, we will find ourselves becoming passively complicit (or actively engaged) in actual atrocities.

Dr. Kevin Baird says it well: “It is without question that Christians have and will be ruled by morally corrupt, flawed, and evil people. The question that is never answered is, are we required to empower those people to leadership? I can accept God’s providence in allowing an Ahab or Jezebel to rule, but am I expected to empower either one to that position?”

At the end of the day, the gospel of Jesus has survived the harshest political climates in history. But Christians should be careful of the dangers of compromising with brazen evil in the name of gaining cultural influence for themselves or their policies. Jesus stares this false pragmatism in the face when he says, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

Wherever you line up politically, Christians should have to courage to stand against evil from within as well as evil from without. They should be the first to challenge systemic evil, even the evil that benefits them. We should have the courage to say along with Martin Luther, “my conscience is captive to the Word of God... To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. So help me God. Amen.”

But far from marching blindly into cultural obscurity, I believe this act of courageous faith in maintaining our moral clarity in the tension of impossible decisions is the only way to restore our prophetic voice and moral authority in our culture. If we are willing to surrender our political influence in rejecting the “lesser of two evils” approach and refusing to enthrone Trump, we will find a much deeper cultural influence than the one promised by Falwell’s “moral majority”. In other words, those who lose their life will find it. And those who lay down their influence will discover it in wonderful new ways.

I can’t tell you what party to align with, which policies to support, what taxes to lower, or what walls to build. But I can say this to all evangelicals without hesitation or apology: Don’t ever defend or support Donald Trump.

And if at the end of the day, you still feel you MUST vote for him, then do it eyes wide open. Recognize that you are voting for what the bible would call a wicked and foolish leader. (As Proverbs says, “when the wicked rule, the people groan.) So if you do vote for him, then you must also be the thorn in his side. You must be dogged and vocal in maintaining your moral clarity and calling for accountability in every one of his “mistaken ideas” and “metaphorical warts”. This will be difficult if not impossible to do. But don’t whitewash him. Don’t call him “a man who believes in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Don’t call him “a good candidate with flaws.” He is not. Regardless of whom you vote for, stand strong against fear, hatred, and evil wherever it is found. Stand against injustice, especially for those outside your group.

Don’t get drawn into the hatred and fear of a false narrative. Be a peacemaker. Because, “The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”