Why are So Many Evangelicals Voting for Trump?

Numerous exit polls indicate that large numbers, perhaps as many as half, of self-described evangelicals are voting for “The Donald.” YouTube videos show well-known evangelical pastors anointing Trump and beseeching God’s favor over his candidacy. It is altogether fitting and proper that we do this. Christians are obliged to pray for those in authority and ask that God provide guidance in their lives.

But something more is going on.

Throughout our long national history, the cultural power of Christianity has meant that politicians with no faith or interest in the Gospel or scriptures were inclined to genuflect to Christianity and defer to normative Christian standards of conduct and expression.

Trump is vastly different in this regard.

He is so removed from cultural Christianity that he is cannot even successfully pretend to understand its most basic tenets. Indeed, he is the product of the churlish world of reality TV—just another force in the coarsening and vulgarization of our culture. His ugly materialism, his scatological barbs, his egotistical messaging, and his transparent Darwinist morality should deeply distress all Christians.

Yet clearly many Christians are not troubled. Why?

First, too many Christians today do not know the nature of the Christ they claim to follow. The strong instinct to adhere to a savior must be checked by judgment and discernment or it will be abused and lead to the following of false messiahs. Scripture tells us this.

Second, modern Christians have become breathtakingly ignorant in matters of faith. In many evangelical circles, emotion has supplanted the Word. Scripture and coherent creeds have taken second place to an exuberance that turns faith into magic. If we feel good about something, this is confirmation enough in our post-modern Church.

Third, a powerful prosperity doctrine has spilled over the surface of the Church. Many Christians believe that wealth is a marker for genuine Christianity. If this is so, it is hard to argue against the anointing of a multi-billionaire.

Finally, many Christians have allowed patriotism to be conflated into the meaning of their faith. They wear lapel pins with crossed flags and Christian banners. Many on Facebook create memes of screaming eagles and crosses and American flags conjoined in unholy polygamous union. This is merely a new genera of the old syncretism of Israel and the religion of pagans.

I love my country. Fiercely. And I pray I am strong enough to die for my Lord, if death is required as proof of that loyalty— but I do not equate patriotism with faith. They are distinctly different things. This nation is under God, not coequal or coterminous with God. One will bow to the other, because God and Caesar are not the same.

No man can serve two masters.

The Church is sick. We are not just talking about abstract theological and ecclesiological consequences. Sloppy doctrine has a real effect on our surroundings. It has transformative social power. Our beliefs are projected into the world like exhalation from our lungs—like the breath of God. Christians breathe out a worldview, and if it is poisoned we poison the world with every foolish and false idea we communicate. These deficiencies redound on the condition of the society we live in and on the political order of life in America.

This is a harbinger of very dark times to come.

A supine church spells the end of America as America. While I am disposed to believe that most Christians have not yet lost their spiritual compass, the church is increasingly losing its powers to navigate by discernment—which is to say the probity, wisdom, and character formed by the knowledge of Christ.

If there is to be political redemption, it must come first through Christ and not by the subjection of the Church to the world. We cannot deliver Jerusalem by crying out for Barabbas. God’s redemption works in a profoundly different way. But to know this, one must have studied the Word of God rather than seeking validation of our opinions by feeling. We will not save our country by imagining that any man who ascends to the judgments seat is our hope.  We can only discern the truth when we know Him.

For those who know the Truth, there can be no counterfeit.