How many times have Christians heard biblical stories about how God has a larger plan, and He sometimes uses flawed individuals to bring His Kingdom to glory?
Who are those folks from biblical history? Well, from the Old Testament we have Abraham, David and King Solomon. From the New Testament, we have disciples, including Matthew, the tax collector, and Mary Magdalene, a devout follower of Jesus.
Biblical scholars, which I am not, know much more about the many flawed individuals from the Bible who became remarkable leaders.
Today, many in the evangelical church believe former president and likely 2024 GOP nominee Donald Trump is one of those “flawed characters” who has been anointed by God, and their support for him has become more fervent as the 2024 presidential election draws near.
For many conservatives who are non-Trumpists, it’s baffling the overwhelming support by evangelicals Trump has received and continues to receive. Tim Alberta, a journalist, a Christian and a son of an evangelical Christian pastor, explores this phenomenon in his recent book “The Kingdom, The Power and The Glory.” Alberta explores and asks how devout Christians could be so bound to a figure like Donald Trump, a three-time divorcee, an adulterer and a sketchy businessman who mocks the core Christian values of humility and empathy.
Politics has typically been an exercise in character for conservative Republicans in the past. So, what has happened?
I started watching the TV series “The Chosen,” just as I started reading Alberta’s book. If you haven’t watched this series, which is currently on Amazon Prime, I highly recommend it. It’s a four-season series exploring Jesus’ journey in selecting his disciples and leading them into the troubled waters of his ministry. As someone who never has really enjoyed reading the Bible, I have found this compelling storytelling that uses scripture and speculates about their back stories and their struggles as they come to terms with what Jesus was trying to teach based on their own historical understandings of Jewish teachings.
In watching this series and reading Alberta’s book at the same time, I’m seeing some context with what is happening in today’s evangelical church and what was going on with the Jewish people when Jesus arrived with his ministry.
For today’s evangelical Christians, they see their values and way of life under attack from what they consider radical leftist policies that don’t follow what they consider traditional values. The church has struggled with what they consider the conquest of secular culture. These include social issues such as abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and gender identity; religious freedom (government-mandated church shutdowns during COVID); economic policies such as higher taxes and increased government intervention and political policies they oppose related to education, marriage, and family structures.
During Jesus’ time, the Jews were thinking their Messiah would lead an army against their oppressors, of which there were many. When Jesus revealed to his disciples that he was building a spiritual kingdom, not a physical one, they were disappointed and confused. The Chosen powerfully portrays this bewilderment on the part of the disciples and the wrongful convictions of power among the religious leaders of the time.
Many evangelicals, according to Alberta’s book, see the role of their church and congregations to “take back America,” and no rhetoric is too appalling or alliance too shady to accomplish that goal. Many high-profile churches have invited purveyors of these arguments, such as Charlie Kirk, leader of the powerful conservative youth group Turning Point USA, into their sanctuaries to preach against the “homosexual agenda” and tout “a defining moment for us as Christians,” promising believers victory in the” culture war.”
Yet their version of America never existed and is not the “Kingdom” that Jesus sought to create with His ministry. The Kingdom of God isn’t at stake here. But the soul of the evangelical church and many conservative Christians certainly is.
Rhetoric that was once considered on the fringe of the evangelical church, i.e. Westboro Baptist Church, is now being espoused by some pastors in an even more extreme and incendiary way than Westboro. Many high-profile, so-called religious leaders and political leaders now support merging church and state and an embrace of state religion. They proudly promote the concepts of Christian Nationalism.
Many Christian conservatives turn away from this view, but they are being shouted down by their pastors, their families and their friends.
So, here we are, at the brink of the 2024 election. One agreement of just about every person of any political stripe is there is no more important time in our country. The country will continue to be very divided unless something dramatically changes. Will that division create another January 6 or worse?
As I look toward the future, I have to agree with Alberta’s biblical take on how to spiritually navigate this challenging future. He said he personally looks to scripture from Mark 8:36. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but forfeit his soul?”
And, from Paul’s second letter to the early church: “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. What is seen is temporary. What is unseen is eternal.”
Only God knows the full implications of our political decisions. But we must continue to pray and search our own souls as we make those political decisions.
Cindy Allen 