Evangelicals and Reality in the 2016 Election

The 2016 American elections are over. Donald J. Trump is the new President Elect and the Republicans have retained control of both houses of the Legislature. Conservatives throughout the nation are rejoicing. Evangelical leaders would have us believe that we who claim to be born-again / evangelicals tipped the balance of the scales with our voting. Furthermore, a cursory reading of their social media posts would have us believe that God has blessed our nation with the Trump presidency and that Mr. Trump is our hope and shield for the next 4-8 years. These influential Evangelicals spent months demonizing Hillary Clinton and the Democratic left and all but anointed Donald Trump as the defender of the faith.

Personally, I don’t think it was necessary to demonize Mrs. Clinton; she did that quite well for herself. Her positions on abortion, marriage, and other issues of national morality betrayed that she is no friend of Evangelical Christianity…no matter how much she quotes Scripture. Mr. Trump’s life track-record of misogyny, arrogant bloviation, habitual use of obscenity, and his rejection of the idea of personal repentance and the need for forgiveness - not-to-forget his previous support of liberal ideologies and political positions – tends to also speak for itself and leaves much to be desire…no matter how well he reads Scripture from a teleprompter.

Don’t get me wrong. Of the two, Mr. Trump was the definitively better choice for Evangelical Christians. He claims to have made a profession of faith and changed his mind on social and moral issues which Evangelicals find of utmost importance. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and refuse to stand in judgment of his conversion. The fruit of a redeemed heart will eventually become manifest in a person’s attitudes and actions. The best I can say for the impending Trump administration is time will tell. Mr. Trump will either demonstrate that he is a friend to Evangelical Christianity or he will not. It’s too early to make that determination. For the time being, the best we Evangelicals can say is that we made the best choice within the field of candidates we were given.

But, this article is not about the candidates; it’s about us.

I think it would behoove we who align with the Evangelical Christian presence in America to take a step back and get a grip on reality for a moment.

All Governments are God-Authorized

There are some who want to be our spiritual, moral, and societal Evangelical leaders – the voices of the movement, so to speak – who I believe are forgetting a core biblical truth regarding our national leadership. Every single system of government and person in authority over other human beings rules at the behest and Divine authorization of God alone. Romans 13:1-2 undeniably states this truth, “…there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted…”

Think about that for just a moment. That means that men like Rameses II (1279-1213 BC), Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), Nero (AD 37-68), Attila the Hun (c. AD 406-453), George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler, Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama have all ruled at God’s desire and determination. Whether for good or ill, to the benefit of God’s people or as judges to bring us to repentance, God alone determines and authorizes human governments and governors.

How does this truth apply given our recent circumstances? It is not only foolish, but biblically untrue, to imply that Donald Trump is God’s anointed ruler for America and that Hillary Clinton wouldn’t have been. It’s further incorrect to imply that Evangelicals now have God’s man in the White House, but that we haven’t had for the past 8 years. The biblical truth is that we Evangelicals have had God’s Divinely determined and authorized man at the helm of our nation since its inception. Of the 43 men who have served as President of the United States, not all of them have been godly Christian Evangelicals, but all of them have been God’s men in the sense that they have all been Divinely appointed and authorized to rule our nation – whether for our good or ill.

I call upon my Evangelical brothers and sisters to remember this truth and not exalt Mr. Trump beyond the position God intends him to hold. I fear that exalting him to a quasi-messianic place will backfire on Evangelicals should Mr. Trump prove not to be a friend to biblical Christianity.

Evangelicals Didn’t Sway the Vote Like We Think

It has been claimed by certain Evangelical leaders and conservative media outlets that the Evangelical vote is what tipped the balances in Mr. Trump’s favor. That’s just not the truth, or at least it doesn’t seem to be. Preliminary research from Pew Research is rather interesting. While no one has hard numbers of how many Evangelicals voted in 2016 compared to previous elections, it doesn’t seem to be a staggering increase. What can be determined is that exit polls reveal that very little has changed in the voting patterns in our nation. Those who claim to be born-again/evangelical Christians and white Catholics tended to vote Republican and for Trump. Religious “nones,” Hispanic Catholics, and Jews tended to vote Democratic and for Clinton. Among white, evangelical Christian voters, 81% voted for Trump. In past elections 78% voted for Romney (’12), 74% for McCain (’08), and 78% for Bush (’04). With a margin of error of -5, no appreciable difference is discernable. Additionally, Pew found that the percentage of voters among the total electorate who claim to be Evangelical Christians remained the same in 2016 as it was in 2012 and 2008 (26%). In other words, the Evangelical vote has not changed much at all since 2004. The numbers of Evangelical voters and the way we vote has not changed since the pollsters began counting our vote as a demographic.

When you consider that Hillary Clinton claimed more than 230,000 popular votes than did Donald Trump, it becomes clear that the popular vote didn’t go Trump’s way. Without a breakdown of every state’s exit polls showing how many Evangelicals voted in each state in 2016 compared with past Evangelical voting in that state, it is impossible to determine whether it was our vote that carried the day and paved the way for Mr. Trump to secure his 279 electoral college votes.

In the end, it just doesn’t matter. What does matter for Evangelicals is our attitude and our trust. My fear is that leading Evangelicals will use the assumed Evangelical influence of 2016 in an attempt to sway the Trump administration into enacting a Christian agenda only to find that they don’t have as much influence as they think they have. I fear that Evangelicals may find ourselves as nothing more than pawns in the hands of a master deal-maker and embarrass ourselves to the detriment of the Gospel. My fear is that we might, as my grandmother used to say, “get too big for our britches.” I also fear that we’re putting too much trust in a man and human government, while forgetting that our hope is in the Lord. We would do well to heed the words of the Psalmist, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” We need to remember that God is the source of our faith and not the might and influence of politics or agendas. Politics and politicians come and go, but God is our constant and He never changes. Let’s make sure our collective hearts are focused on Him.

Cautiously Prayerful

Some of my Evangelical friends say they are “cautiously optimistic” that the Trump presidency will befriend us and bless us. I want to be perfectly clear here. I am glad Mr. Trump won. I will even admit that I voted for the man. Given the field of candidates and their espoused positions, I don’t see how I could have done anything else. Humanly speaking, I felt backed into a corner. In the eternal scheme of things, I trust God more than government and so I prayerfully gave my decision to Him and let the proverbial chips fall according to His Divine design.

That said, the Trump presidency has yet to reveal itself for what it will be. I am fearful that we Evangelicals have put too much stock in a man and an agenda. It may be that we have gotten what we asked God for and we may not like what we’ve gotten in the end. I fear that the attitudes I’m seeing in the media and through social media from Evangelical influencers is going to reposition us to where we were in 1996. Coming off the heels of the Clinton Era (1993-2001), Evangelicals turned out to the polls in numbers that were influential enough to make pollsters stand up and pay attention (which is why our sub-culture is now counted in election exit polls and courted by candidates). In an election not wholly dissimilar to this year’s, George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore by just under 543,000 votes, but won the electoral college. President G.W. Bush, an openly Evangelical Christian, inaugurated 8 years of Evangelical Christian popularity and political influence not before seen in my lifetime, let alone modern American history.

What happened among Evangelicals, I believe, was a growing spiritual apathy and getting off mission. Our focus became about the agenda rather than the Gospel. The result? After 8 years of political influence, Evangelicals turned up to vote in numbers not unlike 2000 and 2004. Despite the Evangelical vote, Barack Obama beat John McCain by 9,522,083 popular votes and took the electoral college 365 to 173. In short, John McCain got spanked and it wasn’t because Evangelicals didn’t vote for him. The statistics show that we did vote in numbers similar to those of Bush and in percentages equally as similar.

I believe God has given American Evangelicals the Obama presidency as a wake-up call. It may turn out that our Father has given us the Trump presidency as an act of mercy and grace, or it may turn out otherwise. Time will tell. I further believe that if we once again get our collective focus off why we’re here and what our mission is, then we are doomed to repeat history; a history not unlike Israel during the period of the Judges. We are the Church. We exist with a solely Gospel mission. God is not going to question us for our politics, but what we’ve done with the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the only power that effects lasting life and societal change anyway.

While some Evangelicals are “cautiously optimistic,” it would behoove us to be concertedly prayerful. Paul commanded Timothy in this regard in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Break this truth down and what you find is that we have a responsibility to pray for all people; particularly those in civil authority over us. Why? So that we can lead tranquil lives and have a period of rest. Why would Paul want us to have the freedom to lead tranquil and restful lives? So that we can focus on our mission without distraction! The truth is that when God’s people are enabled by human governments to lead “peaceful and quiet lives in godliness and holiness” that the Gospel proclamation is freer and unimpaired. When human governments allow the Church to engage in her Gospel mission without complication and interference, then God’s people are able to stay on-mission and see lives eternally changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This pleases God!

Our responsibility at this stage of the game, as Evangelical Christians, is to fall to our knees and beg God to allow the Trump presidency to afford us tranquility and stay out of our way while we engage a lost and dying world with the truth, love, grace, and mercy of God found in the Gospel. We need to commit to staying on-mission for Christ above exercising our inflated political muscle.

May God help Mr. Trump to be such a president, and His people to be such a Church.