“Jesus Weeps” – John 11:35
As a person who identifies as a Christian with a deep faith and a personal walk with Jesus Christ, I cannot fathom why so many evangelical Christians embrace President Donald Trump with such fervor. I would think that if Jesus lived in someone’s heart, and they professed a personal faith in Jesus Christ, they would desire a leader who embodies Christ’s teachings. Instead, I truly am shocked with the large number of evangelicals who unabashedly support Trump while giving no heed to the many ways he is the complete antitheses of Jesus.
Here are the five points where I feel President Trump is diametrically in opposition to the Christian faith as taught and lived by Jesus and as recorded in the Bible.
1) Being kind. Ephesians 4:34. President Trump spews hatred and nastiness instead of showing respect for all humanity. Mocking a person with a disability, calling Senator Kamala Harris a monster, telling Muslim-American Congresswomen that they should “go back where they came from,” demeans fellow human beings.
2) Seeking truth. John 8:32. Jesus taught that Christians should seek the truth. President Trump has continued to lie from the time he spread the birther theory that President Obama was born in Kenya to lying about the seriousness of COVID-19 to proporting that Vice President Biden has dementia. Too many evangelicals embrace these lies and preach them with as much passion as the gospel.
3) Loving your neighbor. Mark 12:31. Jesus taught that all people are our neighbors and that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. So many evangelicals are following Trump’s direction of not needing to wear masks to curve the spread of COVID, denying that systemic racism persists in our country, and providing tax breaks to the wealthy while cutting crucial services to those less fortunate. It is a disgrace that middle class and upper middle class white evangelicals continue to amass wealth at the expense of marginalized communities and then claim that they are wealthy because God has blessed them for their righteousness.
4) Welcoming the foreigner. Leviticus 19:34. A theme throughout the Old Testament and then continuing into the gospel is welcoming the visitor and foreigner. Trump wants to build a wall to keep “them” out, separate children from their parents, and lock the kids away in cages. I don’t see many evangelicals calling Trump out on this.
5) Respecting women and the sanctity of marriage. Ephesians 5:25. Many evangelicals fume over same gender couples committing their lives to each other in marriage, yet are totally fine with Trump going through three wives, having multiple affairs, paying off a porn star with hush money, and feeling he can grab any woman’s private parts whenever he wants.
I feel that when Jesus sees how his so-called followers are twisting His words to pompously support their own materialistic self-centered and self-serving lifestyles, that as John 11:35 says, “Jesus Weeps.”
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Blog author Stan Kimer is a diversity consultant and trainer who handles all areas of workplace diversity and with a deep expertise in LGBTQ+ diversity strategy and training, Unconscious Bias and Employee Resource Groups. He also is a former President of the North Carolina Council of Churches and a long time leader within in Metropolitan Community Churches. Please explore the rest of my website and never hesitate to contact me to discuss diversity training for your organization, or pass my name onto your HR department. [email protected]