(A mere 5 to 6-minute read)
Allow me to clarify my regular criticism of Donald Trump and those who can’t get enough of him since he announced his run for president in 2015. It occurred to me that those who think my consistent critique of his moral degeneracy and emotional incompetency makes me guilty of “judging” a fellow human being. “Judge not lest you be judged,” has been quoted to me many times by those who object to my critique. Let me clarify my position and motive so you can judge if I’m being judgmental.
Beginning with the Bible, Jesus warned us to “Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment,” implying that we are capable of righteously drawing certain conclusions about someone based on the circumstantial evidence of their behavior.
Just a breath or two after he tells us not to judge, he warns us to discern the disparity between a sheep in his own skin and a sheepskin with a wolf in it! He goes on to tell us to discern the qualitative difference between a true prophet and a false one, between a sheep and a goat, and between a mere believer and a true behaver. To correct is one thing, to condemn, another.
In terms of political implications, if the Church, as Martin Luther King claimed, is the conscience of the state then we cannot permit our culture to tumble over the falls without a warning. We are tasked to point our communities toward a more perfect union, and hold our leaders accountable to the task of working for liberty and justice for all. If we fail to recapture our prophetic voice, we will forfeit our moral authority and doom the Church to triviality.
When Donald Trump was a private citizen, I seldom if ever mentioned his name in conversation. Of course, I knew then what I know now, that he is narcissistically sociopathic, guilty of adultery, graft, and gross injustice against those who stand in his path on the way to accumulate more money, fame, and power. But since he didn’t occupy an office with national, even international consequences, I never felt the need to point out his depraved, if not entirely absent conscience. But once he descended down his golden escalator announcing his run for the highest office in the land, and every other land on the planet, I felt it was time to shine a light on his political incompetence and moral ineligibility for the job.
Granted, every sin that’s sinned harms the sinner and those sinned against. And Donald Trump has certainly sinned against God and a multitude of people. But, with any number of other calamities in the world I never had the desire to point out his dearth of morality, that is until he threw his hat in the ring for the Oval Office.
Spiritual leaders (pastors, prophets, teachers, apostles, and evangelists – Ephesians 4:11) have a responsibility to “reprove, rebuke, exhort” those they serve when needed. And, of course one doesn’t have to be a shepherd to “restore” fellow sheep “caught in a sin.” (Galatians 6:1) We’re all responsible to bring an errant brother or sister back from wandering off the path, to turn them from “the error of their way,” and thus “saving them from death and covering over a multitude of sins,” (James 5:19-20). But what I do when warning my tiny audience from the danger of Donald Trump is something quite different than rebuking a fellow believer.
It’s not Joe-Citizen-Trump, but public-servant-Trump that makes him fair game to warn my fellow voters (especially those with whom I allegedly share a faith in Jesus Christ). As a lover of Jesus and a patriotic American, I criticize Trump in order to prompt my small audience to better thinking and to tender their vote for almost anyone instead of him for president. I don’t believe it’s “judging” to point out that he is a dangerous option to lead our great country. In my opinion, he’s a menace to the American experiment and an embarrassment to the U.S. on the international stage.
More than that, when those who identify as “Christian” (whether as elected officials or as private citizens), voice and vote their support for him, believe me when I say that the sceptic is left to wonder why on earth anyone would join such a gullible tribe as ours. Author Anne Rice said: “I quit being Christian… It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.” I can’t say how many people I’ve encountered who, based on the number of so-called “evangelicals” who support Trump, wonder if Christians are either stupid or have their heads so deeply buried in the proverbial sand that we have nothing good to offer.
We’ve had self-proclaimed prophets predicting his win in 2020, hyper far right Republicans who identify as Christians, and brazen radio and podcast talk show hosts that claim faith, not to mention January 6 insurrectionists carrying “Jesus is my Savior-Trump is my President” signs. Other signs on that day: “Jesus Saves, Trump Leads” and “Thank God for Trump,” and “God has chosen him and is protecting him.” If this isn’t a clear violation of the third Commandment, where we’re told not to take (or carry) God’s name in vain, I don’t know what is!
On that infamous day, Christian Nationalism ripped off its mask and revealed its essence as a potentially violent movement whose face looks nothing like the Jesus I read about in the New Testament and fell in love with over 50 years ago. Which Jesus do we want to model our lives after and show to the world? Donald Trump and his travelling freak show have left an indelible stain on the integrity of Christ and his Church. I fear that it will take decades to remove.
I love America and the Church too much to fail to critique and warn us all of the danger of this man for political office. If you consider that in violation of the prohibition to judge a fellow human being, so be it. But for me “to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.” (Martin Luther)
[Go Deeper on what judging is and isn’t. See this: https://www.gotquestions.org/do-not-judge.html%5D
barney wiget 