In Donald Trump, Evangelicals have found their Man

In Donald Trump, Evangelicals have found their Man

By Pastor Hal Mayer on Jun 04, 2018 06:30 am


If you want to understand the relationship between American Evangelicals and Donald Trump consider this.
“Critics say that the Trump-evangelical relationship is transactional, that they support him to see their agenda carried out.” But evangelicals take the long view on Mr. Trump. They believe that all people are flawed, and because Christ offers them grace, shouldn’t they do the same for the president? They believe that Mr. Trump is in the White House for a reason. Few would have anticipated that Mr. Trump would work so hard to restore the Judeo-Christian culture in America that has been rapidly disappearing on the American landscape, especially in the last decade.
While Billy Graham was bringing evangelicals into the mainstream of American culture, Donald Trump was watching from the sidelines and become wealthy and famous, culminating in become president of the United States. He is now bringing evangelicals somewhere – to a place so many would have never imagined, an embracing support of Donald Trump.
But how can well-known evangelical leaders who treasure and champion morality get behind a man like Mr. Trump, whom the media paint as out-of-control, angry, mentally unstable and reckless, and who, at first had evangelicals going in the opposite direction because of his historical and public moral failings. What is their common ground? Both evangelicals and Mr. Trump share a distain of political correctness, for different reasons perhaps. They also share the desire to restore America to its Judeo-Christian values. But, Evangelical leaders have also found that Mr. Trump has a more compassionate side. He funds special projects of compassion for flood victims, for instance. He appreciates prayer for him and softens his temperament under their influence.
“Evangelical leaders also see a civic obligation to speak godly counsel to him, on policy and personal matters. He is, after all, the president. And it’s paying off. He is delivering on the policy promises he has made, and evangelicals see that he is making spiritual progress as well. Mr. Trump told David Brodie, CBN’s host of Faith Nation that he “was exposed to a lot of people, from a religious standpoint, that I would’ve never met before. And so it has had an impact on me.”
Mr. Trump’s “effect on our cultural norms has been shocking. His critics would call it appalling,” wrote Brodie, but evangelicals were looking for a bold culture warrior to fight for them. They want someone who will do what they believe is crucial to the long-term viability of America as the most powerful nation on earth.
“Finally, why in the world wouldn’t evangelicals get behind and support a man who not only is in line with most of their agenda but also has delivered time and time again? The victories are numerous: the courts, pro-life policies, the Embassy in Jerusalem and religious liberty issues, just to name a few. He easily wins the unofficial label of ‘most evangelical-friendly United States president ever.’
The goal of evangelicals has always been winning the larger battle over control of the culture, not to get mired in the moral failings of each and every candidate. For evangelicals, voting in the macro is the moral thing to do, even if the candidate is morally flawed. They have tried other candidates before, but none of them come close to the impact of the blunt strokes in defense of their views.
Evangelicals have found their man. Perhaps, like the late Billy Graham’s relationship with many presidents and world leaders, they have embraced Mr. Trump, even though he has moral failings, because he is doing the work that they have been looking for a President to do.
While many of Mr. Trump’s policy principles are good and can be embraced by all true followers of Jesus, there is something about the uniting of the evangelicals with the political machine that is ominous. Historically, whenever religious leaders have united with the secular political powers that be in an effort to restore moral absolutes, they have always gone too far and imposed laws that attempt to control conscience. They start by correcting social evils that are connected with the last six of the Ten Commandments, and end by imposing absolutes, on the nation relating to the first four commandments, which have to do with conscience. The result is that the true followers of Jesus end up on the wrong side of those latter laws.
“Heretofore those who presented the truths of the third angel’s message have often been regarded as mere alarmists. Their predictions that religious intolerance would gain control in the United States, that church and state would unite to persecute those who keep the commandments of God, have been pronounced groundless and absurd…. But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated, the event so long doubted and disbelieved is seen to be approaching, and the third message will produce an effect which it could not have had before…” Maranatha, page 172.

Source References
In Donald Trump, Evangelicals Have Found Their President