Should Christians Support President Trump?

I want to avoid making this article one of purely politics. I also do not want this to be an apologetic defense of President Trump.

Someone asked me recently why so many Christians support President Trump. As they put it , “it is nothing short of amazing the cult-like following/loyalty he has garnered from 1/3 of our country, and in particular, the Christian community.”

First, we should not have a cult-like following/loyalty toward anyone. We follow Jesus and Him only. So, if indeed any Christian does have such a loyalty to the President they need to rethink and re-calibrate their faith.

The struggle typically revolves what are perceived as major character flaws. As was stated to me, ‘a president should posses traits like integrity, transparency, empathy, patience, diplomacy, humility, accountability, trustworthiness, etc.’ I think all of us would admire such qualities in our leaders and we should hope for them and pray God molds them in this direction.

Many people struggle with this question, both believers and unbelievers. They do not understand how people (Christians) who value morals so strongly could support a person with such character flaws.

We must first consider how far are we willing to go to judge that President Trump does not possess any of these traits in an acceptable level AND how many of our presidents possessed them at any significantly greater level?Many of those traits mentioned can be faked, especially to the public eye. Satan is not bombastic but rather he is slick and smooth talking. Which matters more, saying what sounds good or doing what is right? Read Matthew 21:28-32, the parable of the two sons. When asked to do something by their father, one said ‘sure I’ll do it’ and didn’t while the other said ‘I’m not going to do it and ended up doing what their father asked. Jesus asks, “

“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

Then goes on to tell them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. ^ For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.”

In other words, the people that you don’t think have such great character traits were the ones that believed. I’m not ‘preaching President Trump into heaven’ and making no claims regarding his salvation. That is for He and Jesus. But this illustrates for us that what we DO speaks more loudly than what we say.

I would suggest that much of what this president has DONE in the last 3 years far more greatly reflects what Christians value than many previous administrations. Isn’t de-funding planned parenthood vs requiring churches and Christian organizations to perform abortions through their health care plans something Christian’s would want? Isn’t appointing judges who believe in the sanctity of life vs judges who strongly believe in a woman’s choice to murder a baby a Christian value? Isn’t allowing people to keep more of the money they worked for vs the redistribution of wealth to give handouts to those who are unwilling to work a good thing; Paul said, “If a man is not willing to work, let him not eat.” Isn’t criminal justice reform to achieve a more equitable system for those often overly targeted and prosecuted in line with the Christian value of justice? Doesn’t ending senseless conflicts in other countries make sense to Christians? Isn’t it a good thing to diminish our bondage to a godless, horrible, oppressive regime, China? Don’t Christians want the right to worship and serve God how they feel the Bible says vs how the government says they should? These are all related to things Trump has DONE since in office.

Does President Trump have flaws? Oh my yes. Can he change them? Hopefully so and I would like to see that. There is much about his character that I dislike and I do not think a large part of the Christian population have a cult-like loyalty to him. That is a fairy tale told by the news. Integrity is better measured by what a person DOES than by what they say.

So, can a Christian support someone in leadership who has character flaws? Well, guess what, we’ve been doing that in this country to one degree or another for the last 244 years.