It is no secret that the era of Trump has revealed a side of conservative Christianity that is in urgent need of repair. In particular, the fact that white evangelicals have embraced the former president in spite of all his moral flaws will remain a topic of discussion for some time. In this post, I will point to one reason that, at least partially, explains this aberration, even though Christians often choose not to address it: faulty reading of the Bible.

Support of Trump Remains Very Strong Among White Evangelicals

On June 1, 2020, former President Trump, after threatening to use the U.S. military to crush any unrest in American cities following the death of George Floyd, posed for cameras in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, holding a Bible.  He wanted to show that he was the “law and order” president, and strengthen the support he has been enjoying from white evangelicals.

The Episcopalian bishop of Washington D.C., Rev. Mariann Budde, was outraged by the move and said to CNN:

“Let me be clear, the president just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.”

As reported by Matthew Teague in The Guardian, Rev. Gini Gerbasi, an Episcopal priest, complained that police used teargas to drive her and others from St. John’s before Trump made his appearance, and said “They turned holy ground into a battleground.”

There is evidence that many of Trump’s white evangelical supporters, on the other hand, saw the matter entirely differently.  According to Teague, a Florida man named Benjamin Horbowy received Trump’s signal with delight and described his mother’s reaction: “My mother just shouted out, ‘God give him strength! He’s doing a Jericho walk!’”  He then added:

“My mother started crying. She comes from Pentecostal background, and she started speaking in tongues. I haven’t heard her speak in tongues in years,” he said. “I thought, look at my president! He’s establishing the Lord’s kingdom in the world.”

But when asked about the killing of George Floyd, he referred to some biblical verse he could not remember exactly: “There’s a Bible verse that says we shouldn’t talk about evil things. We can just say, ‘There’s evil’ and move on.”  Apparently, neither he nor his mother realized that the Lord’s kingdom he was referring to is meant to do precisely that: remove evil from the world by peaceful means.

When Trump announced his intention to “dominate the streets” using the military, Horbowy, like his mother, saw that as the work of “the kingdom in the world.”  He further explained:

“I believe it’s like Ephesians 6:10 through 19, I believe this is a president who wears the full armor of God.”      

That biblical passage is reproduced here for convenience:

^“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.”

In this passage, the apostle Paul refers to a battle against the devil’s schemes.  It is not a military battle against flesh and blood, where Christians kill their enemies.  Indeed, the weapons available to them are the “belt of truth,” the breastplate of righteousness,” the “gospel of peace,” the “helmet of salvation” and “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  Paul himself is in chains, and his battle consists in “fearlessly making known” that gospel of peace he mentioned.  Ironically, in these verses, among those listed as enemies of the early Christians are “the rulers” and “the authorities,” who have at their disposal the required military power to impose their will, the very thing Trump was eager to do as he wanted to “dominate the streets.”  Elsewhere, Paul denounces such rulers who demonstrated their opposition to God’s wisdom by crucifying the Lord of glory, namely Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:8).

On January 14, 2021, after the violent attempt by Trump’s supporters to overturn the government of the United States, a Texas pastor named Brandon Burden told members of his congregation that they had an “executive order” from God to keep Donald Trump in office, and advised them to keep their guns loaded ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.   He also spoke in tongues and claimed that “prophetic voices” had revealed to him that Trump would be in office for 8 years:

“We have an executive order—not from Congress or D.C., but from the desk of the CEO of heaven, the boss of the planet. He said from his desk in heaven, this is my will; Trump will be in for eight years.”

Given that Trump has now returned to Mar-a-Lago, one may wonder how much credibility this pastor maintains with his congregation for his prophetic pronouncements.  At any rate, his readiness to defend Trump at any cost, including the use of violence, is just another illustration of the current puzzling situation with white evangelicals.  It is also noteworthy that their attitudes and behaviors do not appear to be motivated by a desire to follow Jesus, whom they call their Lord and Savior during their church activities.  Recently, I saw a bumper-sticker saying “My boss is a Jewish carpenter” on one side, while the other side stated allegiance to Trump and MAGA.  In contrast, as seen above, Rev. Budde was primarily angered by the fact that Trump had used one of the churches of her diocese “as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.” Interestingly, it is clear that all those mentioned above have great respect for the Bible.  Why do they get such different messages from Scripture?

Why Are White Evangelicals So Pleased with the Former President?

An article published by Peter Wehner in The Atlantic in July 2019 provides an interesting summary of the reasons given by white evangelicals for their support of the 45^th president.  Some of the reasons are highly emotional.  For example, there is a strong belief that he has been wronged by the media and the anti-Trump forces, and never gets credit for anything.  Looking at his numerous successes against all odds, from being elected to surviving various investigations and challenges to his presidency, they conclude that he is “spiritually driven” and protected by God.  Therefore, they have continued to strongly embrace him, turning a blind eye to his ethical transgressions, not remembering how bitterly they held similar transgressions against President Bill Clinton.

White evangelicals believe they are engaged in an existential struggle against the American left, the “libs” as they call them.  They feel that they have been mocked and scorned by the libs for a long time.  Trump is their defender, and they approve of the tactics he brings to the fight, no matter how questionable they are: they do not want a nice guy as leader.  They want a street fighter.

Of course, one must add to the above the usual reasons given by evangelical leadership: they support a leader who will fight against abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, socialism, and will name conservative Supreme Court justices who will defend their political priorities.

Wehner expresses his concerns about the effects of these priorities on a truly Christian agenda.  To him, many white evangelicals have abandoned the ethics of Jesus to embrace a leader with no moral compass, thereby revealing their belief that “might makes right, the strong should rule over the weak, justice has no intrinsic worth, moral values are socially constructed and subjective.”  The events of January 6 certainly lend credence to this conclusion.  One might add that recently, Americans have discovered that some of their fellow countrymen, particularly among those on the Republican side of the political spectrum, no longer consider the concept of truth worthwhile, which is one of the most dangerous developments today.

If it is surprising to see Christians so attached to the former president, it is just as surprising to see the struggle white evangelicals go through when they realize that they can no longer support him.  In an article published in Huffpost on November 1, 2020, Carol Kuruvilla describes the struggle experienced by Becky Madigan, an evangelical who had been led to believe that a Christian has to be a Republican.  She had voted for Trump in 2016, but after four years, could not do it again.  However, she could not find the courage to vote for Biden until she was liberated from her brainwashing by a verse in the Bible which says:

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.” (Luke 11:42)

It became clear to her that the Republicans had been doing precisely that: tithing while neglecting “justice and the love of God.”

In the same article, Kuruvilla mentions that John Fea, a history professor at Messiah College and author of the book Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump, explains that the Christian right has convinced evangelicals that the issues that matter most are abortion and religious liberty.  Therefore, voting for Democratic candidates such as Biden amounts to contributing to the killing of millions of babies in the womb.  Of course, this logic fails to account for the fact that the number of abortions tends to be higher during Republican administrations.  Nevertheless, evangelicals who voted for Trump in 2016 but did not feel they could do it again had to find strong justification for voting for Biden.  Kuruvilla reports several arguments that came up in conversations between Huffpost and nine voters.

One argument was linked to the fruit of the Spirit, listed in Galatians 5:22 as love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  One individual explained his position:

“Christ said by their fruits you will know them, and that a good tree can’t bear bad fruit. I was looking for those fruits of the spirit and Trump had none. Zero.”

Another one wondered what good it is to have conservative judges in a country where there is so much hate.  She added:

“I have always felt that the person at the head of a family, team, or company sets the tone that trickles down. And I feel very strongly about the fact that having Donald Trump as our president is setting the tone that we see in our country today ― divisiveness, hatred, lying. People are not truthful about things, they don’t show concern for their fellow human beings.

I think we need a president who is truthful and transparent and who can bring peace to our country and bring people back together again. I think somebody of better character can do that job a lot better than our current president.”

A second argument was based on the Christian idea of welcoming the stranger.  One participant expressed her disappointment in Trump’s immigration policies which, in their worst form, led to the separation of 2500 minors from their parents or caregivers.  Pointing out the biblical call to care for “the least of these,” she expressed her feelings as a mother:

“It broke my heart and it still breaks my heart, as a mom, as a grandmother. No mother or father should be without their child.”

Another participant, reacting to her fellow evangelicals who were claiming that God is on Trump’s side because he is the “law and order president,” expressed her disagreement:

“Something in me broke. I thought, ‘If this is who we think God is, that he wants to traumatize children to get his way, I don’t think we know the true nature of God. We are aligning this president with God’s nature and I don’t think this is right.”

A third argument relied on an expanded understanding of what “pro-life” means.  Kelly Dingess, a 35-year-old evangelical Christian from San Diego, stated her belief that being “pro-life” goes beyond being “pro-birth” and should also be about “preventing unplanned pregnancies by increasing young people’s access to sex education and about making sure mothers are financially supported.”  It should also include protecting immigrants and minorities.  She summarized her position as follows:

“I feel like it’s a really ugly false dichotomy we’ve been given where we have to support everything Trump stands for, which includes harm to minorities and harm to immigrants, and support the unborn, or we have to support Biden and support minorities and be a baby killer.  If I have one, myopic view of abortion that allows me to support harm in countless other ways, that is really damaging.”

One participant mentioned that evangelical support of Trump had made witnessing more difficult.  He reported an incident with a co-worker with whom he was trying to share his joy because Jesus had changed his life.  He was caught off-guard when the co-worker, referring to Trump, asked him: “Why would I want to be a Christian when you support such a horrible human being?” He did not have an answer, but began to look at things differently.  He summarized one of his conclusions:

“When the world looks at the church, we’re supposed to look different. Purer, a higher moral standard. That’s gone with Donald Trump.”

Kelly Dingess had a fifth argument related to a misguided view of Christian power.  She mentioned the desire by Republicans to cling to power at any cost, and expressed her concern that “some evangelicals have fallen prey to Christian nationalism, fusing Christianity with a desire for political power. Evangelicals feel that their religious rights are being taken away and that traditional family values are being attacked.”  She then added:

“We become so fearful of being oppressed that we become the oppressor, we pass laws that restrict people’s freedom when God actually gives us the dignity of choice. We’re convinced that we need temporary power for the church to be what it’s supposed to be. But there is no threat to the true church of Jesus Christ when we are persecuted.”

What Do We Conclude from All This?

As I previously pointed out, both sides of the issue have great respect for Scripture.  However, they draw opposing conclusions from it.  They cannot be both right.  Are these differences an unavoidable result of reading the Bible and taking it seriously? Is God himself, by his nature as described in the Bible, responsible for the different portraits of him painted by his worshipers?  Is the Bible a worthwhile source of ethics or does it contradict itself so much that it becomes worthless?  Or is there something seriously wrong with the way some believers read the Bible?

It should be obvious to readers of this post that I side with those who question the relationship between evangelicals and Trump.  I also believe part of the answer is that there is something seriously wrong with the way some people read the Bible.  One obvious difference between the two sides presented in this post is that one side relies heavily on the Old Testament, referring enthusiastically to events such as the Battle of Jericho.  They also bring an Old Testament mindset into the reading of the New Testament, thereby hopelessly misinterpreting Paul’s words in Ephesians 6:10-19.

The other side focuses on the teaching of Jesus.  After all, aren’t Christians supposed to be followers of Jesus?  Ironically, the very Bible that teaches us about Jesus can become, when misused, a tool that moves us away from him.  This happens, for example, when people make assumptions about it that are in conflict with the biblical narrative itself.  This happens when calling the Bible God’s Word becomes a reason for deciding that every utterance in the Bible is divine, so that Jesus’ words no longer have a special place, and every word in the Bible has equal relevance.

The biblical narrative contradicts such assumptions.  In my new ebook Grace and Truth: How the Biblical Narrative Affirms that Christ Is Supreme and Parts of the Bible Are Obsolete, I follow the biblical narrative in detail and track theological and ethical developments in it.  In this manner, I show that the Bible is not ambiguous when it comes to Jesus’ place in the narrative.  Should we believe the biblical narrative or should we believe the assumption made by fundamentalists that the entire Bible is God’s inerrant word?  Pick up a copy of the book and judge for yourself.  And by the way, the book also provides a brief history of Christianity for the benefit of those who have little exposure to it and, therefore, have little background on how Christians have looked at God, Jesus and the Bible in the past.