Window of Opportunity

It’s hard to miss. Stories about the baffling support for Donald Trump among evangelicals are common these days, and no wonder. A greater contradiction is hard to imagine, for reasons that have been documented… well, everywhere. “Evangelicals love me,” the candidate himself has declared.

I’m a reluctant Republican. Several years ago, I tried to change to Independent, because I see no real difference between the political parties. I didn’t spend a lot of time trying, but it was not, so far as I could discover, easy to change. So I didn’t bother.

This year, for the first time since I can remember in my voting life, there are actually choices in the primaries. This is the one advantage of still being in a party: one can vote in the primaries. There have been several competent candidates, but it’s quite possible that the choice will be made by mid-March, before the primaries even occur in my state — and the choice will not be one I would ever make.

Trump is riding high largely because of evangelical support, and of all the things I’ve read about that mystifying fact, this post by Max Lucado seems representative of my own point of view, as well as that of most of my Christian friends. It’s called “Decency for President,” and it makes the simple point that the Presidency is the face of America. When it comes to basic qualities of decency, courtesy, kindness, trustworthiness, Trump is sadly lacking. Lucado writes of his various antics,

Such insensitivities wouldn’t even be acceptable even for a middle school student body election. But for the Oval Office? And to do so while brandishing a Bible and boasting of his Christian faith? I’m bewildered, both by his behavior and the public’s support of it.

The stock explanation for his success is this: he has tapped into the anger of the American people. As one man said, “We are voting with our middle finger.” Sounds more like a comment for a gang-fight than a presidential election. Anger-fueled reactions have caused trouble ever since Cain was angry at Abel.

How can Christians be joyfully casting their votes in anger? Just a quick search of a concordance reveals plenty of food for thought on the subject, but these verses in Colossians 3 are a good place to start:

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

It’s all there: the unacceptability of anger as a motivating force, the imperative to forgive, and why. One can be angry and without sin; who would deny that there can be a temporary burst of creative energy when someone is angry in a healthy way? Repression is not the goal, but neither is festering, unchecked rage.

Ultimately such anger is always self-destructive. Sure, it can do plenty of damage to others, too… It can kill a marriage. It can destroy a child’s confidence. It can fuel a war. It motivates murder. But if untended, it has a boomerang effect that ends up destroying the source, too. It can become addiction, eat away at the soul, or lead to suicide. But one thing it never does is provide the kind of reliable clarity and judgment needed to make a good decision. It is something everyone feels and everyone has to work through at various times, but the goal is never to stay angry, and least of all to chart one’s course while angry. Christians of all people should know this.

Even institutions need to be forgiven from time to time. I have learned that over the last few years. The institution, in my case, has been the institutional church which, with all its failings, provides a stability and community that I need in my Christian life. When I hear prominent evangelicals praising Donald Trump, I feel a familiar incredulity that the Bible’s metaphor of the Bride of Christ is so heart-breakingly borne out in practical realities, so much of the time. But flawed institutions are truly all there is to work with. Through the cracks of its failures and embarrassments, there is still something of the glory of God shining through, so there is always hope. It’s a net gain… Where Christians congregate en masse, you have the frustration of our flaws multiplied, but you also have also the multiplied presence of God in the hearts of people who love him.

Government is different (though I have had to sort out similar feelings about the two institutions). It does not have the same blessing as the Christian church, or the same lofty metaphor. It is the front-lines of temptation and the lust for power, and we have every reason to be disillusioned.

But I care very much about our future. We have a small voice every four years. I too am frustrated and anxious about many things happening in this country, yet for the outcome of this election to be determined by anger so hot it has become blind and reflexive would be a disaster. I pray that this window of opportunity would not be wasted and shattered by rage.