So who should a Christian support in the upcoming election? Samson or Jezebel. On October 12, Ameri-Dan penned a piece on why Christians support Donald Trump in Samson v. Jezebel. Ameri-Dan does a good job in describing and contrasting the two candidates. But his final conclusion is essentially that Christians support Donald Trump because she is the lesser of two evils. This has never been a good rationale for supporting a candidate. As I have been saying for decades, when you support the lesser of two evils, that is exactly what you get–evil. I would rather build a positive case for why I can in good conscience support a candidate, and I will do so now.
As many other bloggers have, I must give my disclaimers. I am not a fan of Donald Trump. I did not support him in the primary, and after his nomination I was in the NeverTrump camp. Again, he was the lesser of two evils to me. My analogy was how can you distinguish between Henry VIII and Adolph Hitler? Trump is not a refined or polished man. He uses position and power to his own advantage. I still view him in that light. He is flawed. (News flash: so are you and I).
But Hillary is an unmitigated evil person. She uses government power to her own gain. And she is not above putting America at risk for her own gain. Bengasi, the Clinton foundation, and her email abuses are just the tip of the iceberg of her corruptions that put the nation at risk. Add to her corruption her leadership in a leftist movement that would subject the consciences of all Christians to the desires of the leftist moral code, or more correctly a lack thereof, and it is clear that Hillary would follow after the pattern of Hitler. Trump is indeed the lesser of two evils; but this is where Ameri-Dan and I part ways. In essence, this as a description of my journey to endorse Trump.
There are positive reasons to vote for Donald Trump, and they are reasons that did not support the election of McCain or Romney. To start this discussion, it is best to return to an understanding of the proper roles of church and state. I like to refer to a Trinitarian view of social governance, with the family, church and state each exercising their proper authority. Each has its proper symbol: the church has the keys to the kingdom, the state has the sword, and the family has the rod. Martin Luther looked at it as the two hands of God, the church and state. The church’s role, among other things, is to proclaim the gospel Jesus Christ and to care for the poor and needy. The state’s role is to guard the rights of individuals and establish liberty for citizens so that the church can fulfill its role.
Men bred for battle tend to be of rougher character than men bred for etiquette and protocol. This is in the very nature of creation. God made man to take dominion over creation. God made woman to complete the man, to refine him and finish his efforts with grace. As cultures become more in tune with God’s law, cultures can take on a more refined and feminine quality. As cultures become more barbaric and tyrannical, men must take on a less refined character.
The question becomes what kind of governance our culture demands. Our culture is becoming more barbaric and tyrannical than it was under Ronald Reagan. Every indication is that the left will promote and accelerate that progression to a base character in a move away from Scripture and Christian principles. Remember, our founders knew that our government was designed for a moral and religious people. As we move from there, our government will become less well suited for our governance. The establishment in Washington D.C. shows this inability. Both parties are complicit in this progression. To the extent there is an effort to confront this progression, it is entirely too feminine. Our culture calls for a rougher leadership than it did in the days of Reagan. Perhaps we have lost the privilege to live in a refined culture due to our departure from Scripture and Christian principles.
As I perceive Donald Trump, I perceive a man that has a tendency to be crude. Will he make mistakes? Yes. But it is clear he loves this country. His primary message is one of liberty, making America free again. Neither McCain nor Romney had that core conviction. They both showed repeatedly the willingness to capitulate to the forces of tyranny. Our Congressional leadership of both parties lack that core conviction. Trump does not show the tendency to capitulate. And so Trump is likely better suited to the task of leading this nation than anyone to lead this nation from tyranny to liberty. He will be exercising the hand of state and not of church. But he will free the hand of church to do its work.
So I return to the analogy of Samson and Jezebel. In the book of Judges, Samson asks his parents to get him a woman. His parent object to his desire until they realize that it is of the Lord to cause a confrontation with the Philistines. God called Samson, a deeply flawed man, to fulfill a task, to liberate His people from the Philistines. Henry VIII was a deeply flawed man, but God used him to single handedly bring the reformation to England. Without Henry, America would likely not have had the blessings of religious liberty it had in its founding. Let’s not now be so puritanical that we fail to see what God might be doing here in our time. God makes straight what is crooked. A Samson may be the very prophet we need for a time such as this.
Trump is a risk. He will need good people around him to protect him from himself. He has shown the ability to select good people. In a Trump administration, it is likely that the church will need to take a stronger hand in developing the conscience of the nation. This is something quite frankly the church should have taken a stronger hand in in the past 50 or so years. If the church takes on this challenge, it is a good thing. We need a national leader that will not capitulate to the forces of tyranny and will stand and fight those forces. Such a battle requires a hard man. We also need a church that will take on the role of the conscience in this culture and take back the role of education, declaring virtue, and providing compassion in a fallen world. It must take these roles back from the state. A Trump presidency, while not pretty, could provide this opportunity. I will be voting for Donald Trump.