By Akilah Holder
Donald Trump has lost the US presidential election. Praise the Lord! Amen! Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus! If Trump is not the most reckless human being that has ever walked the face of this planet earth, it is only because Hitler took the cake many years before him. I am, therefore, quite relieved that he will no longer sit as the president of the United States of America. Phew! That was close. Now I am aware of the implications of a liberal president for Christians; however, a Biden-Harris administration brings the much needed mental stability to run a nation. Additionally, their leadership is likely to be more compassionate.
You see, Trump ill-treated immigrants, when God states very clearly in Leviticus 19:34 that, “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” Exodus 23:9, moreover, states, “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feel to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt,” and Exodus 22:21 states,” “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” How is it that Trump’s Christian vice president, Mike Pence and other so-called Christian leaders who sat as advisors to Trump did not point out this verse to him?
Secondly, how is it that no one advised him against hypocrisy? Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that few Christian pastors called him out on his appearing before the St John’s Episcopalian Church in Washington, DC, holding up a Bible. Trump is no fan of God and his word; any idiot could see that. Therefore, his behavior was hypocritical and ought to have been shunned by his ecclesiastical advisors. It was not. Matthew 6:5 states, that “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men…,” in the same way Trump wanted to be seen by men when he stood in front of St John’s; but few lifted their voices against his hypocrisy.
Thirdly, his arrogance. “There are six things the Lord hates,” commences Proverbs 6:16 to 19, “seven,” it continues, “that are detestable to him … haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” Pride is one of the seven things identified above as hated by God. Yet, none of Trump’s Christian advisors cautioned him about it, and few American evangelicals called him out on it. In this country, Christians also blindly supported Trump and failed to highlight his pride.
In fact, Trump’s pride led to his loss in the 2020 US presidential election. Significantly, American evangelicals in support of Trump and evangelical supporters here tacitly supported his proud behavior by their failure to correct him. To date, they have not even acknowledged pride’s role in Trump’s loss of the election.
Trump’s shortcomings not acknowledged and dealt with by the Christian fraternity continues – “a person who stirs up conflict.” Another one of the Lord’s dislikes as outlined in Proverbs 6:16 to 19. Instead of calling out Trump on his fueling of racism in the United States and his fueling of international discontent with the US because of his foreign policy decisions like pulling America out of the World Health Organization, especially during a pandemic, the Church supported him. Many American evangelicals rallied around him and many here as well rallied around him instead of correcting him.
Then there is his mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis which continues, his lying, womanizing and so forth.
Yet some of my fellow Christians (well, given the false prophecies made by some of them, I’m not too sure who’s a legitimate Christian anymore), continue to rally around Trump because of his anti-gay rights and pro-life stances as if gay rights and abortion are God’s only two moral concerns.
They are not.
Significantly, the Christian community’s unwitting sanctioning of Trump’s bad behavior is tantamount to its idolization of Trump, its presentation of Trump as their God and saviour. He’s not, and never was. Even worse, the Bible in Exodus 20:3, states that Christians must have no other gods before” God.
Trump was made into a God, and that is why Christians failed to correct him. I don’t know how many of Trump’s Christian supporters realized that this is what they had done and are doing, but that’s what they’ve done and continue to do.
But Trump was never the Christian’s salvation, God has been and always will be. Psalm 121:2 teaches that the Christian’s “help comes from the Lord.” Moreover, Proverbs 21:1 states that “In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him.” So you ought to have never looked to Trump for help or rescue.
The daughter of the now-deceased American evangelist, Franklin Graham, Anne Graham Lotz, cited the story of Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel, how God used him, to justify her voting of Trump and her call for other Christians to vote for Trump. She reasoned that if God could use Nebuchadnezzar, he could use Trump.
Can’t the same logic be applied to president-elect Joe Biden, a more compassionate and wise leader?
So, Trump or Biden, God is our help. And Biden’s heart, just like Trump’s heart, is in God’s hands. Not all of Biden’s policies are pro-Christian, but he is not your help. God is.
