Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz
MAGA Christians really need to stop spiritualizing the man and his movement.
It’s sinful.
It’s blasphemous.
It’s heretical.
It’s lousy evangelism.
It’s laughable.
It’s offensive.
It’s also just plain asinine.
The hypocrisy on display is historic: after spending the 8 years straining to find infinitesimal specks in Barack Obama’s eye that they could condemn as moral deal breakers—in the 8 years since, Evangelicals have been perfectly fine with Trump’s forest of rotted Redwoods.
In fact, in the most dizzying display of theological spin doctoring, they actually declare that it is precisely his ever-growing trail of personal toxic discharge that supposedly proves evidence of God’s hand in it all.
The “logic” goes that God uses flawed human beings, so Trump’s multiple marriages, his porn star affairs, his sexual assaults, his verbal obscenities, his disregard for rule of law, his compulsive lying, his clear racism, his unrelenting attacks on marginalized communities (things these Christians would have figuratively and almost literally crucified Obama for) are now unmistakable signs that God is using this former President.
This is nonsense of Biblical proportions. Trying and draw some line between Jesus of Nazareth and Donald of Florida is about as farcical as you can get without actually spontaneously combusting from the cognitive dissonance.
Dying to justify their own allegiances to Trump, Evangelicals have lumped him in with other famously flawed heroes of Scripture, suggesting he is actually God’s anointed, imperfect tool of salvation—in the tradition of the Old Testament. (Well, God did apparently use the jawbone of an ass, so I guess there is precedent).
This sanctified retrofitting of this godless, loveless human being to any kind of providential momentum is the height of absurdity. By that measurement, let’s find all the most reprehensible human beings we can, give them carte blanche in our seats of power—and see just what God can do!
No, Donald Trump wasn’t anointed by God.
He isn’t an instrument of Divine will.
He isn’t Biblically hastening Armageddon or Jesus’ return.
He’s just a hateful, indecent, predatory fraud who is destroying the environment, stripping people of their human rights, making America a global laughingstock, and driving decent people from religion in droves.
His ascension is not prophetic but pathetic, the result of:
- Russian interference,
- fake news,
- gerrymandering,
- voter suppression,
- a compromised GOP,
- Hillary hatred,
- Obama resentment,
- Fox News brainwashing,
- Democratic stumbles,
- the votes of bigoted Evangelicals,
- whites terrified of losing market share,
- third-party voters,
- and the inaction of 100 million Americans who couldn’t be bothered to participate in one of the greatest responsibilities of living here by voting.
That’s it.
No Providence.
No Divine messages.
No Biblical prophecies.
No spiritual movements.
No act of God.
Just ordinary human beings who chose really, really poorly when they should have known better.
This isn’t a mystery or a miracle—and it sure as hell isn’t God.
Trump Christians need to stop passing the buck to the Lord and just own the compromises and sick bedfellows they’ve been willing to make for Supreme Court seats, anti-choice legislation, weapon stockpiling, and a rapidly assembling white Evangelical theocracy.
Stop name-dropping God. God is love, while Donald Trump is incapable of it.
God wasn’t generating fake news or showing up at his campaign rallies or stumping for him at nationwide crusades or using him as an expression of their misogyny.
God didn’t vote for the guy who said he could grab women by the genitalia.
God didn’t choose the guy who said protestors should be beaten.
God didn’t go with the guy endorsed by the KKK.
God didn’t excuse the bankruptcies and overlook the affairs and laugh off the racist remarks.
I’m pretty sure people did that—lots of supposedly Christian folks.
And God isn’t now justifying Trump’s vile nonsense on social media,
or creating Constitutional crises,
or ignoring the rule of Law,
or celebrating LGBTQ discrimination,
or laughing off collusion, treason, and human rights atrocities.
Again, Christians.
We really should stop pretending God is responsible for this fast-food dumpster fire when it’s clear whose hand is in it all.
This reality is the rotten fruit of misogyny,
racism,
Nationalism,
fear,
xenophobia,
and bigotry—all released by people who want God to consent to it all so they don’t have to deal with their own culpability or face their own repentance.
God didn’t choose any of this.
John Pavlovitz
John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.
