Well over a year ago, Fuller Seminary President Dr. Mark Labberton gave a courageous, biblical, rebuke to those Christian leaders who continued to foolishly give Christian support and justification to Trumpism.
I’ve regretted that political leaders, like our two Senators from North Carolina, have continued to justify Trump’s lies, support of dictators, and sins against women, immigrants, and people of color. But our two Senators are politicians, which may explain their cowardly justifications. There may be political, economic, or military reasons for acquiescing to the immorality of Trump. However, there can be no Christianreason for doing so.
The specifically Christian, biblical response to the sad current state of affairs has already been articulated over a year ago in an address by the distinguished President of Fuller Seminary, Dr. Mark Labberton. You can read his solemn warning to evangelical Christians HERE.
Now my friend and student, Thomas Pietila, recently retired after a distinguished ministry in South Carolina, has written a letter to his local newspaper on the continuing disgrace of Christian leaders attempting to muster Christian support for Trump. Tom’s letter is below. Let all of us who presume to speak in the name of Christ take courage from Tom’s call to speak up and to speak out in this time.
Evangelicals and the President
The conservative, evangelical political figure, Peter Wehner, recently voiced his dismay that white evangelicals continue to support President Trump. A Pew Research poll found that 70 percent of white evangelical Protestants form the strength of his base.
Why, I wonder. Is it that he lies about things minor and major? Is it because of his womanizing, misogyny? Or his personal wealth that allows him to silence prostitutes with hundreds of thousands of dollars? Is it his unique ability to dehumanize friends and enemies and make fun of the handicapped? Is it his virulent strain of nationalism combined with a tinge of racism that we are nostalgic for? Is it that he declared he has no need to confess wrongdoing? Is it that he is untethered to any sense of right or wrong?
Wehner, an advisor in the Reagan and Bush administrations, understands why evangelicals voted for him. He is mystified why they continue to support him after it has become clear that very little about him embodies the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. I am an inheritor of a great evangelical tradition and I share his bewilderment and his fear that the values and power of the evangelical tradition will soon be crushed.
Jeff Manning, the conservative, evangelical pastor of Unity Free Will Baptist Church in Greenville, N.C. voted for President Trump. Now, after the anger stirred up in his home city, he reflects, “I have grave concerns about his spiritual condition,” Manning said of the president. “There’s too much evidence against it. . . . I pray he will become one.”
I merely want to protect my evangelical roots and, like Wehner and others, point out that white, evangelical followers of Jesus are his most ardent supporters, and I find no biblical basis for that. Mark Labberton, President of Fuller Seminary —the largest evangelical seminary in America— writes, “The scandal associated today with the evangelical gospel is not the scandal of the Cross of Christ, crucified for the salvation of the world. Rather it is the scandal of our own arrogance, unconfessed before the Cross, revealing a hypocritical superiority that we dare to associate with the God who died to save the weak and the lost.”
Rev. Tom Pietila
Peculiar Prophet 
Unfortunately far too many of our congregants follow this man instead of Christ. I now have 3 people who will come to Sunday School (I am at my other Church) and then leave when I arrive. This did not happen prior to my sermon on Loving our Neighbor and its implications for water, food, and proper shelter for immigrants.
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Thanks for the kind words, Will. The letter was in our local paper on Monday. Interestingly, I received many positive comments from women! Keep resisting and speaking up.
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I, too, wonder how Christians justify their support for Pres. Trump who is the antithesis of all Jesus Christ taught and lived. I see no Christlikeness in Trump. While I realize we did not elect a pastor we did elect a leader of our country. In the past we expected our leaders to have moral integrity. This president has not demonstrated integrity. We also expect a leader to work for the welfare of all people in this nation not just the white, male, Evangelicals nor the wealthiest 1%.
We also expect that the President will trust our intelligence agencies and not Russia’s Putin.
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The escalation of racialized rhetoric from the President of the United States has evoked responses from all sides of the political spectrum. On one side, African American leaders have led the way in rightfully expressing outrage. On the other, those aligned with the President seek to downplay the racial overtones of his attacks, or remain silent.
As faith leaders who serve at Washington National Cathedral ¬– the sacred space where America gathers at moments of national significance – we feel compelled to ask: After two years of President Trump’s words and actions, when will Americans have enough?
As Americans, we have had such moments before, and as a people we have acted. Events of the last week call to mind a similarly dark period in our history:
“Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. … You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?”
That was U.S. Army attorney Joseph Welch on June 9, 1954, when he confronted Senator Joseph McCarthy before a live television audience, effectively ending McCarthy’s notorious hold on the nation. Until then, under the guise of ridding the country of Communist infiltration, McCarthy had free rein to say and do whatever he wished. With unbridled speech, he stoked the fears of an anxious nation with lies; destroyed the careers of countless Americans; and bullied into submissive silence anyone who dared criticize him.
In retrospect, it’s clear that Welch’s question was directed less toward McCarthy and more to the nation as a whole. Had Americans had enough? Where was our sense of decency?
We have come to accept a level of insult and abuse in political discourse that violates each person’s sacred identity as a child of God. We have come to accept as normal a steady stream of language and accusations coming from the highest office in the land that plays to racist elements in society.
This week, President Trump crossed another threshold. Not only did he insult a leader in the fight for racial justice and equality for all persons; not only did he savage the nations from which immigrants to this country have come; but now he has condemned the residents of an entire American city. Where will he go from here?
Make no mistake about it, words matter. And, Mr. Trump’s words are dangerous.
These words are more than a “dog-whistle.” When such violent dehumanizing words come from the President of the United States, they are a clarion call, and give cover, to white supremacists who consider people of color a sub-human “infestation” in America. They serve as a call to action from those people to keep America great by ridding it of such infestation. Violent words lead to violent actions.
When does silence become complicity? What will it take for us all to say, with one voice, that we have had enough? The question is less about the president’s sense of decency, but of ours.
As leaders of faith who believe in the sacredness of every single human being, the time for silence is over. We must boldly stand witness against the bigotry, hatred, intolerance, and xenophobia that is hurled at us, especially when it comes from the highest offices of this nation. We must say that this will not be tolerated. To stay silent in the face of such rhetoric is for us to tacitly condone the violence of these words. We are compelled to take every opportunity to oppose the indecency and dehumanization that is racism, whether it comes to us through words or actions.
There is another moment in our history worth recalling. On January 21, 2017, Washington National Cathedral hosted an interfaith national prayer service, a sacred tradition to honor the peaceful transfer of political power. We prayed for the President and his young Administration to have “wisdom and grace in the exercise of their duties that they may serve all people of this nation, and promote the dignity and freedom of every person.”
That remains our prayer today for us all.
The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington
The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, Dean of Washington National Cathedral
The Rev. Canon Kelly Brown Douglas, Canon Theologian of Washington National Cathedral
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These are the most ridiculous comments against Trump from a Christian I have seen lately. IF THE LIB DEMS CANT BEAT HIM THEY BRING THEIR SELECT CLERGY TO TRASH THE BEST PRESIDENT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS HAVE EVER HAD! Trump is the last chance for a normal America. I am ashamed that this article was written by a old friend of mine.
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Well put. may we as Christians take it all to heart.
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