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    • Christian nationalists are wrong about Trump — and about God
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    Christian nationalists are wrong about Trump — and about God

    Online Niel Posted on

    I hate to break anyone’s bubble, but God is not Republican or Democrat. He is the Savior, not a politician.

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    The Republican Party has long coveted the evangelical Christian voting bloc. Donald Trump does, especially.

    Christianity’s influence has declined in America in recent years, but a Gallup poll released in March showed that 68% of Americans still identify as a Christian. In 2020, 71% of white Americans regularly attended church voted for Trump. In 2016, white evangelicals represented a fifth of the total electorate − and overwhelmingly supported Trump over Hillary Clinton (77% to 16%).

    According to the Pew Research Center, 85% of white evangelicals favor the GOP in 2024.

    In recent years, many evangelical voters have shifted from supporting a particular candidate or party to Christian nationalism. (Christianity today defines Christian nationalism as “the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way.”

    But God, Trump and the Republican Party are not synonymous.

    “11 o’clock Faith Leaders Meeting”

    On Monday, pastors, including prominent evangelical leader Franklin Graham, rallied for Trump at a Christian outreach event that the former president’s campaign called “11th Faith Leaders Meeting” in Concord, North Carolina.

    “This election is about whether we are a secular nation or one nation under God,” said Dr. Ben Carson, the faith chairman of Trump’s re-election campaign.

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    Trump discussed how he believes Christianity is intertwined with his campaign: “My faith took on new meaning on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania, where I was essentially knocked to the ground by what appeared to be a supernatural hand. And I would like to believe that God saved me for a purposeand that’s to make our country greater than ever before.”

    This has become a common political sentiment among millions of Christians.

    At the event in North Carolina, Guillermo Maldonado, a pastor from Miami and longtime Trump allytold attendees that this election wasn’t just about American politics.

    “You know, now we are in spiritual warfareMaldonado said. “It is beyond the war between left and right. It is between good and bad. There is a great struggle right now affecting our country and we need to take our country back.”

    Evangelicals align with Republicans

    Many evangelicals align themselves with the idea that Christians must vote for a Republican, one who will return America to a time when God was at the center of public life.

    I am a Christian with a deep interest in politics, but this kind of language about Christianity, politics and Trump concerns me.

    Many evangelical Christians they are single-issue voters. They vote for the candidate who is pro-life, which is usually the Republican.

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    While Harris and Trump have debated abortion, neither can do much about it now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. An issue that once encouraged Christians to vote may now be keeping them at home. This would be an amazing turn of events for the pro-life movement.

    Trump’s presence on the ballot raises other questions: What about when the Republican presidential nominee is pro-life, but is also a womanizer, a misogynist and a convicted felon?

    In a sermon this month, Dallas megachurch pastor Josh Howerton he encouraged his congregation to stop looking for perfection in presidential candidates, saying that Christians should vote for the person who most embraces their values.

    “Any Christian with an open Bible and their brain should look at both of the candidates that we see and say, ‘Man, I see some flaws in both of these things that I’ve had in front of me,'” Howerton said . . “Jesus is not on the ballot, guys. Get over it.”

    What should Christians do?

    I don’t agree with things Howerton has said in the past, but I agree with his statement about the vote. But not for the most obvious reason.

    It’s not just that Christians need to realize that Jesus is not on the ballot or that they should stop looking for perfection in their political candidates. It is true. (Although, almost everyone knows our political candidates are flawed.)

    What is more important is the idea that Christians must stop looking to a politician to do only what God can do. And that Christians no longer look to God to reflect their political beliefs. These roles are not interchangeable or intertwined.

    I believe that voting is a right and a privilege. Millions of people in other countries, including people of faith, would like to have the right to vote, but they don’t. We should exercise this right and we should do so carefully.

    But I say this with caution because of Republicans who are evangelical Christians and who have a strong tendency toward Christian nationalism. Especially in Texas where I live.

    In the 1980s, under the influence The moral majority and similar organizations, many Christians have come to believe that God favors a certain political party, especially on issues such as abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.

    I hate to break anyone’s bubble, but God is not Republican or Democrat. He is the Savior, not a politician.

    To limit the God of the universe to the petty entanglements of American politics is to reject the many attributes of a supreme God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. The Bible says that he is above all things and that his ways are higher than our ways.

    It’s tempting to be apathetic about politics when the presidential candidates are disappointing. However, we have a responsibility to our nation’s electoral process. But too many Christians tie God to our political system and that is not good or right.

    Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four children. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Trackand receive it in your inbox.

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