Donald Trump’s response to the death of George Floyd has brought condemnation from many quarters. Church leaders have been united in their criticism of Trump’s highly publicised walk to a church damaged by rioters where he brandished a Bible and his subsequent visit to the St John Paul II National Shrine in Washington. It becomes all the more bizarre when you consider Martin Bashir’s suggestion on the BBC website that Trump does not consider church ‘essential to his personal life’. He writes:
‘President Trump does not belong to a particular congregation, only occasionally attends a service and has said many times that he does not like to ask God for forgiveness.’
Bashir is far too sensitive a commentator to make an ultimate judgement on Trump’s immortal soul but nonetheless it may be reasonable to suggest that the Bible brandishing and Shrine visiting has less to it than a sign of personal devotion. The statistics show that significant numbers of Christians from various traditions voted for him and this is an election year.
You might say, what were these people thinking? Well, this is politics and as such the answer is not straightforward. There are American Christians, some of them registered Democrats, who for many reasons were hesitant in voting for Hilary Clinton. Some held their noses and went ahead, others didn’t vote, a few voted for the Independent candidate. I make no judgement on any of that. It has been a long time since I have been able to place an unequivocal mark against a name in any election.
But there are a few things on my mind not just about Trump but political leaders in general. Richard Hofstadt was an American historian who made significant contributions to national debate in the 1950s and 60s. One of his main impulses was to understand the cultural climate of his day where there was suspicion of expertise and enthusiasm for conspiracy theories. This led to Hofstadt describing his country as ‘an arena of angry minds’. Contemporary commentators have been applying this to these days of Trump with his sneers at the intellectual elite and outbursts against those perceived as undermining him. I can see their point. But consider this. There is a lot of anger being directed against him, not a few conspiracy theories have him at the centre, leading to him being described recently as a ‘hate figure’.
Despite my antipathy to Trump and my tolerance of ‘righteous anger’ when expressed at some of his policies and utterances I cannot believe that this contributes to a healthy cultural climate. Do we really want to be part of ‘an arena of angry minds’? Some of the best Christian witnesses through the millennia unite to remind me that when I feel dark emotions rising against anyone that I perceive to be in the wrong my prior need is to examine myself. Am I the best example of a better way?
I long ago came to the conclusion that politics has the potential to make wise people mad. When you hear people making excruciating moral contortions as they defend the frailties of their political champions while pointing the finger at those who seek to undermine them. I believe it’s called ‘whataboutism’. And when you hear the crackling of the cellophane as party lines are unwrapped and you feel your eyes glazing over. It was encouraging when at the beginning of the present crisis there was very little of this. Unfortunately there are signs now that things are changing.
None of this should ever deter us from our Christian responsibility to pray for what the apostles called ‘the governing authorities’. There is no wriggle room here. Whether we like it or not this is not an option but an apostolic injunction. The way political power is wielded is important to God. It may be abused and the door opened to laws and policies that are not consistent with His ways. But history has shown the good that can be established, the enhancement to people’s lives, new expressions of justice that satisfy restless hearts. Those who wield power should never be outside the embrace of our prayers. If the Confessing Church in Germany in the 1930s could pray for Adolf Hitler, if Christians in Uganda in the 1970s could pray for Idi Amin, if Chinese Christians could pray for Mao-Tse-Tung throughout his reign, then surely I can pray for our ‘governing authorities’ even when I don’t like them.
In praying for their oppressors of course all the above peoples were not just asking God to grant health and strength to them. There were fervent prayers for a turning away from the ways of darkness and for reconciliation to God. And that brings me to perhaps the most important point in all of this. J.B. Phillips once wrote a book called Your God Is Too Small. Is our God so small that He cannot break into the most resistant psyche and work through even the most unlikely people for His good? Do you remember what was said about King Ahab of Israel:
‘There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the Lord drove out before Israel.‘ (1 Kings 21: 25-26)
And yet when Israel was under threat of invasion from Syria an unnamed prophet was sent to Ahab with a promise and a challenge:
‘This is what the Lord says: “Do you see this vast army? I will give it into your hand today, and then you will know that I am the Lord.’ (1 Kings 20: 13)
There were more detailed directions from the prophet which Ahab was persuaded would lead him to victory. So it could be said that Ahab walked in the ways of God - but only so far. When as the victor he made a treaty with King Ben-Hadad of Syria this was outside the will of God. Therefore the opportunity to be reconciled to God was not taken.
What we need to take from this is that to establish His purpose God was able to work through the life of a man like Ahab ‘who sold himself to do evil’. And furthermore Ahab was given a chance to recognise who was ‘the Lord‘ and be reconciled to Him. If we can hold these things in our prayers for ‘the governing authorities’ then perhaps the diminishment of the ‘arena of angry minds’ will begin with us.
