When Nasty Is The Norm

Pastoral reflections on the CNN Town Hall with Donald Trump

NOTE: I had an entirely different Substack written and ready to go, but I was so dismayed at what I saw at the CNN Town Hall with Donald Trump, that I knew I needed to delay the original post to a later date and, instead, address the Town Hall.

This was a roller coaster of a week for me as Bulwark picked up my written confession to voting for Donald Trump, which was then picked up by Raw Story and, tomorrow, OpEdNews.

Being recognized as a writer is rather new for me; most of my communication’s experience involves the spoken word, not the written one.

For example, I was a college radio DJ, which might be a more exciting story if it hadn’t been at a Christian college… and a Baptist one, at that. Instead of Journey, we played Jesus music, and instead of Steve Perry, we spun Sandi Patty.

While most of the god-awful music has been blocked from my mind, there is one memory that stuck: our Station Verse.

Yes, we had a “Station Bible Verse” that every DJ was required to read… live …at the top and bottom of every hour.

I must have said it thousands of times over the span of four years, and as such, it is now indelibly marked in my memory in a way that will likely outlast my own name in old age.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up, according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

—EPHESIANS 4:29

I couldn’t but recall that verse last night during Kaitlan Collins’ conversation with former President Donald Trump on CNN last evening.

Each time he berated someone, I winced. But it was his string of “Nasty person” insults that really got to me. How did I never see this side of him before? … the front side … what seems to be the only side he shows.

Trump’s penchant for name-calling is well-tilled ground, yes, but it now strikes a different note in my soul, a discordant one. It is clear to me that Trump hasn’t changed, but I have.

Watching as a former President—and the assumed Republican front-runner for the next term—brushes off sexual assault and disparages his victims by mocking them, all to thunderous applause from an audience, left me reeling.

But even more disconcerting, the statistical likelihood that most of that adoring audience identified as Christian.

How could they overlook so much to vote for someone so little?

What have we become?

As a Christian, this is the question that haunts most of my waking moments.

Do my actions and words reflect a heart in sync with the Jesus I know from the Bible, or are they in sync with something else?

I’ve come to believe that many of my fellow Christians actively avoid asking that question of themselves.

But I resist that avoidance as much as I can. As such, I’ve spent the last few years confronting that question and its complex implications, but I am uncertain that a large swatch of USAmerican Christianity is ready to face it.

In fact, I think we are avoiding it precisely because we know its implications for our actions.

Confronting the intersection of Donald Trump and our Christian faith has very real consequences that Christians seem intent on avoiding at all costs.

Donald J. Trump does not represent Christ in word, action, or belief. In fact, it is glaring obvious that he is the antithesis of literally everything that Christians say are marks of a follower of Jesus Christ.

The Bible is clear that those who truly follow Christ will be changed to look more like him, not less.

“When someone turns to the Lord, we are transfigured, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” [2Cor.3:18, NLT/MSG]

To me, the best example of what this looks like is found in Galatians 5:22-23.

“…this kind of fruit is produced in our lives:
love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness,
and self-control.” [NLT]

But if you are like me, it would be more helpful to know the things that indicate someone isn’t being transformed. What does a life devoted to ideals that are opposite of Christ and his teachings look like? Fortunately, that same passage in the Bible spells it out pretty clearly when it says that kind of person will be marked by:

“…repetitive, loveless, cheap sex;
a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage;
frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness;
trinket gods;
magic-show religion;
paranoid loneliness;
cutthroat competition;
all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants;
a brutal temper;
an impotence to love or be loved;
divided homes and divided lives;
small-minded and lopsided pursuits;
the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival;
uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions;
ugly parodies of community.” [Gal.5:19-21, MSG]

It even tell us what happens to those who live this way:

“…anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” [Gal5:21, NLT]

But today, I see many Christians already circling around Donald Trump with whataboutism and any argument that will justify their vote for Donald Trump, should it become necessary.

With every word of support or dismissiveness, they wound their public witness and choose the power in the Kingdom of Man over their responsibilities to the Kingdom of God.

The Religious Right is Self-Destructing their Witness in the World

Over the years, many Evangelicals have attempted to make a case for Trump’s Christianity, but the problem with their argument is Trump himself. It is clear—no matter how badly the religious right wishes Trump were a Christian—he almost assuredly is not.

Worse yet, many Christians are willing to overlook his anti-Christ ways as long as he “wins the country back” or “sticks it to the libs” as “the other side is doing far worse things than Trump.”

Perhaps.

But does this justify your vote?

Does it??

Does it justify it before God?

Consider the damage done to your witness—the damage done to Christ himself—even during the events of the last 48 hours alone, where:

1. “Nasty Person” was directed to a woman on an international stage by a man who claims to represent Christ and Evangelicals.

2. Trump was found legally liable by jury for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll, one of over a dozen women who have accused him of sexual misconduct over the years.

3. Mocking and gaslighting victims of sexual abuse to thunderous applause.

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To my Republican Christian friends,

I implore you to consider the damage to your witness and soul should you choose to support this man in any way.

How can you speak morals and ethics to your children on one hand and then support this kind of behavior with the other?

How can you ever expect the world to take your God seriously when you support those who abuse them in ungodly ways?

How can you use the same hand to cast a vote for Donald Trump that you use to receive communion?

The world sees the hypocrisy, and it is pushing people away from the very Kingdom of God that you profess to know and love.

For a Christian, there is FAR MORE at stake in the voting booth than laws and power.

For a Christian, our very integrity and character as ambassadors of Christ is on the line.

Christians, you must end this

A vote is not worth your credibility.

A vote is not worth your hypocrisy.

A vote is not worth your witness.

The world desperately needs to see you do the right thing, the Jesus thing. The world desperately needs to see you stand for integrity and character.

You may gain a W in an election, but what will you have given up in trade for it?

A vote is not worth your testimony.

A vote is not worth your soul.

Count the cost to the Kingdom, Christian.

Count. The. Cost.

End this.