Well, I’m doing what I said I wasn’t going to do.

I was going to avoid writing this week, but I feel compelled to do so.

Maybe it’s indigestion from the burger and fries a ate as a cheat meal last night.

Maybe it’s irritation from the sinus infection through which I’m working.

Or maybe it has a more spiritual, less annoying source.

I believe it does.

Christianity Today posted a controversial Op-ed called Trump Should Be Removed from Office. It was written by now-former Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli. The Op-ed hit the interwebs and a predictable tsunami of responses slammed into social media, most of which blasted Galli and defended President Trump.

I’m sharing the defense I read this morning because, for me, it is the closest to honoring our King. I try to take seriously the commendation Galatians 5:15:

“If you bite and ravage each other, watch out–in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?”

The defense I’m focusing on today was penned by syndicated radio talk show host and columnist Dennis Prager. The PragerU guy. In his piece titled, A Response to the Editor of Christianity Today, he argues that in essence, the ends justify the means.

I’m going to take a quick look at his piece and then share what I think it will take to restore the Gospel in my call to unity.

Prager’s Problematic Assertion

He opens with a complete misunderstanding of how Christian opponents of President Trump feel. Maybe we aren’t being clear. He asserts that we don’t care about all the good President Trump is doing and that our approach lacks common sense, that we only care about his morals.

I don’t believe this to be true, at least it isn’t for me; my issue is that President Trump is never held accountable by the Evangelicals who support him. We should be praying for him, as we should every elected representative in government (1 Timothy 2:1-4). I’ll talk more on that in a minute.

I also believe that Prager spends time emphasizing President Trump’s policies that have helped while ignoring his harmful policies. We don’t get half a President; we get the whole over-powered impact. The good and the bad.

I believe that some of his policies have been harmful to human beings. I’ll deal with that in a later piece — don’t want to sidetrack from the point today.

Eventually, Prager argues that Christians should be more pragmatic and utilitarian in their approach. If good things happen, then we should be happy and silent, even though many bad things are happening as well as a result of the presidency.

I’ll deal with utilitarianism more below.

Finally, Prager makes the case that Christians who oppose President Trump just aren’t living by grace as much as those who support him. This portion was both unnecessary and divisive. One could have argued the total lack of grace Evangelicals heaped on President Obama to show how hypocritical this take is in real terms.

Call To Unity

For the sake of the Gospel, I’m calling all my fellow Christ-followers to pledge to be unified rather than divided.

I’m not talking about ending denominations, even though at this point, I would love to see those end as well…and they will, someday (Revelation 7:9-10).

I want to deal with political unity.

I’m not talking about as a voting block, but as a Gospel block.

We have to make living the Gospel our primary thing and the only real power we seek in this world. I’m concerned that many Evangelicals don’t hold President Trump accountable for his words, actions, and policies that hurt people because they fear if they do they’ll lose the illicit influence they now enjoy at the White House.

I personally, from a standpoint of faith, take no issue with those who share my faith supporting or opposing President Trump. However, I will say that if you do support President Trump, start holding him accountable for the things he says are are dishonest, divisive, and insulting to vast swaths of people. One recent tweet comes to mind because it hits a lot of honest, good, principled people that I know love and serve our King.

The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats. Watch out for them, they are human scum!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2019

He called a group that includes a lot of faithful Christian brothers and sisters human scum. I didn’t hear any of his Evangelical supporters hold him to account. Instead, they joined the chorus of attacks.

They seem to hate Never-Trump conservatives. At least their language implies such.

My Gospel-block call to Trump-supporting Christians is simple. I understand the reasons you support Trump. I’ve read the books. I’ve read the blogs. And watched the YouTube videos.

I get it.

What I don’t get is why you won’t hold him accountable when he goes off the rails. If you were doing such, folks like me wouldn’t have any issues. Why? Our concern is the stain of your unconditional support and inability to hold him accountable has on the Gospel.

My Gospel-block call to Trump-opposing Christians is simple as well. You can explain the reasons you don’t support him without treating those who do as though they are second-class Christians.

This battle over President Trump has left us divided and is a fruit of his presidency in my opinion. While he may be the trigger for the divide, we are responsible for bridging the gap.

All of us.

A Call to Christian Duty

I quoted Galatians 5:15 earlier, but now I want to deal with verses prior. We need to collectively do better than competing, opposing Op-eds and hit pieces. We need to live out what Paul mentioned in Galatians 5:13-14

“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy that freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.”

The Gospel frees us from this world to tackle it with love. Unfortunately, too often, we use the political realm to get what we want and to impose our values on society.

This utilitarianism is destructive to the Gospel. It stains it because we look complicit in the bad, and not just the good.

I don’t believe that is how Christians should be involved in politics. We should be other-centered because we have faith. Our faith compels us by the hope that ours is coming in the much-longer and more permanent age to come.

“Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.” -Philippians 2:3-4

This life isn’t where Christians are supposed to “get ours.” That’s in the age to come. This life is where we are supposed to put ourselves aside for the sake of others. This life is where we are supposed to be obsessed not with getting an advantage, but for helping others.

David Platt prayed the prayer over the President that we should all pray.

Hence, my final call is to those of us who pray. We’re commanded to pray and I cited the passage earlier. But I want to leave you with the final verses of that passage.

Why?

Because we aren’t praying so that we can have an advantage or “win” political power. We’re praying so that the end goal of the Gospel can take place. See what Paul wrote to Timothy:

“…so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free.” -1 Timothy 2:3-7

Our utmost desire should be that everyone be saved and set free by the mediating work of Jesus Christ.

If our political divisions put a blight on that goal, we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and not the culture we’ve imprisoned in their sins by our disobedience.

We can all do better, myself included.

Photo by Gage Skidmore