I’ve spent too much of today upset about the President’s words. I’ve thought so much about his continuing behavior and our willingness as a nation to accept it. I’m so consistently troubled by it. And not really because of him, his depths only continue to sink further the same direction, at this point it is expected, if still somehow surprising. No, what I’m troubled by most in all of this is all of the Christians I know who still stand by as he boasts himself and now with blasphemous comparisons.
I recognize the harshness of what I’m about to say but I feel compelled to speak to this. I simply don’t see enough people who are and I know the harm of that void.
I struggle deeply to trust the sincerity of such a faith that has yet to be derailed by the constant attempts of this movement to undermine the gospel. A movement which has now found comfort and boast in messianic comparisons. How is that not enough? How have you not had enough?
Such a faith as best as I can tell, claims love for your neighbor but upholds a movement that stands against them? And who then is your neighbor? The non-American ones. The trans ones. The black ones. The Muslim ones. The female ones. The reporting ones. How can this not be seen as backpedaling the teachings you care so deeply about?
To be blunt, how dare you still align with Trump’s movement? Seriously, how dare you? Am I being too much?
Daily you follow a movement and a man who chooses himself and whose only concern is winning. Not a concern for love. Not a concern for neighbor. Not a concern for creation. Just himself. Just winning. And such a false egotistical view of winning. So much is sacrificed for the win. Don’t you think that’s sad? Does that not hurt your heart?
Daily people lie to him and withhold truth from him just so they may be near power. Daily they compromise the goodness of their souls just to be in the highest positions of our broken empire. Just so they can feel like they have control. The lies. The tremendous lies. That’s not love!
Daily you silently allow a man you follow to publicly and legally forfeit creation just to fill the pockets of greedy men who already have caused tremendous suffering to our planet and our communities. It is a sin against our heirs.
Daily you allow a man to separate the desperate from their children for laws that have no awareness of the cosmos. Daily your support encourages the neglect of child and trauma that a lifetime of therapy may not heal.
Even if you’re not about those things you are investing in their implement. Can you not see this?
Your silence allows the evil to manifest.
Repent!
Each day you support him you are making an investment to compromise on love of your neighbor.
And to be so blunt again, you fail to love Donald Trump when you allow him to do so. When you support his leadership from the wounded places of his heart. You fail your brother.
King David made many horrendous mistakes. But it was the prophetic love of Nathan who cared enough and was brave enough to speak truth to the King. It was the King’s willingness to accept this word that labeled him a man after God’s own heart. Not the lies of his people who would allow him to continue his destruction.
Do you love Donald Trump? Do you love his supporters? Then align with him no longer. To do so is to hurt them. To laugh it away is to destroy. I sincerely believe this.
You likely don’t have the ear of the President. But I know you have the ear of those who are a part of his movement; those who empower him and the ideologies of his deceptive rallies.
Be a teacher in your action. Let your love for immigrant, for refugee, for Muslim, for gay, for trans, for the diverse peoples of the world, for the planet and all creatures that inhabit it guide these hearts to a greater openness.
We are in this together y’all. We are interconnected in ways we cannot remotely fathom.
If you stand up for those harmed by this administration, you will stand up for Donald Trump. And I mean that spiritually. Because loves heals a multitude of sins. You destroy a man by giving them unchecked power. You destroy a community by being silently complicit to their dangerous advances. Do not give weight to a sinking ship. Get off while you still can.
Can’t you see the new creation is bursting forth? Restoration and reconciliation is the way of Christ. Mend the broken. Shine light in the darkness. Grace. Grace. Grace.
You don’t need to hear a man vocalize and celebrate his messiah complex to call their movement anti-Christ.
I cannot fathom, I cannot fathom how a person could sit in a pew on Sunday and hear the gospel stories, hear the expansive good news of Jesus and come out aligning with this brute and reckless version of America.
You cannot align with the movement led by Trump without daily compromising the way of Christ. To do so is to live in sin.
It seems we have no choice but to designate power and leadership to compromised individuals. It is a part of all of us. That much appears inevitable on this side of things. Yes, we’re human, we carry our flaws and step the wrong way. But without community, without love, encouragement and accountability we thrive in compromise. We sink the ship no matter who is the captain. The most powerful among us are the most susceptible to this corruption. We have to care for them.
It’s not an issue of party or political side because no movement is immune to this failure. No, it is an issue of magnificent compromise. Astounding compromise.
Genuinely baffling compromise. To such magnitudes I have yet to understand.
We have been invited to a movement that heals. To take down the walls that divide. To confront our self and carry our cross. To turn our swords into plowshares. To love our enemy. To care for the orphan, the widow and the refugee among us. To not cause children to stumble. To be open with our understanding. To confront the Pharaoh and to receive the Moses. To see creation beyond the binaries of Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free. To produce good fruit and to welcome our connectedness.
You foolish Americans! Who has bewitched us?
We don’t have to live like this.
DevonBailey.com 