He Will Vanquish All Our Foes
Micah Schouten cannot remember exactly why he did not go to hear Mr. Trump that morning. Probably it was just too cold, or maybe he was working.
As a child he dreamed of being a farmer like his father, but land was too expensive. Now he worked at a cattle reproduction company or, as he explained with a smile, I.V.F. for cows.
At the time, he supported Ben Carson. But Mr. Trump was a celebrity, and Dordt University, 10 minutes down the road, was Mr. Schoutens alma mater. The school was named for a major church assembly in 1618 and 1619 that declared salvation was only for Gods chosen ones, and expelled from Dutch territory anyone who disagreed. Its students are Dordt Defenders, represented by a knight in gray armor, wielding a sword like a cross.
So that night, after his three children went to bed, Mr. Schouten pulled up YouTube to hear it for himself.
Soon Mr. Trump made him laugh. The candidate bashed the media. He said the thing about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue. But the thing Mr. Schouten remembered most was that he defended Christianity.
Mr. Schouten, 36, is proud of his town and during a tour pointed out a community hospital and water park for children. Asked about the growing Latino population in Sioux Center, he drove to an area he did not know well and pointed out a trailer park where he said new arrivals, many of them Latino workers, live.
They prayed: With our God we shall be valiant, he will vanquish all our foes.
Voices Crying In The Wilderness
The slow death of a culture can, however, lead to resurrection. In Oregon a group of Christian NGOs has sprung up, whose founders are theologically evangelical and socially conservative but have no links to politically conservative evangelicalism. The left-leaning state government is working enthusiastically with them. Ben Sand runs a group called Every Child, which mobilises communities to work with Oregons Department for Human Services . Three-quarters of the 1,500 families who became certified for fostering children in 2020 have come through Every Child.
Evangelicals look at Oregon and say this is where God goes to die, says Mr Sand. But having no cultural power can be helpful to the spiritual message, he says. The best thing for the evangelical movement is for it to lose its cultural influence, because only in that context of humility, of going back to what matters most in the ethics of Jesus, will the church find its soul again. The detachment of faith from right-wing politics appeals to Fariborz Pakseresht, director of the states DHS: Perhaps this is what true Christianity looks like.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Two nations under God”
Is Donald Trump The Christian President
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is puzzled. Like many Christians on this side of the Atlantic he doesn’t understand why Christians in the US seem to have supported Donald Trump in such numbers. Or perhaps to put it another way â he doesn’t understand why evangelicals seem to have overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump. I have militant atheist friends who delight in pointing me to President Trump’s latest aberration before they gleefully point out he is ‘my’ President â ie the Christian President. But is he?
The hostile atheists and secularists take great delight in tweeting about a ‘far right, misogynistic, racist, sexual hypocrite, Christian’ . He is the ideal candidate for them to use to justify their hatred for Christians.
On the other hand there are Christians who think that Donald Trump is ‘our’ candidate, the one chosen and anointed by God. The one who though he is flawed is still far better than the alternative. He is the Christian President.
Except it’s not as simple as that. There are professing Christians who are strongly opposed to Donald Trump. John Macarthur made clear his opposition to the ‘vulgar Trump’, as did Russell Moore of the Southern Baptists and many others.
Ah â but didn’t 80 per cent of evangelicals vote for Trump? Didn’t they do this partially because Trump appointed the clearly evangelical former Catholic Mike Pence as Vice President? Isn’t he beholden to Christians, and don’t most Christians support him?
You May Like: What Is Trump Doing With Medicare
The Line To Lafayette
It is deep into summer now. The pandemic has killed 160,000 people nationwide. Thousands have taken to the streets to protest the police killings of Black people. In Sioux Center, where the Black population is less than 1 percent, feelings about Mr. Trump remain largely unchanged.
Only three people in the county are reported to have died of the coronavirus. There was an outbreak of cases at the pork processing plant. Churches have mostly reopened. The closest thing to a protest was a walk for justice in Orange City.
People in my circles, you dont really hear about racism, so I guess I dont know too much about it, Mr. Driesen said of the protests. When I see the pictures, I thought they all should be at work, being productive citizens.
I still think he is going to blow Biden away, he said of Mr. Trump.
Ms. Schouten remembered a song she taught her children, called Jesus Loves the Little Children. She quoted the lyrics, whichhave been sung in churches for generations but would be considered racially insensitive today: Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight.
We are making this huge issue of white versus Black, Black Lives Matter. All lives matter, she said. There are more deaths from abortion than there are from corona, but we are not fighting that battle.
We are picking and choosing who matters and who doesnt, she said. They say they are being picked on, when we are all being picked on in one shape or form.
Donald Trump And Christians: Whats The Attraction
I dont receive snail mail often these days, but I received a letter from longtime listeners to our class that was most kind, but concerned and asking for clarification regarding things I have said in recent months.
From the letter:
You have, I believe, tried to be careful in not expressing support for any one political party or nominee, and yet: Much to our dismay, it seems to us that you are a Trump supporter. We may be wrong. Personally, we know the choice was infinitely hard last election, but to us it is blatantly obvious Trump uses the devils methods and calls them perfect, wonderful, etc. But here is our moral and spiritual dilemma:
1. WHY do so many Christians support Trump, who has so openly lied, verbally abused, sexually manhandled women, , and laughed at others? WHY?
2. Isnt Trump and his I can do anything I want to attitude heading us for big trouble? A one-man rule? He praises North Koreas president, and Russias. Yet calls our own US Senators and lawmakers and service people or anyone who doesnt agree with him, bad names. And yes, I realize there are good and bad folks on all sides. But his repeated verbal abuse is sickening to me. We TEACH freedom. Does that mean we back a president who thinks he has the right to do what he chooses?
A Closer Look
First, they dont recognize the difference between a man of God and ungodly people who are called by God for the fulfillment of His purposes .
Political Correctness and the Great Controversy
You May Like: How Much Money Has Trump Made Since Becoming President
Republicans More Likely Than Democrats To Want A Religious President
Overall, upward of nine-in-ten Republicans and Democrats agree that it is at least somewhat important to have a president who personally lives a moral and ethical life, though Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say that this is very important .
Most people in both parties also say they want a president who stands up for their religious beliefs on this question, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say this is very important .
Having a president who is deeply religious or who shares ones own religious beliefs is less important to both Republicans and Democrats, but Republicans place a higher premium than Democrats on both of these qualities. This dovetails with the fact that most religious nones are Democrats, and that this group has been growing more quickly in the Democratic Party than in the GOP.
We Started Out As A Christian Nation
The day Mr. Trump spoke at Dordt, Rob Driesen sat in the very front. He supported Ted Cruz at the time. But now, four years later, his eyes light up when he talks about Mr. Trump.
He brought out two photographs, framed, one of him and Mr. Trump, and one of him with Mike Pence before he became vice president.
I guess the biggest concern for me is trying to keep our country the way it was. Conservative. The values. For us, I mean, this is as good as it gets. We can do whatever we want, said Mr. Driesen, 56, sitting at his kitchen table this spring with his wife, Cheryl, 52. Next to them, a family motto was painted on the wall in gold and black lettering: Home, Where Your Story Begins.
He gestured to his front door. You dont lock the doors, he said. I never take the keys out of the car.
He thought back to Mr. Trumps speech. There was one gaffe he kind of got in trouble for. What was it? Because there were a bunch of things he said. He paused a while. I cant distinctly remember, but I just remember there was one thing, and that was the news for 10 days after that. Something about I wish I could remember. I cant.
You know how things can sound bad, he said. He can get away with it. People seemed to like it.
Mr. Driesen spoke of the policies that were important to him, all the usual conservative issues. Small government. Ending abortion. Judges who share his political views. Traditional families, he said.
Just hope nobody turns it upside down, he said.
Don’t Miss: Will Trump Be Reelected In 2020 Odds
Trump Discipled The Church More Than The Church Discipled Trump
I want to start with this newsletter with a few brief excerpts of speeches by important and powerful American Christians. Heres the first, from Senator Ted Cruz, telling a conference of conservative youth his approach to preferred pronouns:
He doesnt talk about it much these days, but Gaetz too has cast himself as a Christian politician in the past: I was saved in a Baptist Church during my teenage years. I am a member of First Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach. The Bible, the Gospelthese are our instructions from God. We are to follow faithfully.
It should also be noted that Gaetz has been investigated for sex crimes, including whether he paid for sex and had sex with a 17 year-old girl.
Donald Trump isnt in a single one of these videos. Hes not mentioned in any of the excerpts. Yet they present a compelling reason why Trump deserves not one single Christian vote if and when he chooses to run for president againwhen it comes to American politics, Trump has discipled the church far more than the church has discipled Trump.
One of the most amusing recurring conversations of the last six years is the omnipresent effort to explain to me why Christians support Donald Trumpas if I need tweet threads or pointed essays to explain to me my own friends, many members of my family, and my own church and neighborhood. I understood perfectly well then. I understand perfectly well now.
To understand why, we have to understand human nature.
On Balance Americans Say Trump Administration Has Helped Evangelicals Hurt Muslims
The survey asked whether the Trump administration has helped, hurt or not made much of a difference to the interests of five groups: evangelical Christians, Jews, Catholics, Muslims and people who are not religious. Fewer than half of U.S. adults think the Trump administration has helped any of these groups. But more say the Trump administration has helped evangelical Christians than say it has helped any of the other groups asked about in the survey . And nearly half of U.S. adults say the Trump administration has hurt Muslims. Indeed, U.S. adults are seven times more likely to say the administration has hurt Muslims than to say it has helped this group .
Americans are somewhat divided on the Trump administrations impact on Jews, with 29% saying Trump has helped Jews, 26% saying he has hurt this group, and 42% saying he has made no difference. Jews themselves also are divided on this question: 40% of U.S. Jews say the administration has helped their interests and 36% say it has hurt them, with fewer saying it has not made much difference . A majority of white evangelical Protestants , meanwhile, say the administration has helped Jewish interests. See Chapter 1 for full details.
Don’t Miss: What Did Trump Do Now
The Christian Prophets Who Say Trump Is Coming Again
In the growing community of charismatic Christian prophecy, faith in Donald Trumps imminent return to the White House is a new dividing line.
Pastor Paula White-Cain and President Donald Trump remark at the & quot Evangelicals for Trump& quot coalition launch on January 3, 2020, in Miami, Florida. | Media Punch/AP
Perched on a cream-colored armchair,Johnny Enlow, a 61-year-old, California-based Pentecostal pastor with short-cropped gray hair, a trim beard and Tom Selleck-style mustache, looked into the camera and prophesied that Donald Trump would become president again.
Not in 2024. In 2021.
The January 20 inauguration date doesnt really mean anything, Enlow said in the January 29 video, which has gotten north of 100,000 views on YouTube. According to Enlow, more than 100 other credible Christian prophets around the world had likewise declared that Trump, somehow, would be restored to power soon.
Enlow, Locke and Kerr are among dozens of Christian prophets in Americareligious leaders with followings among Pentecostal and charismatic Christians who claimthe ability to predict the future based on dreams, visions and other supernatural phenomena. Some prophets are church leaders, while others operate independently. There are no official requirements for prophet status, though followers generally expect prophets toget at least a few prophecies right.
But, lately, that standard has come under duressparticularly when it comes to Donald Trump.
James Goll|Facebook
Jesus Makes America Great Author Steven Andrew Gives 10 Reasons Why Christians Support President Trump He Says The People Reaffirming Covenant That The Usa Serves The Lord Caused God To Raise Up And Use President Trump
Donald Trump is a huge improvement over crooked Hillary and Barack Obama. As Christians, we understand God raised up President Trump to undo many of His judgments the nation had for our national sins, explained Andrew.
Christians support President Trump where he follows Jesus Christ, and thankfully this is many areas, Andrew said. He leads One Million Americans on the Lords Side, the top Americans saving the USA.
To those who doubt Trump, Andrew says, In Gods sovereignty, the Lord knew President Trump would grow closer to Him. No matter what anyone thought about Donald Trump before, we now see President Trump is following God in many ways .
President Trump:
Read Also: Does Trump Get Death Threats
Is Donald Trump Anointed By God
No hes is not! If he was, dont you think trump would complete what God anointed him for? Do you really think a battle made by humans is the way to bring Gods anointing forth? I am sorry but I have a little more faith in God than that! Gods anointing and appointing come forth by Gods Glory Trump is a false profit and its sad that the Swaggarts and Kenneth Copeland and others believe in and support this false profit Donald Trump! Makes me believe that they are false profits as well. If they really believe in the bible they know they will be held accountable for their actions and for every soul they have misled. As a Christian I will not follow any Christian leaders that supports Trump. They are fooled by Satan. They will be held accountable for leading you astray.
Hey but those of you that still believe in Trump dont be sad he is still considered the 8th wonder of the world
Isaiah 42:8 ESV / I am the Lord that is my name my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.
Gods glory is Gods weightiness in wonderful qualities such as might, beauty, goodness, justice, and honor. When it comes to these characteristics and so many others, God has them in superabundance. Thus, when we think of Gods glory, we remember that God has all good things in greater quantity and quality than we can ever imagine.
Trump Fumes: Desantis Stole My Plan For Shipping Migrants
These ideas have been called heretical by Catholics and mainline Protestants . But to the roughly 80 million evangelicals in the U.S., they have become a dominant one might even say the dominant strain of the faith. According to the Pew Research Center, 41 percent of Americans think that Jesus will definitely or probably return to Earth by the year 2050. A full 58 percent of white evangelicals hold this view. The Left Behind series, a collection of novels by Jerry B. Jenkins and the late fundamentalist minister Tim LaHaye that dramatizes this theology, has sold more than 80 million copies and has been made into multiple feature-length films. When I first started researching, I had this idea that I would be studying a subculture, says Amy Frykholm, senior editor at The Christian Century and author of Rapture Culture. And then Left Behind happened, and I was like, I dont think this is a subculture. This may be the dominant American culture, and the rest of us are subcultures. I mean, this is mainstream.
Never have evangelicals had the access to the president that they have under President Trump, Robert Jeffress, a prominent rapture theology pastor, told me in 2019. He has made a unique effort to not just win their votes in 2016 but also to listen to them afterwards. If anything, has increased. He has certainly made good on his promise to have an open-door policy.
Also Check: How To Email Melania Trump
