Moral High Ground: What Christians Have Lost in the Last 200 Days

Moral High Ground: What Christians Have Lost in the Last 200 Days
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Something devastating has happened over the last 200 days and finally some Christian leaders are beginning to break their silence, but is it too late? Basic Christian principles (Matthew 19:19 English Standard Version Love thy neighbor as thyself), concepts (Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue...) and theology (Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and takes no bribes) have been challenged, mocked, disregarded and twisted. The perpetrator? The President of the United States himself.

Over the course of this administration’s short term, Christian Silence on President Trump’s words and actions is effectively robbing the church of moral high ground; any righteous leg to stand on is in the process of being amputated as we speak.

Pro-life Christians who hinge their vote on that issue alone or Conservatives who believed a Republican president would more likely give them a Supreme Court Justice more morally aligned with their views, argued Donald Trump as the lesser of two evils versus Hillary Clinton. Many claimed to go to the polls holding their noses as they pulled the lever for a candidate who exhibited no Fruits of the Spirit; a revered way to measure one’s own character in the quest for spiritual rightness while living in an imperfect world. In fact, if the Fruit (love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) were to be considered a hallowed Christian report card of sorts, many could argue candidate Trump failed miserably in more than one area.

Nevertheless, he was elected on the backs of many well-meaning Christians who believed not necessarily in Trump the man, but in the idea of a shake-up in Washington that would right a ship balanced too far to the left. But what has to be admitted was that Trump was also elected by the fury and fear he stirred in a segment of white America that felt forgotten and feared extinction, hence #YouWillNotReplaceUs. There were racists, white supremacists, neo-Nazi’s and white nationalists who might not claim the previous labels, but proudly consider themselves members of the Alt-Right. To them, “Make America Great Again” was the dog whistle signaling a hopeful return to a period of more aggressive white dominance. President Trump has not specifically denounced the supremacist agenda of the Alt-Right for fear of losing a powerful political base of support and Christians have remained grossly silent, ironically in fear of looking anti-Christian or maybe worse yet, pro-Democratic.

The silence has been costly. In the future, whenever Christians raise their voices to right a thing, they will be asked, “What about when President Trump behaved in the same manner or supported such behavior? Did you say anything then?” If the answer is no, they will have lost their witness. The Christian’s mission is at stake like never before. Upon being called out by the U.S. for lack of religious freedom, Chinese organization Xianyi shouted back:

"Against the backdrop of the recent clash between white supremacists and their opponents, the U.S. accusations against China simply lay bare the double standard it employs,” it said. “The violence highlighted the danger of racism, which is a serious problem in a still divided U.S. society. Despite its self-proclaimed role as the world's human rights champion, the fact is the world's sole superpower is far from becoming a respected role model in this regard."

The world sees the hypocrisy and it is costing Christians in spiritual currency.

“Come now, let us reason together” (Is. 1:18). Christian leaders must gather together to reason this incredible era out openly, honestly and possibly quite painfully. Pastors of multicultural congregations have to stop tap dancing in pulpits by speaking out only against evil concepts like hatred, racism, division and murder without daring to call out the role of the current president in perpetuating an atmosphere rife with all those evil things. While they hesitate, their members are growing suspicious, wondering if their leaders stand by the President, are innocently tone deaf or are merely tolerating the man sitting in the nation’s highest office while they pray for God’s intervention. That’s just it. Christians are supposed to view themselves as God’s intervention. Without action, the very division in the country risks spreading to the most diverse churches and will cast wrongful suspicion on predominantly white ones.

Christians are on the brink of a missed opportunity to stand for what is right instead of hiding behind what is seemingly politically beneficial. The church must stand up and defend the faith. They must stand up for justice and truth, not a political party, nor political figureheads. “Be ready! Let the truth be like a belt around your waist, and let God’s justice protect you like armor. Your desire to tell the good news about peace should be like shoes on your feet” (Ephesians 6:14-15).

Charlottesville has proven this is not going to be one more blown over news cycle in a chaotic presidency. This issue of race has come again to steal, kill and destroy the global effectiveness of the church once and for all. In the void left by Christian Silence, confusion about the very Word of God, often quoted and embraced by supremacists, will prevail. One of the rarely talked about and startling reasons Christians haven’t spoken out definitively against the President, as of yet, is because of: 1. A powerful, widely accepted prophecy predicting years ago that Trump would be president today (an issue I will tackle in another article) and 2. The belief that all authority is God-ordained and must therefore be honored.

Recently, I sat in a sermon with a minister who said he was appalled by Christians’ meanness in how they verbally disrespected the highest offices, intimating specifically the Presidency. I sat stunned, waiting for the turn around where he would admit that the President himself showed no honor for his own position and dishonored himself, the American people and the American way on a daily basis. Using poorly learned Christian-ese as a way to convince Christian voters to sway his way, Candidate Trump rallied an interesting collective to his corner. Maybe at first it was a dark room where many Christians can honestly say they didn’t know they were sharing it with Bible-hugging Klansmen and Alt-Right proponents who never believed, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

But now, the lights are on.

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