(RNS) — Last week, speaking at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit, former President Donald Trump urged the crowd of conservative evangelical Christians to show up for him at the ballot in November, saying, “In four more years, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
What Trump was saying isn’t entirely clear: Was he referring to the U.S. Constitution’s two-term limit on the presidency and reminding a group, more than 80% of whom voted for him in the past two national elections, that they had one last chance to come out for him? Or was he saying that as president he would settle all evangelicals’ political concerns? (“We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote,” he said.)
Others have suggested that his comments were starkly antidemocratic, a hint — from a candidate who four years ago incited a mob to attempt a deadly coup — that a second Trump presidency would be firmly in line with the nakedly authoritarian Project 2025 plan to expand presidential power.
But whatever Trump’s intent, American Christians should be gravely offended by Trump’s exhortation, which violates core tenets of our faith, and by his implication that we would ever abandon our robust engagement with how we are governed.
As ministers, we are always prayerfully discerning how God leads us to organize, petition, protest and vote. We see how public policy affects the people we serve, from affordable housing to food stamps and universal health care. These aren’t only policy debates, but ways to put Christ’s exhortation to shelter, feed and care for our neighbors into practice. When we see politicians from either party violate our moral values, we are called to act.
This commitment has been demonstrated in our protests against President Joe Biden’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza. It is that same commitment that leads us to oppose the priorities Trump has campaigned on and exhibited in office. His values could not be further from the gospel’s. He has repeatedly called undocumented people “vermin.” He has proposed eliminating the first meaningful gun control regulation in 30 years, directly repudiating an instruction even Christian children know: You shall not kill.
Trump’s nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court set loose a Republican legislative onslaught against abortion. That effort, and his promise to curtail gender affirming care, insult the agency and wisdom God gives each of us to make decisions about what is best for our bodies and future. He has promised savage cuts to our social safety nets, directly attacking our poorest neighbors.
All of these measures amount to a grotesque violation of the Bible’s declaration that all people are created in the image of God and its commands to welcome the stranger.
Trump’s suggestion that we place our faith in a candidate, that he alone can fix our problems, should raise alarms for any Christian. We Christians are asked to reserve that kind of faith for God and God alone. There are many stories within the Bible of human leaders who tried to place themselves on the divine throne. They do not end well, for the leaders or the people. God does not anoint human saviors, but works through all people’s hands.
But Christians aren’t the only ones who heard Trump’s speech. His statements ignore the demographic realities of our country, where Christians comprise only slightly more than 50% of U.S. adults. Our communities are filled with Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and other people of faith, as well as millions of neighbors who are atheist or agnostic. Healthy leaders try to welcome and embrace that wondrous diversity, as we do at Middle Church, which people from every faith and no faith call our congregation home.
What Trump and his allies do instead is leverage Christianity’s slight majority to force all Americans to obey a narrow interpretation of our faith. This is called Christian nationalism, which is an act of religious supremacy. It is this dream that lurks behind Trump’s promise to his followers that they “won’t have to vote in four years.” Place your faith in me, he says, and I will reshape this country into one where Christianity wields total control.
We can already see what that future looks like. The state of Louisiana has passed a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom. Oklahoma’s state superintendent of schools has demanded Bible instruction in all schools. Give me four years, Trump asks, and I will finish the work that these Christian nationalists have started.
We have a different dream for this country, one that aligns with the God we find in Scripture and the lived faith of millions we see every day in New York City. Together, we can build a world where every person’s religious liberty is respected, where freedom of religion means genuine liberation and not a pretense for Christian supremacy.
We can pass policies that uphold human dignity, that provide for people’s basic needs and ensure public well-being. We can embrace the moral values that understand we will all need to vote again in four years, because voting is not about anointing a savior but doing the hard work of building a society where love and life can flourish. Come November, we’re voting for that vision, and we invite you to join us.
(The Rev. Jacqui Lewis is senior minister at the historic Middle Church in Manhattan, where Macky Alston is executive minister, the Rev. Natalie Renee Perkins is executive digital minister, Jillian Langford is minister for care and congregational life, the Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft is justice and organizing minister and the Rev. Benjamin Perry is minister for media strategy. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)
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