Donald Trump versus Christianity

Contents: Love | Golden Calf | Careless Words | King Ahab

On November 8, 2024 I was exploring the town of Fira on the Greek island of Santorini. I entered the Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, and sat down in the quiet sanctuary to rest awhile and pray. I saw two banners hung near the front of the sanctuary; they displayed the words of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, in Greek on the right side, and in English on the left. And as I pondered those words describing God's love, and the love we Christians ought to express toward one another, I thought of the recent Presidential election in America, when on November 5, 2024, Donald Trump was elected over Kamala Harris.

Image credit: Zde at Wikimedia Commons.

Love is patient,
Love is kind.
It is not jealous,
Love is not pompous,
it is not inflated,
it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered,
it does not brood over injury,
Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things,
Love never fails.

(1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)

Donald Trump shows none of these expressions of Love.

Let's examine St. Paul's description of love one item at a time. Let us look at the public behavior displayed by Donald Trump (hereafter DJT, because I don't like to repeat his name). In symbolic Biblical terms, what are the fruits that grow on his tree? (Matthew 7:15-20)

1. Love is patient,
   On November 5, 2020, DJT tweeted a ridiculous and unconstitutional demand to "STOP THE COUNT!" of legal votes that were still being counted in key states. He issued this call because he believed that he was currently ahead in the vote count. No - every legal vote should be - and was - counted, giving Joe Biden victory in the 2020 Presidential Election. Biden called for patience; DJT continued to lie about the results of this election for years afterward.
2. Love is kind.
   In July 2016, DJT attacked a Gold Star family who had lost their son, American Muslim soldier Humayun Khan, a U.S. Army captain. Captain Khan was killed by a car bomb in 2004 while guarding the gates of his base in Iraq, saving the lives of his fellow soldiers and civilians.
The Good Samaritan on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Image credit: Pelegri Clave (1811-1880).
3. It is not jealous [envious],
   DJT has frequently expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation and Viktor Orbán of Hungary over their non-democratic authoritarian rule. On February 22, 2022 with interviewers Clay & Buck, DJT fawned over Putin and his "genius" during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In contrast, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan helping a distant neighbor who had been attacked.
4. Love is not pompous [boastful],
   On December 16, 2024, DJT boasted of his "massive", "unprecedented and powerful mandate" in an interview with Time Magazine. DJT's electoral victory over Kamala Harris on November 5, 2024 was nothing of the sort. The margin of victory in the popular vote was only 1.5%, despite the 86-vote margin in the Electoral College.
5. it is not inflated [arrogant],
   On February 16, 2024, Judge Arthur Engoron imposed a $364 million penalty in DJT’s New York civil fraud case. The judge found that DJT and associates had filed fraudulent financial statements that inflated his wealth. New York Attorney General Letitia James stated that interest on the penalty increases the owed amount to $450 million.
6. it is not rude,
   DJT's behavior toward Canada and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on December 10, 2024 went far beyond rudeness. DJT insulted Trudeau and the nation of Canada, calling him the governor of the 51st state. Christians do not mock their loyal friends.
7. it does not seek its own interests,
   Before and during the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, when an armed mob attempted to prevent the US Congress from certifying of the 2024 Presidential election, DJT committed acts for which he was impeached by the US House of Representatives on January 13, 2021. The Colorado Supreme Court found that DJT did indeed commit insurrection while trying to prevent the transfer of Presidential power from himself over to President-elect Joe Biden; the Supreme Court of the United States later blocked Colorado from following the US Constitution Amendment 14.3 and removing DJT's name from the ballot.
8. it is not quick-tempered [irritable],
   During March and April 2024, DJT violated the gag order issued by Judge Juan Merchan 10 times, incurring fines that totaled $10,000. This legal case was DJT's hush money criminal trial; he was later found guilty by a New York jury of his peers on all 34 felony counts.
9. it does not brood over injury,
   On December 16, 2024, DJT sued the Des Moines Register and J. Ann Selzer over an election poll published on November 2 that later turned out to be in error by 16 percentage points. The Christian thing to do would have been to ignore the error, especially since DJT won the election anyway.
10. Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing
    On January 23, 2016, DJT infamously declared in Iowa that "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue [New York City] and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters." That is nothing to brag about! Does a Christian really boast about having supporters who approve of murder? Unfortunately, DJT's prediction here proved all too close to the truth, as 77 million American voters in 2024 were undeterred by DJT's 34 criminal convictions.
11. but rejoices with the truth.
    As of September 2024, DJT still denies that he lost the 2020 election, and continues to lie about voter fraud.
12. Love bears all things,
13. believes all things,
    DJT does not accept vaccines, climate change, the NATO alliance, US intelligence about Russian meddling in US elections, . . .
14. hopes all things,
15. endures all things,
16. Love never fails [remains].

These events are not momentary lapses in a well-meaning Christian man trying to lead a righteous lifestyle according to the Bible's commands. No, DJT's behavior shows a consistent pattern of ignoring and directly contradicting how the Bible commands Christians to live. The bad fruits of DJT are easy to find in the daily news feeds.

1 John 4:7-8 provides a conclusion to this application of 1 Corinthians 13.

7 Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is from God,
and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God,
because God is love.

Conclusion: Donald Trump does not know God.

Trump is the golden calf of Exodus 32.

Aaron and the Israelites worshiping the golden calf.
Image credit: Providence Lithograph Company.

Exodus 32 recounts a horrible case of mass idolatry that occurred at Mt. Sinai. Moses was up on Mt. Sinai, receiving the Words of the Law from God, while Joshua waited for him nearby. But Moses was up there a long time and the Israelites became impatient, so they appealed to Aaron the High Priest (!) to make them a god. Aaron took the people's jewelry and fashioned a golden calf. The Israelites worshiped the golden calf and offered sacrifices upon the altar that Aaron also made.

When Moses and Joshua came down from Mt. Sinai, he burned with anger and threw the Tablets of the Law to the ground, breaking them. Moses punished the Israelites by making them drink contaminated water, and by commanding the Levites to kill 3,000 of them. Later that generation was further punished (Numbers 14:30) by preventing them from entering the Promised Land, and wandering in the wilderness for a generation instead.

The narrative of the golden calf always seemed crazy to me, that not one single Israelite standing off to the side would object to Aaron: "Dude - you fabricated that golden calf yourself! We literally watched you take our earrings, melt them down, and fashion that statue with your copper tools. And then you just announced that this hunk of shiny metal is supposed to be our god. How on earth can you claim that this calf thing is a god?!!" I wondered to myself: Is the Biblical story of the golden calf at all relevant in today's world?

Yes - unfortunately, the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32 is all too instructive in 2016 and again in 2024. DJT began bearing false witness against then-President Barack Obama and his natural-born US citizenship in March 2011, and continued to raise unfounded suspicions until September 16, 2016. On 16 June 2015 we watched DJT descend his golden escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for President of the United States with an ostentatious display of wealth and power. We heard him insult his way through the Republican primaries in 2016. And shortly before the November 8 election, we heard the Access Hollywood tape where DJT bragged about grabbing beautiful women by the pussy (October 7, 2016). The persona of DJT was fashioned with unsanctified tools and set upon the altar of the Republican party; and there people abandoned their morals and worshiped it instead of the true God.

There was abundant evidence of DJT's un-Christian behavior during 2015 and 2016. And yet - in that election, 63 million Americans cast their votes for DJT. Hillary Clinton's 66 million popular votes were insufficient to win her a majority of the Electoral College. In the shock of that result, I concluded that mass idolatry had come to America, 3,265 years after the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt. The Pew Research Center found that among religions who accept Moses, "the faithful" voted for Trump in 2016 as follows:

The story of the golden calf is indeed relevant today (even for those who understand it to be a non-historic morality tale).

In a few cases the idol is not DJT himself, but the Republican Party. Senator Mitch McConnell gave a clear example of this idolatry to the GOP on December 11, 2024. He stated to the The Financial Times that Trump's election has put Americans in a very, very dangerous world right now.

In one of many examples of putting the GOP first, McConnell told [Kristen] Welker [of NBC] in April [2024] that even though he does not personally like Trump, he would support him as the Republican presidential nominee. The senator told the Times that he voted for him in November but characterized the decision as supporting “the ticket” rather than the candidate.
Mitch McConnell Says Trump Win Puts Americans In A 'Very Dangerous World'
Story by Sanjana Karanth, MSN.com; December 11, 2024

Liz Cheney commented on Twitter that history will remember the shame of people like @LeaderMcConnell.

Careless and evil words defile a person.

Sermon on the Mount, by Carl Bloch (1877).

On February 11, 2024, Florida Senator Marco Rubio offered a familiar excuse for DJT's statement in South Carolina that he would let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that are delinquent on their payments to the alliance. Rubio defended Trump's NATO comments with an old line: "He doesn’t talk like a traditional politician." In this and other cases it was common to hear Republican politicians claim that DJT's inflammatory words were simply rhetoric to fire up his base and provoke outrage in the media: Republicans try a new excuse to defend Trump: It's Just a Joke (Gloria Borger, CNN, October 7, 2019). The simple Biblical truth is that DJT cannot control his own mouth.

The breezy excuses offered by Marco Rubio and GOP Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio are not what Jesus teaches in the Gospels. Here are Jesus's words in Matthew 15:

10 And Jesus called the people to Him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” (ESV)

Mark 7 further clarifies what Jesus taught about the significance of our speech:

20 And He said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (ESV)

Michelle Obama rightly declared to British Vogue on 20 December 2016, "Words Matter." As Jesus said, "36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12, ESV)

Trump is a lot more like King Ahab than King David

Posted: December 8, 2024
Updated: January 4, 2025
Author: Copyright 2024 by Carl Drews.