Explained: Why Christians voted for Donald Trump. A Rejoinder to Rev. Matthew Byers and Linda Grace Byers

Piggybacking on this post immediately below:

This article by a Christian living in the UK will serve as part of my reply to the Byers' bizarre podcasts about Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk:

Explained: Why Christians voted for Donald Trump

Inasmuch as the author is British, and inasmuch as folks in the Commonwealth countries tend to think politically like the British, I figured this article might be a little easier for the Byers to get their heads around than one written by an American MAGA voter.

The crux of the issue is this:  when we Christians cast our votes for political leaders, we aren't electing saints.  We aren't even electing people who are good in all respects.  We are electing people whom we deem best for the country and for the Church.  And in this last election, that was the Trump/Vance ticket.  The genius of Elon Musk is part of that package, his weird transhumanist and other ideas notwithstanding.

Lesser of two evils, plain and simple.  Those purists who operate according to Charles Hadden Spurgeon's bromide, “Of Two Evils, Choose Neither,” are living as much in a fool's paradise as he was.  If evil can be lessened, then it should be lessened.  Now, this article finesses the issue somewhat and argues for a somewhat revised principle instead: 

One reason people think they are trapped between the lesser of two evils is because they confuse this idea with what are really priorities in the Bible. For example, although I am to love all people (1 Pet. 4:8), I am united to my wife in a unique way that images Christ’s love for his church (Eph. 5:25). My love toward her is thus to be prioritized differently than it is toward others. When voting for an elder in my church, Scripture obliges me to vote for a man who meets clear qualifications (1 Tim. 3) such as being “apt to teach”—a priority not mandatory for all church members. A big problem is that many people expect the President of the United States to be as godly as an elder. Sorry, but elder is a higher office.

The second reason many Christians wish to avoid choosing between the lesser of two evils is because they confuse an evil with a wrong.  An “evil” is something that brings suffering. Evil is therefore broader than a wrong.  For example, my back pain is an evil.  To alleviate it, I may choose back surgery, an even greater evil. But my hope is that, although super painful in the short-term, surgery will facilitate complete relief long-term. Starvation, poverty, and disease, are also forms of evil. James says that “God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone” (1:13). He means we shouldn’t use evil as an excuse to sin. Also, the devil is called “the evil one” (1 John 5:19). So we see the breadth of evil.

A “wrong”, on the other hand, is a sin against God. Steal a candy bar from the 7-11 and you’ve committed a wrong. I am rather confident that “No Trump” evangelicals incorrectly assume that a vote for Trump is a wrong—a sin against God.

Now let’s make sense of all of this. Imagine our two families are miles from land in a sinking boat. Suddenly, out of the mist, come two boats to save us. One is captained by an adulterer; the other is captained by a thief. Which boat will you get into?  You say, “Neither one. I’m waiting for the evangelical boat which is captained by a devout Christian who will end abortion.” I say, “You’re kidding, right?” You reply, “Both these guys are reprobates and I’m not going to choose between two evils.”

You see what you’ve done? For one, you failed to prioritize scripturally. The immediate priority is to save our families so we can fight another day. Scripture passages against thievery and adultery simply don’t apply here.

Second, you confused an evil with a wrong. As bloody painful as it is for you to sit in the adulterer’s boat on the way to dry ground, God doesn’t view you as an adulterer. Neither does he view your choice to get your family into the boat as a “wrong.”

Right now our nation is sinking. And two boats are on the way. God is not asking you to pick between “the lesser of two evils.” He asking you to: (1) Prioritize what Scripture prioritizes. (2) Distinguish an evil from a wrong.

Is it possible that God, in his infinite wisdom, has brought Trump along, if for no other reason than to prevent this nation from sinking permanently into the abyss of PC progressivism? And that he has done this so that when this nation is back on the ground we can then plan for the kind of constitutional conservative we need for the future?

This makes so much eminent sense, and in so doing makes the Byers and all who think like them laughingstocks. 

Yes, Trump has been inconsistent on abortion, his COVID policies and other matters.  But he also delivered a huge victory to the pro-life cause through his appointment of conservative justices to the US Supreme Court, and the formation of his current team suggests he has learned some important lessons from the mistakes he made during the pandemic.  The Byers' demand for some sort of Christian perfection in a leader is utterly irrational.  God sometimes anoints pagans to do his will.  Consider King Cyrus.  Isa. 45:1.

But more troubling, they suggest a policy that would essentially hand political power to the Antichrist in perpetuity.  Just whose side are they on, anyway?