By Jim Nichols

Here is the punchline for this article. I believe Donald Trump is bad for our country, but I most fault him for damaging the witness of the church.

Governments have often had uneasy relationships with religion. Putting them together seems at first like a positive idea; when implemented, however, it often ends in disaster.

A small example is playing out in state legislatures these days. With what they describe as good motives, these legislatures are mandating a posting of the Ten Commandments in school classrooms. Given the whole Bible, it is interesting that this is the part they desire to promote. I believe the Ten Commandments are worthy of serious consideration, but are they more important than Jesus’ teaching of the Beatitudes? Are they more significant than the “Greatest Commandment” as Jesus clearly says “. . . love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and your neighbor as yourself.” Are the Ten Commandments superior to the Great Commission reading “. . . make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?” I think not.

Why choose the Ten Commandments? Because they are a set of rules that can be (or not) followed. The Beatitudes, the Greatest Commandment, and the Great Commission on the other hand prescribe attitudes, beliefs, relationships, and faithful steps in being God’s person. It is quite a different approach.

First published in 1942, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, is a novel in satirical style. A prolific Christian author of such wide-ranging titles as Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia, in Screwtape Lewis tackles temptation and how humans can be led either toward or away from God. 

Screwtape is a senior devil, and he is writing a series of letters to his nephew Wormwood, a junior tempter. Screwtape is teaching and encouraging his nephew in his efforts to discourage “the Patient” from being a follower of God. What is noteworthy of his approach, however, is that Wormwood is not being taught to harm the Patient in a drastic way, but to simply lead him gradually by encouraging selfish gain and a search for power. Screwtape has found that promoting passivity and irresponsibility are the most effective approach to undermining God’s call to humans; he is teaching Wormwood his tricks.

Returning to my thesis here, what does this have to do with Trump? I do not need to recount for the reader the extensive list of attitudes, proclamations, and actions that he has performed that are worthy of strong criticism. We (and I) should criticize him for his extensive lying, bullying, extra-marital affairs, multiple legal indictments and convictions, incitement of insurrection, untruthfulness, mocking disabled people, demeaning of women . . . the list continues. “Immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country,” he says. Character and morality are clearly not on his top ten list of interests.

I do not overlook all those items, but they pale in comparison to this. He is portraying himself as a Christian leader. There are two groups that this affects. (1) Christians who are being misled to believe this is the kind of Christian they should be. (2) Others who might give Christianity a positive consideration, but do not because of Trump’s model.

President Trump Getty Images

It is this second group that the Beatitudes, the Greatest Commandment, and the Great Commission concern. If a person considers Trump and says, “If that is what a Christian is about, I am absolutely not interested,” that is a serious statement.

Trump would give Christianity a lot of help if he would just stop talking about it (and religion in general).

I have written before that I believe Donald Trump is a created being and that God loves him. What I am concerned about is the anti-evangelistic result of his behavior. Scripture writes sternly about “leading people astray.” The language speaks of hanging heavy weights on the necks of those perpetrators and throwing them into the sea.

We are supposed to draw others to Christ, not turn them off by our stupidity and lack of character.

Lest you think this problem is limited to Trump, it is important for you and me to keep looking in the spiritual mirror ourselves. Do my actions and words draw people toward Christ, or do they lead them away from peace, grace, and trust in God?

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain