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Question 3 - Christian+Trump=true?

Short answer

Why not?

Long answer

I am Swedish, living in Norway. I know exactly one person who is a supporter of Trump here. Few things unite Scandinavians like a dislike of president Donald Trump.

Some of that can be attributed to how the media here covers him but not all. They are countries with a long history of socialism, after all.

However, it is my experience that there is a perception that certain political alignments are incompatible with Christianity. Trump has very little to do with Norway or Sweden but there are political parties in both countries that elicit a similar response (FrP and SD, respectively).

Thus, I think it is important to reflect on this question: Can you support/vote for Trump/FrP/SD and still be a Christian?

 

(Disclosure: I voted for Centern in Sweden last time, a center-right party)

Scripture doesn't tell us who to vote for but it does talk about respecting authority and those in charge (because they have been given that authority from God) 

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
(Rom 13:1)

 

But does that mean that we can vote for whomever?

First of all, no, it doesn't. Hitler was elected into office and I think we can all agree that he was a terrible person to vote for. No Christian can ever support a vote for a Hitler. 

The question is thus, what Biblical guidelines exist to help us know where the line is, the line that separates a bad choice from a Hitler/anti-Christian one? 

We need to consider three things:

  1. What does it mean to vote for a party or person?

  2. Is Trump/FrP/SD equal to "Hitler", i.e. an anti-Christian person?

  3. What defines "Christian"?

 

Regarding the first point I think we must realize that voting for a person or a party is an imperfect matter. No one votes for  someone with whom they agree 100% or is 100% Christian. There is always compromise. 
This means that a person can vote for Trump/FrP/SD without agreeing with everything they say or do. This is obviously the case no matter who you vote for.

 

Regarding the second point I have to say that I don't think Trump/FrP/SD is on par with Hitler, i.e. blatantly and thoroughly anti-Christian person. This doesn't mean that I like them or always agree with where they stand on major issues. On the contrary, there is a lot of stuff that I find wrong and/or terrible...but the same goes for the other politcal parties.

For example, I find Trump's morals deeply non-Biblical but I also find his opponent's stance on abortion a terrible position. In Sweden we have the SD party which has a distant and dark history (and not so distant) of racism but the dominant party during the last century (S) sanctioned eugenics and state-sponsored sterilization of those "less fit". There is no truly "Christian" option.

 

This means that voting and political views is a matter of degrees and not ultimate truth or perfect alignment with the Bible (this is why I don't particularly like political parties who claim to be the "Christian" alternative). It's about whether or not Trump/FrP/SD is worse, and a lot worse, than the other options. 

This in turn means that such things hardly can define who is a Christian or not.

 

There is simply too much leeway here for it to serve as an appropriate definition of who is a Christian or not.. 

 

Finally, as we come to the third point, we must conclude that the Bible doesn't define who is a Christian depending on political views.

The Bible doesn't have one tidy little definition of who is a Christian, it has several. It's about repentance from sin, faith in Jesus, following and obeying Jesus, denying oneself and picking up one's cross and more.

Paul wrote 13 letters trying to help and guide new Christians on how to live and believe and thing, what to do and not do, doing our best listening and following The Holy Spirit's voice in our hearts.

The conclusion thus has to be that it is possible to vote for Trump/FrP/SD and be a Christian. 

There is one exception and that is if someone is convinced that Trump/FrP/SD actually is so anti-Biblical that almost everything about them is anti-Christian. In that case you have to follow your conscience and not vote for them. 

And then Jesus...

Isn't it liberating that Jesus wasn't a political figure who came to start a revolution or a new political party?

Our time is a time of ridiculous and artificial false dichotomies (which means things such as "you are either a liberal or a conservative and nothing else is valid"). It makes everything less intelligent and more shallow since it makes everything black and white in advance AND it tends to put people in what I call pre-determined prejudice-boxes (e.g. "all vegetarians are anti-war"). There is, contrary to popular belief, "black and white" in this world but those philosophical destinations come at the end of a discussion, not before.

Jesus's focus was if we were/are willing to follow and obey Him (or not) as our Lord and Savior. Period. 

The historical church has been charged with defining and guiding and helping people understand what that means and how to do it in the power of the Holy Spirit ever since. Seemingly, that doesn't include political affiliations, as long as they are not blatantly anti-Christian (such as communism, fascism or nazism).

Jesus is, simply put, fairly uninterested in who we vote for as long as we first and foremost follow, obey and love Him. That should and indeed must influence who we vote for but it can include a vast variety of views.

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