A Baptist minister in Stuart’s Draft, VA, was fired for calling Donald Trump the anti-Christ and for saying that anyone who votes for him is not a Christian. This happened early on in the pandemic at an outdoor service, but I have no doubt that it had been percolating for a while. The minister, William Kopp, was fired two years later after the church realized it was having difficulty staying open. It is hard to imagine how it could have; that is Trump country, and most of the members supported him in both elections. Kopp is now on staff at a Presbyterian church and is unrepentant about what he said. I guess his pension was good enough to allow him to make that move to an associate position. The things is, he is wrong.
It is my opinion, after listening to Mr. Trump’s vicious rhetoric for 50 years, that he is an objectively bad person. Sure, once in a while he does something nice, but it is always about public relations and photo ops. He has destroyed a lot of businesses and people along the way, refusing to pay for the work they have done. He has destroyed a lot of lives as well with his deals, his cheating, and his vitriol. But is he the anti-Christ? No. The anti-Christ in the Book of Revelation is loved by everyone; many of Trump’s supporters dislike him, but think his economic plans are good. And they were – he continued much of what worked during the Obama presidency, and that was a positive. But the anti-Christ? He is far from it, and to say he is some mythical figure out of the Bible is to give him too much power.
The second part – can you vote for Trump and be a Christian? Yes. I don’t understand it; his life is about as far from the teachings of Jesus as anyone I have ever seen, but so are a lot of other people’s. And the most Christian president we ever had – Jimmy Carter – continues to be a role model for human behavior, but he was far from a great president. One’s faith has little to do with one’s effectiveness in political office; in fact, being too good can be a detriment to making decisions that are distasteful. Having moral character is a positive quality in any work, but it can also get in the way of making hard choices and doing what is right for everyone.
No president in my life, except for Mr. Carter, exemplified the Christian life very well. That doesn’t mean they weren’t believers – it means they had to make hard choices in this secular and sinful world that went against what they would have chosen if God were part of the equation. None of us goes through life making perfect choices that are always pleasing to God, no matter how hard we try. We are all on a sliding scale of morality, and the point is to try to work our way towards doing more good than bad. I hope Mr. Trump begins that journey soon, for his own sake. Being good would make his life, and the lives of those he interacts with, a lot better. And we are not guiltless either. We can all use a little work in this area, don’t you think?
Prayer – Holy God, You have made is with great potential for good and evil; help us to choose what is right. Amen.
Today’s art is “End of the Anti-Christ” by Joseph Zaccaria.