In the United States, white evangelical Christians are the bedrock of the Trump candidacy. They see Pres. Trump as honest and morally upstanding.1 I know and love many white evangelicals and - for the life of me - I cannot see how they can focus only on one issue…abortion. All of those whom I know and are white and call themselves evangelicals believe that abortion is considered murder and as such should not be legal.
Knowing the Bible as I do, I do understand the sanctity of life. But for so many of them, abortion is the only Right to Life issue. Most do not believe the facts that scientists present about climate change, which is now killing mothers with unborn babies, children, and adults…people innocent of the crime of destroying our biosphere. Most applauded Pres. G.W. Bush when the U.S.A. waged war in Afghanistan and Iraq, again killing the unborn right along with the born, the vast majority of whom were innocents of the crime of 9/11. And now with the coronavirus most white evangelicals think that Pres. Trump is doing a great job, while the people dying the most are of darker skin tones, the poor, and the vulnerable…the invisible ones to too many of us Whites.
Pres. Trump, along with too many in power, lies. There are people in all areas of government, science, history, and his administration fact checking what he says. He is not up-standing. Donald Trump adopted the pro-life stance, when it was needed to get the Republican endorsement.2
What are our responsibilities as Christians in all of this?
I truly believe we are accomplices when we allow a different set of rules for the powerful than we do for the least powerful. We are collaborators with the rich, including the ultra-rich billionaires and trillionaires,3 when we allow them to accumulate and accumulate while people are hungry and live in poverty.
Have we forgotten what we were told by our Leader, Jesus Christ? We are to be servants to each other. We are to take care of our earth, not abuse it. We are to care for the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the vulnerable, the hungry. Can we ignore these basic tenants of our faith when we enter the voting booth, as well as when we live the rest of our lives, thinking the planet, the poor, the sick, etc. are ours to exploit or to ignore? No, we cannot.
Because when we do, then we start lagging further and further behind the One we are supposed to be following and who – I can hear shouting at me, “For the Love of your God, catch up!”
-Kathleen
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2Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward, published 11 September 2018 by Simon and Schuster
