Trump’s Christian Nationalism -vs- The Gospel of Jesus

From the Middle Church Clergy

                  On Friday, at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit, Donald Trump promised, “In four more years, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” His words are starkly antidemocratic and—from a candidate who incited a mob to attempt a deadly coup—deeply disturbing. The naked authoritarianism is firmly in line with the rest of Project 2025’s fascist plan to reshape U.S. politics. But U.S. Christians should also be gravely offended at the way Trump’s exhortation violates core tenets of our faith. In his speech, Trump is portraying himself as a quasi-messianic figure, “We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote,” he said, as if robust engagement with how we are governed has not always been an essential part of what it means to be Christian.

                As ministers at Middle Church in New York City, we are always prayerfully discerning how God leads us to organize, petition, protest and vote. As clergy, we see how public policy affects the people we serve. Affordable housing, food stamps, and universal healthcare aren’t just policy positions—they’re ways that we put Christ’s exhortation to shelter, feed, and care for our neighbors into practice. When we see politicians from either party violate our moral values, we are called to act. It’s why we’ve been vocally critical of Eric Adams administration—several times our congregation has organized campaigns against his devastating cuts to New York Public Libraries—and have also routinely protested President Biden’s complicity to the genocide in Gaza. Our faith follows God, not the Democratic party. And yet, it is those same values that lead us to cry out against Donald Trump’s candidacy in the strongest terms, to oppose the violent harm a second Trump presidency portends.

                The truth is Trump’s priorities could not be further from the gospel’s. Throughout this run for office, he has repeatedly called undocumented siblings “vermin.” While news reports have rightly focused on how this echoes rhetoric used by Hitler and Mussolini, it’s also a grotesque violation of the Bible’s clear declaration that all people are created in the image of God, its repeated commands to welcome the stranger. His intention to eliminate the first meaningful gun legislation in thirty years directly repudiates an instruction even Christian children know: You shall not kill. The Republican legislative onslaught against abortion and gender affirming care insults the agency and wisdom God gives each of us to make decisions about what is best for our bodies and future. And the savage cuts he would make to our social safety nets are direct attacks against our poorest neighbors, among whom Jesus promises he will be found.

                But truthfully, as much as any of these individual policy crimes are abhorrent—and they are horrifying—the even greater affront to Christianity is Trump’s contention that all U.S. Christians need to do is place our faith in him as a candidate, that he alone can fix our problems. As Christians, we are asked to reserve that kind of faith for God and God alone, something Trump might know if he regularly attended church. There are many stories within the Bible of human leaders who tried to place themselves on the divine throne. They do not end well, for the leaders or the people. God does not anoint human saviors; God works through the people’s hands to enact God’s salvific future.

                Another deeply troubling aspect to all of this, however, is that Trump’s statements completely ignore the demographic realities of our country. Christians only comprise slightly more than 50% of U.S. adults, and that number has decreased for decades. Our communities are filled with people who are Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Sikh, and more, as well as millions of neighbors who are atheist or agnostic. A healthy leader knows this and tries to build community that welcomes and embraces that wondrous diversity. (At Middle Church, we’re overjoyed that people from every faith and no faith call our congregation home.) What President Trump and his allies are attempting, however, is to use that slight Christian majority to force all people to obey their narrow interpretation of our faith. Christian nationalism is, at its core, an act of religious supremacy, a violation of God’s respect for all humans’ right to worship freely in whatever faith they choose.

                Make no mistake: The Christian Nationalist dream for the world is what lurks behind Trump’s promise to his followers that they “won’t have to vote in four years.” Place your faith in me, he says, and I will reshape this country into one where Christianity wields total control. Already, we see ominous glimmers of that future, like the state of Louisiana requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom. Give me four years, Trump asks, and I will finish the work that Christian Nationalists have started. As clergy, we have a different dream for this country—one that aligns with the God we find in scripture and the lived faith of millions we see every day in New York City. Together, we can build a world where every person’s religious liberty is respected, where freedom of religion means genuine liberation and not a pretense for Christian supremacy. We can pass policies that uphold human dignity, that provide for people’s basic needs, and ensure public wellbeing. We can embrace the moral values that understand we will all need to vote again in four years, because voting is not about anointing a savior but doing the hard work of building a society where love and life can flourish. Come November, we’re voting for that vision, and we invite you to join us.

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
Jillian Langford, M. Phil.
Rev. Natalie Renee Perkins
Macky Alston, M. Div.
Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft
Rev. Benjamin Perry