(The following is a guest post by Pastor Nate Wagner of Sparta Baptist Church in Sparta, MI. He captures accurately and powerfully what many of us Christians are feeling – myself included. NOTE: Several writers including Russell Moore in “President Trump: What Now for the Church?” and Trevor Wax in “The 2016 Election and the American Church” have helped shaped these thoughts.)

After an arduous, highly combative, polarizing election season Donald Trump is now the President elect.  Regardless of our differences, we should all agree that this campaign has been demoralizing and even traumatizing for much of the country. So what should those of us who identify ourselves as Jesus followers do now?

WHAT IS OUR FIRST MOVE?

Our first and primary engagement in politics must be to honor and pray.  We are to pray for “all who are in high positions” (1 Tim. 2:1-2), and to give “honor to whom honor is due” (Rom. 13:7). Many of us have deep differences with our new president, and would have no matter which candidate had been elected.  We must pray that he will succeed in leading our country with wisdom and justice.  There is reason for cautious optimism that President Trump will be a better leader than candidate Trump. 

• Pray that he is all-in on helping to heal the major divides in this country as our commander in chief and the leader of the free world.
• Pray that the office humbles him and he is sobered by the magnitude of the power he now wields.
• Pray that the one in the oval office will fall to his knees in recognition of his desperate dependence on the one who sits on the throne.

We must also pray for our country and for unity, and specifically for all those who feel marginalized and ostracized by the outcome.  The reaction to this election has been one of trepidation, anxiety, and grief by many.  No doubt, some of this reaction is born out of entitlement and resentment that things didn’t go as anticipated.  However, we would be naive to assert that those things are the catalyst for all of the negative reaction we are seeing across our country.  Much of the reaction we are seeing is because people are genuinely afraid and anxious about what happens next.

We must not pretend that this election produced something it hasn’t.  The choice of Donald Trump as the head of the ticket for the conservative camp did not allow for the outcome many of us wanted. As a Christ follower, I was praying that we would have an opportunity to see this election cycle produce a multiethnic, constitutionally-anchored, forward-looking conservativism committed to a broad spectrum of social justice considerations including race relations and gender equality.  That was not to be.  In Donald Trump we have more of a European-style, ethno-nationalist populist who has been serially unfaithful and has repeatedly used inflammatory rhetoric both incomprehensible and indefensible.  As a result, one of the many unfortunate byproducts of this election is the further marginalization of moral decency, personal character, family stability, and racial empathy.

WHAT HAVE WE LOST?

The KKK is celebrating because they have successfully sent “their guy” to the White House. Because of the ardent support and teflon approach we’ve taken with the infidelity issues, divisive rhetoric, and “locker room talk”, the evangelical community is being thrown into an unwanted category.  Many are celebrating as though “our guy” won the election.  Perception matters.  It is unfair and unwarranted to place the vast majority of evangelicals into the category of racist, misogynistic, xenophobic intolerants.  However, we have work to do to regain our credibility and reestablish our influence that has been diminished by this election.  Simply saying that it is unfair and ridiculous to be labeled this way doesn’t change the reality of how we are perceived.  In fact, it likely makes it worse.

WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

We must maintain an absolute clarity regarding what should be our greatest concerns.  The protection of personal rights, the pursuit of prosperity, clinging to the comfortable way of life we enjoy in this country must not trump greater gospel considerations.  We must be willing to call to repentance everything that is unjust and anti-gospel, whether that is the abortion culture, the divorce culture, or the racism/nativism/mysogynistic/xenophobic culture. We must be the people who tell the truth, whatever the implications. 

No matter what the racial and ethnic divisions in America, the church of Christ must demonstrate and embody the reconciliation of the Kingdom of God.  Russell Moore framed this well in his article “President Trump: Now What for the Church?”  He stated “We are part of a Body—a Body that is white and black and Latino and Asian, male and female, rich and poor. We are part of a Body joined to a Head who is an Aramaic-speaking Middle-easterner. What affects black and Hispanic and Asian Christians ought to affect white Christians. And the sorts of poverty and social unraveling among the white working class ought to affect black and Hispanic and Asian Christians. We belong to each other because we belong to Christ.”  Amen.  Amen.  Amen.

WHO ARE “WE”?

We cannot fall prey to the temptation of primarily identifying ourselves as Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or progressives. We are not even, first and foremost, the United States of America. As Russell Moore so eloquently put it, “We are the church of the resurrected and triumphant Lord Jesus Christ. We have survived everything from the rage of Nero to that of Middle Eastern terrorist cells.” We have, in fact, often accomplished the most when we view ourselves as the “missional minority” or, as one historian has called us, the “patient ferment” of a church alive with the gospel.  May we view ourselves this way and may that be enough.

WHAT HAVE WE FORGOTTEN?

We have power, but not that which comes from political leverage.  We have power that comes through the weakness of being crucified with our risen savior.  We have influence, but not the kind that comes from winning a political contest, rather that which comes from the distinctiveness of courage in uncertainty, love in response to hostility, and the willingness to sacrifice personal rights and prosperity for the pursuit of greater justice.

WHAT DOES LOVE REQUIRE OF US?

If we are to take Christ seriously when he declared that we will be known by how we love, we must refuse to give in to racial animosity and racial apathy.  When others are crying, we cannot judge their tears, dismiss their concerns, and tell them to “just move on”.  Compassion and empathy are essential expressions of genuine love.  The “just suck it up” and “get over it” mantras are unloving and unhelpful responses to real fear and real pain.  Minority school kids are genuinely scared about what is going to happen to their families.  Others are having their cars vandalized.  Still others are being confronted with ongoing hateful rhetoric from those who feel like their voice has been given greater credibility due to the outcome of this election. Love requires me to not shout down those expressing real fear and genuine angst. These aren’t just evidence of weakness, entitlement, or ignorance.  This is real fear that we must empathize with. There is work to be done, and it requires investment, patience, and a true desire to understand.  Love requires us to allow the gospel to inform our priorities and transform our responses.  Will we allow it to do that?

Will we be gospel-centric people in a partisan-centric culture?

Nate Wagner
Senior Pastor, Sparta Baptist Church