We Have Forgotten How to Blush

A critique of the American Evangelical Church during the second Trump presidency

Last week America celebrated its 249th birthday. Like many of you, Karen and I celebrated together with friends while watching the neighbors propel multiple hundreds of dollars’ worth of fireworks into the air above us. (I’ve got to admit… in spite of my conviction about the unnecessary expense, they looked pretty cool).

During our nation’s birthday week, a number of events with far-reaching implications took place, including the tragic floods in Texas that gripped the heart of the nation. The death toll exceeded that of any flood event for decades. Unsurprisingly, there is already internal reporting that the Trump administration cuts to FEMA have reduced the number of personnel who ordinarily would have been involved in the recovery efforts. Like so much of the DOGE project, the cuts they instigated often proved to be reckless and capricious. With the prime hurricane season still in front of us, we have yet to see to what extent the federal relief efforts will be impacted.

Last week we were also reminded that much of the Trump agenda runs in direct contradiction to Christian moral principles of truth, justice, and charity. Sadly, however, that moral tension seemed to barely register on the radar of politically active Evangelicals. I offer three examples.

On July 1^st, USAID was officially shuttered. The congressionally established governmental organization, one of the first to fall to the DOGE onslaught, has for over five decades been the most consistent enemy of world hunger on the planet, far outstripping efforts mounted by the private sector. Karen and I, like many of you, give consistently to Christian NGOs in order to combat global poverty. But the elimination of USAID from the charity landscape will leave a gigantic hole that is nearly impossible to fill, estimated to result in fourteen million additional deaths over the next five years. God’s people, whom Jesus called to minister to the “least of these,” ought to be deeply troubled. Instead, I have heard next to nothing. Apparently our concern for the “least of these” is minimalized when the “least” live very far away and don’t look like us.

About the same time, the Senate was entrenched in the effort by Republicans to affirm Trump’s so called One Big Beautiful Bill Act and return it to the House for passage. In order to overcome objections, Senate Republicans engaged in an exercise of budget chicanery that deliberately ignored Senate rules and precedent related to the Budget reconciliation process. They simply changed the rules for calculating the budget and decided that, because the tax cuts the bill proposed had already been put into effect since 2017, they ought to no longer be calculated as adding to the deficit moving forward. The bill clearly adds $4.5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, but after their sleight of hand, Republicans claimed that $3.8 trillion of that amount “didn’t count.”

The fact that supposedly honest and competent senators could propose such a scheme and not raise the alarm and ire of the public is testimony to the outlandishly sheepish nature of the Republican Party. As economists have observed, this move is equivalent to asserting that just because I’m used to paying my Xfinity bill, my decision to renew my contract for another three years will cost me nothing. It’s pure nonsense – a boldfaced deception. Even more so when it comes from the party that supposedly is especially committed to trimming the deficit. That kind of behavior deserves critique of the first order, especially from Christ followers who are committed to truthfulness in all of their dealings. And how has the Evangelical Community responded thus far? Crickets.

On July 3^rd at a purportedly bipartisan “Salute to America” event in Iowa, President Trump declared to a raucous and decidedly partisan crowd, “They wouldn’t vote [for the spending bill], only because they hate Trump. But I hate them, too. You know that? I really do. I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really do believe they hate our country.”

In our present political environment, the gravity of that statement may be lost on us, but that was actually the first time in history that a president of the United States has openly declared his hatred of the opposition party. Past presidents may have felt similar emotions—they may have been provoked to wrath in private. But presidents up till now have recognized their calling to unite the nation and have refrained from such incendiary rhetoric. Not Trump. Instead, he seems to enjoy launching himself into the fray. That tendency seems particularly unwise considering the reality that a Minnesota state representative and her husband were murdered just three weeks ago in what appears to be a politically motivated attack.

I can almost see the eye-rolls of some of my MAGA friends and colleagues right now. “Give me a break,” they might argue. “Trump is admittedly a blowhard who specializes in bombast. Everyone knows that. Like Trump himself asserted the other day, we ought to give him some room to be sarcastic!”

To that I counter: Trump is the one who chose to make the issue all about him. His claim that Democrats refused to vote for this bill (one that will result in between 12-17 million losing their health insurance and that facilitates a massive transfer of wealth from the poorest 20% in America to the richest) because they “hate Trump” is a narcissistic delusion. His deliberate effort to villainize the Democratic Party is far from sarcastic. Liberal democracies are built upon the foundation of mutual respect between political opponents who disagree with each other. Civility toward those who disagree is not only a characteristic of Christ followers, it is a hallmark of democratic dialogue. Trump actively seeks to dismantle respect and weaponize distrust. By his telling, anyone who disagrees with him “hates Trump.”

After 10 full years during which Trump has dominated the political landscape, the events of the past week should not surprise me. The way the majority of my Christian friends are responding to such nonsense, however, continues to astound. According to Pew Research, “Around seven-in-ten White evangelicals rate the ethics of top Trump administration officials as good (35%) or excellent (34%). By contrast, among the public overall, most (62%) rate the ethics of the Trump administration as only fair or poor.” The way I interpret that, my unbelieving friends and neighbors have a better nose for the Trump administration’s lack of ethical foundation than do my own brothers and sisters in Christ. Donald Trump and the MAGA movement have not only taken over the GOP; they have reshaped the Evangelical Church. That reshaping is profoundly demonstrated in their (our) willingness to normalize unethical behavior.

Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. (Jeremiah 6:15)

Back in the 90’s, during his last decade on earth, my dad was often asked to preach from a sermon series he entitled “The Human Face of God.” In it, he examined some of the uncommon anthropomorphisms in Scripture and expounded on what they tell us about the God’s character. “When God Spits,” “When God Laughs,” and “When God Winks” were some of the titles. The one that always struck me the hardest was “When God Blushed.” In that sermon Dad spoke about the human propensity to grow accustomed to sin—to become so habituated to wantonness that we don’t even blush at the things that cause God to blush.

I have often thought about that sermon and its present day applicability during the past decade. Humans normalize sin for a variety of reasons: to justify what they find pleasurable, for example, or to defend questionable actions taken out of self-interest. The justifications flow quite readily. “Others do even worse,” we might argue. Or, “I’m fighting for a just cause.”

The contention that the ends justify the means has gained quite a following among Evangelicals during the Trump era. How often have you heard, “We’re not electing a pastor—we’re electing a president! In our corrupt political environment, we don’t need a leader who pussy foots around. We need a leader who is willing to get his hands dirty.” By means of that excuse, all manner of bad behavior is justified. Those who shouted most loudly that “character matters” during the Clinton administration now embrace Trump, not simply in spite of his character flaws, but because of them.

I understand his appeal. Trump’s colloquial, meandering speaking style definitely has an “everyman” quality to it. Though his cynical, mocking air appalls me, his sense of humor is intriguing and his quips are often masterfully timed. He mysteriously invokes the impression that he understands your pain, even though he himself has led an exceedingly charmed existence.

In spite of his remarkable advantages, however, he remains willfully vindictive, spiteful, capricious, and transactional in the extreme. What may have shocked us in the early stages of Trump’s political career is now simply another expression of the Trump brand. The normalization follows a predictable pattern: At first, puzzlement over condemnable behavior, which then gives way to excusing it and eventually becomes a full throated acceptance. In the first Trump campaign, his “locker room talk” at first gave my fellow Christians pause, but they soon graduated to “the perfect phone call” with Zelenskyy, then to fully embracing the election lie and, when Trump left office, to doubling down on the “big lie” and to calling the intruders at the Capitol “patriots.”

In the second presidency, the wheels are already greased. There is not even the hint of a blush when Trump fires the Inspectors General, spirits immigrants away to El Salvador in the middle of the night without affording them due process, calls for judges who oppose him to be impeached, and actively defies court orders. Evangelicals, who have long prided themselves on being proponents of law and order, now aggressively support a president when he defies the constitutional rule of law.

The Steady Descent into Hypocrisy

I contend that the Evangelical Church has fallen prey to a grave deception. Trump knew and understood our longing to “influence the culture.” He has successfully harnessed that desire to the MAGA populist agenda. Evangelicals who have long sought after people of influence who could shape cultural norms in keeping with their value system were quick to go along, perhaps oblivious to the dark quest for power inherent in Trump’s movement (or perhaps deliberately embracing it). Evangelicals have acquiesced to the aspirations of “the MAGA tribe,” so much so that they no longer recognize how profoundly the tribe parts ways with Jesus. A few strategically placed buzzwords—abortion rights, transgender participants in sports, or “the woke agenda”—are sufficient to lull them into believing that Trump and Jesus are on the same team.

The Church’s failed moral leadership regarding the MAGA agenda is not simply a political matter. It has far reaching spiritual ramifications. The legitimacy of the Church’s witness is at stake. Many who might have been spiritually open to Christianity are asking the question, “If Christians are gullible enough to fall for Trump’s self-serving lies that he won the 2020 election, why should I trust what they have to say about ultimate matters of life after death?” In point of fact, Evangelicals have shown themselves to be especially vulnerable to Trump’s authoritarian leanings and have are all too willing to surrender cherished democratic principles such as the separation of powers. We see it played out in real time. The deafening drumbeat of Trump’s claims of government fraud and incompetence combined with his flood of executive orders has numbed our ability to discern the true facts on the ground. The Trump playbook, as famously articulated by Steve Bannon, is to “flood the zone with sh__.” Our nation now finds itself buried in it.

Trusting a treacherous person at a difficult time is like having a bad tooth or a wobbly foot. (Proverbs 25:19)

One of the more remarkable examples of how the Church has been willing to shift its loyalty relates to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The majority opinion among Evangelicals in 2022 was a robust denunciation of Russia’s militancy and robust praise for the resilient Ukrainians. Trump, on the other hand, has always expressed skepticism toward Ukraine. He continuously redacted his lackluster support for its democratically elected leadership until it devolved into an outright defense of the Russian point of view. On the three-year anniversary of Russia’s attack, the US ambassador to the UN voted with Russia and North Korea against impugning Russia with the full blame for the war. Shortly thereafter, our Commander in Chief ordered our government to stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine. This policy change, though ultimately rescinded, resulted in hundreds of additional casualties according to Ukrainian officials. One officer stated bluntly, “This is not politics – this is treachery!”

Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, in an utter revocation of Reagan foreign policy, regularly parrots Russian talking points that Ukraine is responsible for the continuation of the war. And Republican lawmakers hardly blinked last week when Hegseth, apparently without consulting the president (think about that for a moment!), canceled an approved shipment of Patriot missiles that are essential to Ukraine’s air defense.

Speaking of Hegseth, allow me a brief aside. Imagine, if you will, that you fill the shoes of 4-star General Charles Q. Brown, Jr. All your adult life you have demonstrated an exceptional capacity for leadership in what many consider to be the most prestigious meritocracy in the world—the United States military. You now enjoy the untarnished affirmation of your peers and your country as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. If any job on the planet could be described as having been earned, it is this one.

Then, Trump is elected to his second term. The person who he appoints as your new boss is not only your inferior in respect to his rank, he is your inferior in every aspect of his character. He is a known philanderer (adultery is a betrayal of the military code of conduct), a known drunkard, and a known misogynist. He possesses no strategic expertise that qualifies him to lead 1.3 million active duty personnel. His only qualifications appear to be his square jaw that looks good on television combined with his willingness to support Trump’s every whim, even when it runs contrary to the constitution.

Then, imagine that the newly reelected president fires you in the middle of your four-year term. He apparently agrees with Hegseth, who had the audacity to write this about the circumstances of your appointment: “Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt.” Coming from a man who never advanced beyond the rank of captain while serving in the United States Army but now serves as Secretary of Defense, the hypocrisy of this statement is as laughable as it is tragic. It ought to make our skin crawl. But did Republican lawmakers stand up in defense of a Black four-star general who was highly respected by his fellow officers? We know the answer to that. They did, however, insist (without evidence) that Hegseth had reformed his ways and could be trusted not to drink on this job. They have forgotten how to blush.

Returning to Trump’s Ukraine policy, it is impossible to imagine that Evangelicals during the Reagan era might have remained silent if the US ambassador to the UN aligned with the Soviet Union and against free Europe! And yet, here we are. Christian believers, of all people, ought to understand that treaties are akin to covenants. They are not merely transactional arrangements, as Trump seems to see them. We dare not forget that the US engaged in a Trilateral Agreement (covenant) with Russia and Ukraine promising to stand up for Ukraine’s independence in exchange for Ukraine’s willingness to give up its nuclear arsenal (the third largest in the world at that time). A covenant to defend implies that a nation will offer assistance regardless of whether or not it receives a calculable benefit. Our European allies recognize how dangerous the world is if NATO treaty agreements aren’t taken seriously. Christians who know from their scriptures what a covenant entails, ought to be troubled, as well.

Conclusion: A Call to Righteous Resistance

Centuries ago the prophet Jeremiah, at risk to his own life, boldly spoke words of harsh rebuke to a nation that purported to obey Yahweh but were in fact only loyal to their own best interests.

“From the least to the greatest,
    all are greedy for gain;
prophets and priests alike,
    all practice deceit.
They dress the wound of my people
    as though it were not serious.
‘Peace, peace,’ they say,
    when there is no peace.
Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct?
    No, they have no shame at all;
    they do not even know how to blush.”

The Evangelical Church in America must recover its prophetic voice. We are called to be a people who mourn over sin rather than rationalize it—who stand for truth even when it is politically costly. We presently have a president who lies without blushing and threatens to “primary” any Republican lawmaker who dares to publicly disagrees with him. Sadly, many Christ followers have not only become numb to his bullying behavior, they have appropriated it. Our witness has been tarnished not because we engage in politics, but because we do so without discernment and without humility. We excuse what Christ would confront and embrace leaders whose character contradicts what Christ commands.

This is not just a political crisis—it is a spiritual one. The moral confusion of the Evangelical Church has become so entrenched that many no longer recognize it as such. Having accepted our tribe’s partisan point of view, we vilify “the other” as the enemy—considering them unworthy of our respect. Christ’s clarion call to “love your enemies” and “do good to those who despitefully use you” fails to land in our hearts. Evangelical cockiness is all too familiar to the people around us. Job’s sarcastic complaint to his comforters could aptly be levied at us: “Doubtless you are the only people who matter, and wisdom will die with you!” (Job 12:2)

I am not contending that Evangelicals ought to abandon the Republican Party. I am simply pleading for a more critical approach. Our willingness to look the other way when Trump and his administration clearly violate both constitutional and God ordained moral law serves neither our nation nor its leadership. Regaining our prophetic voice will only happen when we rediscover what it means to be ashamed of sin, including our own. When we learn once again how to blush.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/04/28/white-evangelicals-continue-to-stand-out-in-their-support-for-trump/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/08/politics/hegseth-did-not-inform-white-house-ukraine-weapons-pause

https://time.com/7265679/satellites-front-failing-hundreds-dead-fallout-trump-ukraine-aid-pause/

The Trilateral Process: The United States, Ukraine, Russia and Nuclear Weapons

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/falling-for-putin/

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/01/28/g-s1-45030/pepfar-trump-drugs-stop-work

“I was reading my voters’ pamphlet the other day…”

As many of you know, my wife, Karen, and I served as missionaries in Germany from 1989 until 2007. During our eighteen years of living in Hamburg, we often asked ourselves the question, how could this nation of disciplined, intelligent and creative people fall prey to an authoritarian Nazi ideology that so obviously ran contrary to their foundational moral principles? How did a people that excelled in science and literature become a nation that followed a charismatic narcissist? The answer, of course, is that no single departure from established norms was to blame. Multiple failures of courage and of moral will created what in the end felt like an inevitable cascade. But it never was inevitable.

One of the failures was how easily the Church succumbed to the nationalist ideology, fusing loyalty to God and loyalty to country as if they fit seamlessly together. “God and country” have often been a perilous duet, easily manipulated by leaders who understand that the combination can produce an extremely effective symbiosis.

It’s easy for conservative Christians to say, “Well, that was the liberal church in Germany. They easily accepted the mix of nationalism with an everyman’s brand of piety.” But it was not just the casual Christians who were swept onto the National Socialism bandwagon. Believers who look much like American Evangelicals too easily accepted Hitler’s scapegoating of the Jews and his appeal to popular outrage. He funneled their expression of blame while at the same time appealing to their sense of self-righteousness. It was an intoxicating combination. Germans knew they were a forthright people with a noble destiny. Hitler offered them a plan to make Germany great again. To many German Christians, that felt like something God wanted as much as they did.

Before casting my vote for the presidential primary last week, I looked at the statements of the various candidates in the voters’ pamphlet. I read through Donald Trump’s statement, then reread it… then read it again. The more I read it, the more disturbed I became. (I have included the text of Trump’s statement and my commentary at the end of this blog). It is a propaganda piece, pure and simple. It plays fast and loose with the truth; it incites grievance; it treats anyone who stands on “the outside” with profound disrespect—in fact, it treats them with contempt. It reminded me very much of propaganda I have seen exhibited in museums in Berlin, Hamburg, and Buchenwald. Exhibits like those are placed in museums all over Germany with a singular intent: “Never Again!” Following WWII, German leaders and educators wanted to make sure that the horror of an educated public falling prey to the disinformation campaign of an autocratic manipulator would never be repeated. I never imagined that America could be susceptible to a similar playbook.

I must confess, I am torn as I write this post. Any discussion of politics is fraught and in our day it can quickly lead to sharp divisions—even anger. When we dare to unveil our convictions with people with whom we disagree, we risk doing harm to friendships that we treasure. I am hesitant to entertain that risk. After all, unity among brothers and sisters in the body of Christ was my dissertation topic! On the other hand, I remain convinced that, as my father used to quip, “To disagree with honest men is not to dishonor them.” Unity does not imply agreement—it implies love and courtesy. My starting place is to believe that, if you are a believer, you and I are equally committed to following in the steps of Jesus. I believe there is more that binds us than what separates us. I hope that we can have a frank conversation about whether or not Trump is a fit candidate to lead America.

I wrote most of this post before Super Tuesday and before Nikki Haley dropped out of the race. I had entertained the hope that Haley would stay in the race regardless of the Super Tuesday outcome. After her concession, my heart is even heavier than when I first sat down to write. The players for the contest this fall are now largely in place. The hope that voters might somehow make it difficult for Trump to win the nomination has faded to zero. And that means, at this stage, that to resist Trump implies tacit support for Biden. For many Republicans, I realize, that is more than they can stomach.

But the issue as I perceive it is bigger than party loyalty. It is bigger than policy preferences. It is bigger than economic outcomes in our nation. At issue is the very mission of the Church. In the past two decades we have witnessed the meteoric rise, from 5% to nearly 30%, of religiously unaffiliated Americans called the Nones. This level of change is unprecedented in recent American history. Many contend that this radical shift is less about secularism than about the partisan politicization of Evangelicalism. The Church in America is losing its moral authority before the next generation because it increasingly focuses on the culture wars more than on the character of Jesus. It seeks influence through the instrument of politics and bows the knee to political influencers, so long as they are willing to articulate a casual loyalty to Christian values (whether or not they have the aroma of Christ about them). This unholy alliance doesn’t pass the sniff test. The Nones can smell it…and they are not impressed.

The current willingness of politically conservative Evangelicals to turn a blind eye to moral callousness in a presidential candidate rattles the senses. It hasn’t always been that way. In the 90’s, Christian leaders across the nation rose to decry the sexual immorality of our Commander in Chief, asserting that a leader who does not practice personal morality cannot and will not lead a nation in righteousness. Need I say it? Many of those same voices now profess that a philanderer and tax cheat is God’s choice to lead our nation—that a man whose business practices are acknowledged to be shady and who boasts in plain view about his ability to manipulate the system is the right figure to shape the moral profile of America before a watching world.

Talk all you want about the deficiencies in the Democratic Party. We Evangelicals have sold our birthright for a bowlful of pottage. We’ve lost our validity and moral authority because we now speak out of both sides of our mouths. We claim the moral high ground while excusing bad actors. We have strayed so far from true north that we simply wink at the moral shallowness of Trump acolytes Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, granting them a hearing far beyond their due. At the same time we rail against the “liberal left” and their “woke” agenda, downplaying or outright ignoring glaring examples of systemic racism that bespeckle our own history.

I deliberately use “we” in these paragraphs, even though I recognize that the tribe of Christian conservatives is by no means monolithic. Many who self-identify as Evangelical prefer blue at the ballot box. But when it comes to sheer numbers, white Evangelicals have become the most dependable voting block for Trump.

The fact that so many Evangelicals can treat the Trump candidacy as merely a rogue form of the normal democratic process—a little rougher than usual, but fully acceptable because “the system is broken and we need someone who is not afraid to get himself dirty in the fight”—is evidence of our own moral slippage. We’re not dealing with normal, here. Let me repeat: the concerns about Trump are not on par with “normal” partisan politics and differences of opinion about policy. They go to heart of Trump’s character. Multiple members of Trump’s staff and cabinet—those who intimately observed his social decorum, leadership style, and policy decision making—publicly assert that he is unfit for office. Not simply that he is a substandard choice, but that he is unfit.

The individuals making these assertions are not, as Trump would have us believe, disgruntled RINOs who were probably closet never-Trumpers all along. They were Trump’s close associates who met with him daily. I will cite three of them.

Bill Barr (2^nd Attorney General): “Someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.”

Mark Esper (2nd Secretary of Defense): “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”

John Kelly (longest serving Chief of Staff ): “A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women…A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law…There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.”

The fact that Trump has gone on to win the vast majority of delegates in all but one primary thus far, in spite of the profound lack of support from so many associates, is testimony to Trump’s remarkable powers of persuasion. It is not, however, testimony to his qualifications to serve.

Trump’s continuing refusal to admit that Biden is the legitimately elected President of the United States is another symptom of his failed character. He can’t handle the fact that he lost, so he blames it on someone else. “I didn’t lose. The election was rigged.” Unfortunately for the American people, Trump learned the Nazi propaganda techniques all too well. Stage one: Repeat a lie long enough and loudly enough and people will begin to believe that at least some of it is true. Stage two: Keep it up even longer and eventually they’ll concur that most of it is true.

Trump has so unfalteringly and unflinchingly repeated the lie, much of the general populace has reached stage two. Vast swaths of Evangelicals are convinced that there were gross inconsistencies in the last presidential election, in spite of broadly acknowledged compelling evidence to the contrary. Trump intentionally sows distrust in our system because he knows that if we don’t trust the system, we are more likely to trust him (the one with insider knowledge…the only one who will give us the real goods).

I recognize that for many of my brothers and sisters, the prospect of a continued Biden presidency is more distasteful than whatever hesitancy they may have about Trump. I understand the tension. Biden’s opponents repeatedly broadcast the narrative that Trump has been unjustly charged—that his multiple indictments are politically motivated. Sandwiched into their messaging is the contention that Biden is just as bad. Sadly, their demonization of Biden has been effective. But careful examination reveals the truth: Trump’s intentional flouting of the constitution combined with his profound lack of character mean that he is uniquely unfit for office.

In 1790, George Washington wrote to his nephew, “A good moral character is the first essential in a man… It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.” Virtue is a quality that followers of Jesus pursue with all their hearts. Evangelicals emphasize that orthodoxy is not enough—orthopraxy is required. We are to be not just hearers but doers of the Word.

We do not expect anyone to be perfect, least of all our politicians. Nevertheless, we rightfully expect our political leaders to be true to their oath to defend and protect the constitution. The abrogation of democratic norms that Trump openly practices are rotting the nation from within. He is no “normal” candidate. A normal candidate upholds the constitutional structure and submits to well-tested electoral practices. Trump has done neither and shows little evidence that he will do so in the future. Laugh off, if you will, his “dictator on day one” comment. Recent history has demonstrated that Trump’s quips reveal his inner core. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Trump holds no promise for leading our nation in righteousness. He must be defeated in the upcoming election. If Evangelicals take their calling to value character over charisma seriously, he may be.

State of Washington Voters’ Pamphlet for the Presidential Primary

Statement from Donald Trump

I left behind my former life because I could not sit by and watch career politicians continue bleeding this country dry and allow other nations to take advantage of us on trade, borders, foreign policy, and national defense.	Trump’s strategy includes at least three crucial tactics: 1. To portray himself as a common man with exceptional abilities. 2. To villainize those who oppose him. 3. To appeal to the longings and frustrations of the populace by igniting their sense of declinism: the belief that society is going downhill and that things were better in the past. In his opening salvo Trump effectively paints himself as one who sacrificed personal gain in order to protect the nation’s interests against those who serve their own interests. In point of fact, Trump never divested his interest in the Trump Corporation and therefore did not leave anything behind. Instead, he derived huge personal benefit to the corporation because of his new political career. In using the description, “career politicians,” he predictably employs his favorite tool in his toolbox, the ad hominin attack. There is absolutely no shame in devoting one’s life to politics. But in Trump’s mouth, “career politician” implies something sinister.
As President, I took on every powerful special interest, fixing globalist trade deals ending foreign wars, securing the border, and standing up to Big Pharma and China. Together, we put America First and returned power to the American People.	It’s not unusual for a politician to oversell their accomplishments, but Trump is quite convinced of his own glory. The facts speak otherwise. Overall, Forbes graded Trump’s trade policy somewhere between a “D” and an “F”. As to “securing the border,” Trump’s big promise was to build a wall. He added a mere 80 miles of new wall that Mexico obviously did not pay for. There is no doubt that illegal crossings of the southern border have risen dramatically under Biden. This is a recognized policy failure. But there were consistently 100’s of thousands of illegal crossings per year throughout the Trump presidency. Add to that the Trumps administration’s immoral policy separating minors from their parents. Trump gets an “F” on China and a “D” on his foreign policy overall. His trade restrictions didn’t move the needle compared to the tech barriers Biden put in. Trump ended US involvement in multilateral agreements like the TPP which gave the green light for China to increase their presence and influence throughout the world.
The corrupt government cartel is once again destroying our country. We are a nation that surrendered in Afghanistan, and allowed Russia to devastate Ukraine, China to threaten Taiwan and Iran to build a nuclear weapon. We are a nation where free speech is no longer allowed, crime is rampant like never before, terrorists are invading our southern border, and the economy is in a recession. We are a nation that is hostile to liberty, freedom, and faith.	Here Trump wields the full force of his declinism argument, asserting that our society and status in the world are in radical decline. Calling government a corrupt cartel creates the gut reaction of disgust, and that is Trump’s intent. Logically, if our government were a corrupt cartel and fully half of the legislators are Republicans, they would be at least half to blame for the corruption. But Trump’s words are not meant to be analyzed because they weren’t intended to make sense. They simply invoke an emotional reaction of longing for “the good old days”—a status that Trump, through his exceptional powers, will purportedly restore. “Surrendered in Afghanistan” – Trump signed the surrender peace deal with the Taliban and then criticized Biden for taking too long to withdraw. Ukraine: Trump has repeatedly praised Putin and initially refused to condemn Putin’s war in the Ukraine. Eventually he backpedaled: “I want everyone to stop dying,” and then pronounced, “And I’ll have that done in 24 hours.” When asked whether he would support giving continued aid to Ukraine, he stated: “We’re giving away so much equipment; we don’t have ammunition for ourselves right now.” Iran: Trump pulled the US out of the multinational agreement that kept Iran’s nuclear program under close watch, thus effectively ending the oversight (and shocking our European allies). If Iran is now closer to building a bomb, Trump set the wheels in motion. “The economy is in a recession”— This is a pure fabrication. The stock market is at an all-time high. Unemployment under Biden equals the all-time low in the past 30 years. The U.S. economy is remarkably strong compared to Europe. “We are a nation that is hostile to liberty”— another nonsensical assertion. If that were true, why would immigrants from all over the world be so anxious to live here?
Our populist movement to Make America Great Again is the only force on earth that will lead our country back to safety, prosperity, and peace. I will never stop fighting for you, the American People, against the failed political establishment. I take the slings and arrows for you so that we can have our country back. Together, we will finish the job of saving our country once and for all and raise the next generation of strong American Patriots and Leaders.	In the final paragraph, Trump returns to touting his uncommon ability and his uncommon sacrifice. He again appeals to declinism, implying that the nation does not presently experience safety, prosperity and peace. But through his persistent fight against “the failed political establishment,” the nation will be saved “once and for all.” Wow! “I will never stop fighting for you…I take the slings and arrows for you.”–Part of Trump’s strategy is to convince us that he’s suffering on our behalf. Thus he continuously seeks to de-legitimize the prosecutors and the courts. Contrary to Trump’s bluster, the judicial system makes every effort to remain genuinely impartial. He casts dispersion upon it because his own conscience is seared and he can’t believe that anyone walks justly. In fact, Trump is not suffering for the sake of the people. He is suffering for his own sins. It is his lies, his trickery, his hubris, his wantonness, and his blatant disregard for the rule of law that have produced legal charges of 91 criminal offenses in four criminal indictments against him. But if he can convince the majority of voters that he is merely a scapegoat, then he can escape justice. That is his hope.

For compelling evidence that the 2020 election was fair and accurate, see https://lostnotstolen.org//wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Lost-Not-Stolen-The-Conservative-Case-that-Trump-Lost-and-Biden-Won-the-2020-Presidential-Election-July-2022.pdf

The Remarkable Power of a Bold Lie

Just the other day I received another e-mail from an evangelical organization that is dedicated to mobilizing prayers for our nation and its leaders. They were urging me to pray that the presidential election results would be overturned so that President Trump might be able to continue in his rightful role as Commander in Chief. In their opinion, it is God’s will that millions of voters be disenfranchised because voter fraud has taken place on a vast scale, orchestrated by concerted cheating on the part of Trump’s democratic rivals.

It is inconceivable to me that such a request could possibly be construed as being in alignment with God’s purposes, especially because these same brothers and sisters firmly believe that the American democracy is an example of governance that God has lifted up as a unique beacon of hope to the world. But compelled by an insistent president, they are now convinced that the democratic principle of peaceful transition between administrations has no place.

How did we get here? It is beyond dispute that the allegations of voter fraud have been roundly and soundly refuted in sixty different court cases throughout the country. Nevertheless, the conviction persists among a vast swath of Republican voters that the election was stolen. In the court of law, evidence matters. In the court of public opinion, apparently not so much.

The pathway to this perilous place in the history of our republic did not come by chance – it came through the remarkable power of a bold lie. Researchers of human behavior tell us that, in spite of the fact that we do it so often, most people have a natural aversion to lying. That’s why almost everyone has a tell – a subtle giveaway – when they lie. And because of that, it’s difficult for us to believe that someone could consistently and persistently tell a bold lie that they knew to be false. “There must be at least an element of truth to the story,” we tell ourselves. For this reason, the bigger and bolder the lie, the more likely someone is to convince others that there is something to it. They cannot imagine themselves pressing and repeating a falsehood that they know has no shred of truth, so they cannot imagine someone else doing it, either.

The bold lie principle sheds light on Trump’s strategy to overturn the election. His accusations of voter fraud began years ago. If you recall, he insisted that a commission be convened (the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity) to identify the voter fraud in the 2016 election that supposedly cost him the popular vote. The commission was eventually shut down by Trump after 8 months without finding any evidence of falsified votes (but of course, that’s not the way he framed it when he announced the suspension). In the latest election, the run-up to his bold accusations began in the spring, as state officials throughout the nation were discussing how elections could still be held while guarding the health of their citizens. Trump began trumpeting (excuse the pun) the dangers of mail-in ballots early and often. Even though any real research into voter fraud by competent agents, such as secretaries of state, revealed no pattern of persistent voter fraud (or for that matter, any instances whatsoever), the topic was constantly in the news. The fears grew. What about ballots from dead people? What about collecting ballots from seniors and then changing them? What about people receiving multiple ballots? Trump was softening the ground.

As the election itself drew near, news outlets did their best to alert us to the new reality. With the marked increase in mail-in ballots, we should not expect to have results on election night as we were used to. In fact, we could expect to see trend-lines change as the mail-in ballots, which in many states were not allowed to be counted before election night, began to be processed. But as those ballot tallies began to come in and the early polling trends in favor of Trump began to turn toward Biden, Trump seized the opportunity that he had long been preparing for. “Massive Voter Fraud!” read the Tweets. There was no way that Biden could pick up that many votes in Georgia, or Arizona, or Wisconsin, or Pennsylvania, Trump contended.

And when the election officials in county after county and state after state announced that the elections were conducted in an orderly and fair manner, Trump gave no quarter to the enemy – he remained on the offensive. He attacked the messenger, even if the messenger was a Trump supporter and a member of his own party. So Secretary of State Raffensperger “has no clue” and Governor Kemp is “an obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia.” He claimed to have massive evidence of fraud, but as court after court found the evidence to be either absent or foolish or blatantly falsified, he continued to press the lie. True to form, hours after being outed for trying to subvert the Georgia election in a phone call with Raffensperger, Trump proclaimed to his Georgia rally crowd, “There’s no way we lost Georgia… I’ve had two elections. I’ve won both of them. It’s amazing.”

The most important book I’ve ever read about lying is M. Scott Peck’s, People of the Lie. Peck, a psychiatrist who had been taught that the concept of evil was not appropriate for a clinical setting, wrestled with the fact that, for some people, “evil” was the best description that seemed to fit. He determined that there are some individuals for whom lying is not merely a behavior, but is a description of their basic nature. They are “people of the lie.” Peck spends several chapters delineating the characteristics of a person of the lie. I was especially struck by two of them. First, a person of the lie absolutely and resolutely refuses to accept personal responsibility for their actions. They will not, under any circumstances, admit failure. They abhor blame.

Second, people of the lie always create scapegoats. Unable to accept personal blame, they persistently find others to whom blame may be affixed. Sometimes the scapegoats are individuals; sometimes they are a whole class of people. The important thing is to make them a clearly identifiable villain. People of the lie specialize in affixing labels to people – it makes them easier targets for blame.

For anyone who has even remotely followed Trump’s career, the parallels are startling. His abhorrence of admitting failure or accepting blame is well documented. His refusal to accept defeat in an election he clearly lost is only the latest example of a life-long pattern. Trump’s scapegoating behavior is also clearly evident. The record of dismissals from his cabinet and other key positions is a litany of laying blame – often against individuals with a sterling record and documented ethical character. But Trump disparages their good character – he an absolute master of the ad hominem attack. (I find it wryly comical that Trump now has branded those of his party who refuse to support his fight as the “surrender caucus.”) His tendency to characterize whole classes of people as villains is also well known. Some might consider this a cheap shot because it’s been so often repeated out of context, but his description of Mexican immigrants at the beginning of his campaign remains embedded in the nation’s memory: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Today we find ourselves in a nation divided over the question of whether election fraud on a massive scale took place or not. Many of my Evangelical brothers and sisters are convinced that it did. Scores of congressional representatives and over a dozen senators apparently believe the same. Or perhaps it is simply politically expedient for them to align themselves with the president. I know that this may alienate me from some who find me too direct or too self-assured, but I believe that our nation is currently being victimized by a president who has lied so boldly and so persistently about election fraud that he is most likely convinced of his own lies. And in so doing, he has convinced a significant minority of the American people of the same. People of every social and economic background believe that where there is smoke, there must be fire. The problem is, the smoke itself is an illusion. Sparked by a master illusionist.

I pray this with all sincerity and without irony, knowing that it is the same prayer for all of us, no matter which side of the argument we find ourselves on: May God have mercy upon our great nation.