Donald Trump saving God? False prophets at the corner of faith and politics | Opinion
Recently, one of President Donald Trump’s sons bragged about the accomplishments of his dad and the Make America Great Again movement he created. Apparently, the younger Trump believes his dad and MAGA are more powerful than the Creator of the Universe.
“We’re saving Christianity; we’re saving God,” Eric Trump told MAGA influencer Benny Johnson, who, despite professing to be Christian, nodded along and smiled.
Eric Trump had it twisted: God is the one who saves.
Eric Trump’s comments have been largely ignored — including by the religious right. But it doesn’t take much imagination to envision the furious backlash had someone like Hunter Biden said something similar. It would have been a national scandal among the right.
Eric Trump doesn’t have an official role in his father’s administration, but he is influential. His comments were incredibly blasphemous, but he doesn’t seem to give any indication that he is a follower of Jesus and likely had no idea how blasphemous his comments really were.
Meanwhile, Johnson is like far too many self-described religious people who let their politics inform their religion — not vice versa. This was made abundantly clear at the massive service in late September for Charlie Kirk, the activist assassinated at a college campus in Utah. Kirk was a champion of free speech and toured college campuses making Republican arguments, some of which were intentionally provocative.
At times, Kirk discussed his faith. Johnson, who has more than a million followers on X, frequently blurred the lines at Kirk’s service between Christianity and politics, opening with: “Fight for Charlie Kirk. Who feels the Holy Spirit in the house tonight?”
Whether the speech was meant to be political or spiritual was hard to tell. Johnson prattled on in the same manner throughout, asking: “Who can feel that revival happening right now?”
The event was packed, and there is no doubt many Americans were touched by the life and death of Kirk. But just because an event is incredibly sad and a lot of people were affected does not mean a revival is happening.
According to Ryan Burge, a former pastor and current researcher at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, the numbers supporting a revival are not there. For there to be even a 3% bump in church attendance would mean that 10 million Americans recently started attending church — an average of around 30 to 35 new attendees over a few weeks.
“Does that seem plausible?” Burge asked on X. “Because that is what it would take to have a verifiable religious revival in this country.”
Johnson’s speech was challenging in a number of ways, but probably no more so than when he said “Charlie Kirk is a martyr in the true Christian sense,” and compared Kirk’s assassination to that of the first Christian martyr, Stephen.
Stephen, however, was martyred for defying religious leaders and speaking the truth that Jesus is the Messiah. Kirk, meanwhile, was a Christian, who may have been murdered for his political opinions. Stephen was in charge of administering aid to widows; Kirk was a political activist. There’s a big difference.
Kirk’s death was tragic and unnecessary. He seemed to be a sincere follower of Christ and loved his family. But he was not a Christian martyr.
I have no idea if Trump, Johnson and others believe what they say or say it purely for gain, but they could not get away with these kinds of comments if there wasn’t a market for it. I know plenty of well-intentioned believers who think there is something divinely-inspired about the MAGA movement.
My fellow Christians: Beware of false prophets. This is as true for Republicans as it is for Democrats. Have political opinions, care about the direction of society, but please let scripture inform those beliefs. Support whatever candidates and positions you’d like, but hold them to a higher standard — don’t just lower your own.
The alternative is to be so focused on being right about worldly issues — so focused on power — that we begin to justify unholy beliefs and actions because it fits a political narrative disguised as our religious convictions. Then, we would become just another constituency being pimped by politicians.
Matt Fleming is an opinion writer living in Placer County. You can follow him on X @Flemingwords or connect via email: flemingwords@gmail.com