I’m linking to an article below by the estimable Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Committee on Ethics and Religious Liberty, who refused to support Donald Trump during his candidacy and, like many other honorable and thoughtful conservatives (and in his case, also a Christian), has paid a personal and professional price for that refusal.
So when he says to pray for Donald Trump, now, as of noon today, President Trump, well, I guess I’d better listen. Even more important, I guess I’d better listen when Moore quotes Scripture. I’ve addressed this issue before in a couple of posts last year—one in November and one in December—but now that we truly do have a President Trump I guess I’d better do some more pondering about my responsibilities as a Christian citizen.
So I’m going to take the main idea from Moore’s article and respond to it. I find that I don’t agree with him, at least not totally, but I think he’d welcome thoughtful debate. So here goes:
Those who like the new president should pray that he governs so successfully that their hopes are realized. Those who don’t like the new president should pray that, at the end of his term if not before, they are surprised that they were wrong.
I’ll be honest: I’ve been struggling with this whole idea of praying that Trump will succeed. I’m very much aware of my sinful, fallen nature here. I don’t want to be proven wrong. If Trump were indeed to end up being “ten times greater than Ronald Reagan,” as I’ve been admonished that he will be, well, that would make me look pretty bad, wouldn’t it? The egg on my face would require a bulldozer for its removal.
But . . . what would “success” even mean in relation to Donald Trump? Would it mean that he carries out his more ridiculous and ill-conceived ideas? Should I pray that he will be successful, for instance, in deporting young people who were brought here as children and never became citizens? Should I pray that he really will build that wall? Should I pray that he really will have the power to end all of America’s problems by fiat, as he seemed to imply was the case today in his inaugural speech? (If you missed it, here’s what he said: “And the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. . . . This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”) Is God actually in the business of giving people magic wands? I don’t think so. Nor is God in the business of changing people’s hearts when they see no need for them to change. So He’s not going to reach into Donald Trump’s head and flip some switches.
Further, I have an even greater reason for hesitating over this whole “praying for success” idea: That those who voted from Trump in blind faith, as card-carrying passengers on the Trump Train, are going to feel that they were justified. “See, I told you that it was the right thing to vote for a man who holds to no principles, to no morals. It all turned out great! So I’ll vote for the next demagogue too! As long as he’s a Republican, anyway, and my pastor tells me to!” (I am proud to say that my pastor never did any such thing.) While I love my country, I am much more concerned about the state of the Church than the state of the nation. I am appalled at the loss of Christian witness and testimony in this election. We cannot as Christians be fooled like this again. So how can I pray for events that would lead to that very result? I don’t see how I can.
It occurred to me that it might be helpful to ask, “How would I feel obligated to pray for President Hillary Clinton?” After all, I voted for her, but certainly not because I agreed with her on much of anything. So I wouldn’t have prayed for success for her policies that were clearly wrong. Here’s a by-no-means-exhaustive list of how I would/should have prayed for her and her administration, now applied to Trump::
1. That he would listen to wise counsel and admit when he is wrong.
2. That he would be humbled, not exalted, by the greatness of the honor that has been thrust upon him.
3. That he would act in accordance with the dignity of his office.
4. That he would honor America’s promises to her allies.
5. That he would have true compassion for the needy and oppressed.
6. That Americans, especially American Christians, would learn the lessons that we need to learn from his election and term in office.
In the end, as I said in an earlier posts, America is a nation of the law, not a nation of rulers. We must act in accordance with that law; that is how we will “obey those that have the rule over you.” We recognize the authority of the office, not the officeholder. That principle will, I am completely sure, be sorely tested over the next however many years God chooses to have Donald Trump in the White House.
Here’s Moore’s article: