I certainly hope I’m wrong. I certainly hope it doesn’t come to this. And yet I am concerned.
Will Christian conservatives in America take their foot off the gas if Trump is reelected? Will we somehow put our trust in the government to save our nation from moral and cultural decline? Will we rely on the White House to fight our battles for life and liberty? Or will it take an overtly hostile president to awaken us from our all-too-common complacency and compromise?
For decades it has been clear that serious change needed to come to the church of America. For decades it has been clear that we needed a revolution in the church—by which I mean dramatic reformation and renewal—before we could see the tide turn in our land.
Yet it seems that it has taken the COVID-19 crisis to shake us into action. Finally, on a large, national scale, we are rethinking how to do church and how to be the church. We are looking outside the four walls of our congregational buildings. We are moving beyond “spectator Christianity.” We are taking public stands against unfair government practices. We are waking up.
In addition, the radical nature of the protest movement—in contrast with legitimate issues concerning reconciliation and justice—is waking us up.
I’m talking about the radical agendas of the Black Lives Matter movement and antifa and the growing army of cultural anarchists and political socialists.
These extreme and destructive groups have also helped to awaken slumbering believers, enabling us to see with our physical eyes the very real spiritual war we are fighting. And all this underscores the importance of the November elections.
But if Trump is reelected, will we be lulled into a false sense of security? Will we somehow think that, because he is such a fighter, he will fight our battles for us?
Although Joe Biden is the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, should he win, vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris could very likely become president within the next four years. The consequences would be daunting.
As a Christian friend (and native Californian) recently expressed to me via email, “She terrifies me. At least Biden has a purported Catholic faith and takes a ‘pragmatic’ view re: his political stance on abortion … whereas Harris is vehemently anti-life in every conceivable way.”
As for Biden, he already shifted dramatically left during the campaign, abandoning his historic support for the Hyde Amendment, to cite one important example. And it was Biden, as vice president, who spoke out publicly in favor of same-sex “marriage” before President Obama made his real views known. And it was Biden who earlier this year tweeted, “Let’s be clear: Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.”
So, a President Biden would be dangerous enough when it came to the culture wars. But a President Harris would be more dangerous still.
Just ask David Daleiden, the courageous activist who exposed Planned Parenthood’s trafficking in aborted baby parts. “I have been on the receiving end of her abuse of power,” he said.
As Fox reported, “Under Harris, California authorities raided Daleiden’s home for evidence—prompting questions about her relationship with Planned Parenthood, which has donated to her and many other Democrats. In May, Daleiden filed a lawsuit alleging that Harris conspired to violate his civil rights through a bogus prosecution.”
With regard to her voting record as a senator, The Washington Times noted that, “Ms. Harris, who has a 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, appears to support no restrictions on abortion, calling it ‘a fundamental issue of justice.’ She voted last year with Senate Democrats to block a GOP bill requiring doctors to treat infants born alive after botched abortions.”
And who can forget how Harris led the vicious assault on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh? In the words of Townhall editor Guy Benson, “Her performance during the Kavanaugh circus stood out as particularly demagogic, cynical & abysmal.”
Yet Harris, despite her poor performance in the Democratic primaries, could soon be president of the United States. Is this what it will take to wake up the church?
In my new book Evangelicals at the Crossroads: Will We Pass the Trump Test?, I picture two evangelicals debating about Trump, one an ardent supporter and the other an ardent opponent.
The opponent concludes his remarks by saying, “I would rather stand on principle than compromise my convictions for the sake of political expediency. And in the end, what have we gained if the laws are changed and the courts are changed but hearts are hardened to the gospel? Maybe we would do better if a radical liberal was elected. Maybe then we would wake up as a church and stop putting our trust in the government and the White House.”
To this the supporter replies, “Oh, that’s a great idea, kind of like not treating cancer so we can see God perform a miracle. Not on my watch!”
The national stakes really are that high.
In recent days, speaking face to face at some Christian gatherings, I said this (as a Trump voter myself): “Four more years of Donald Trump will not save America. At best, he is like a human wedge, lodged in the door to stop it from slamming. But if the church does not wake up and do its job, the nation will go over the edge.”
I was pleased to see numerous believers, many of them Trump voters themselves, stand to their feet and applaud. They “get it” too.
So, what will it be? Will we retain our spiritual urgency no matter who wins in November? Will we give ourselves to prayer, fasting, the Great Commission and acts of mercy and righteousness? Will we stay involved (or, finally, get involved) in the culture? Or will we vote for Trump and take our foot off the gas?
What will it be? {eoa}
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