Whose Discipling Who?

I remember watching a Republican Presidential Primary Debate with my wife early in 2016. After Donald Trump finished an answer, my wife looked over at me and asked, “do you think he has any chance of getting the nomination?” With all the confidence of a prime-time news prognosticator, I replied, “There is no way – at some point, he is simply going to offend too many people to be able to get elected.” So much for my career in political analysis.

Unfortunately, his offensiveness was seen as a sign of strength – an indication of someone who was anti-establishment and willing to fight for the rights of the “common” person. In some circles, this might not seem so surprising, but as the election went on Trump’s primary supporters turned out to be conservative evangelicals, the very people who should have been most offended by his mean-spirited vulgarity. Little did I know that the very thing that repulsed me so much about Trump would be the traits that were embraced by others who call themselves “Christians.” Granted, not all evangelicals embraced Trump, but a significant number did, and it helped propel him on to the presidency.

By the time Trump took office in 2017 stories began to circulate among evangelical supporters about his conversion to Christianity. The claim was that Trump had seen the light and become a Christian and none other than Franklin Graham was taking the lead in discipling Trump in the faith. Not only did I have friends circulating the completely unfounded rumor, but even the likes of James Dobson bought into the lie and promoted the same story (although he later apologized for the misinformation). Try as I might I could not find any corroborating evidence to support the story. The closest I could find was a smattering of information about his supposed connection to a “spiritual advisor” – a wealthy charlatan of a preacher known for her own brand of the “health-and-wealth” gospel. Some would then rationalize that Trump was private about his faith, something Trump himself alluded to, but at the same time, they vociferously condemned their Christian brothers and sisters who refused to take a public stand for their version of morality. I wondered, however, why Trump would keep something so important, so life-changing, and so central to his being, private. Such wonderings, when I did them publicly, only put me in the bad graces of the emerging Trump cultists who were already developing a rationalization for nearly every Trumpism and were beginning to show that, despite their claim to basic tenets of the Christian faith, truth and facts were not really as important as promoting, by any means possible, their political agenda. Without saying it explicitly, it has been made crystal clear through their actions and social media rants, that they do in fact believe that the ends justify the means.

Since the emergence of Trump in the political sphere, I have been completely bewildered that people I once counted not only as friends but as brothers and sisters in Christ, have allowed themselves to be consumed by this cult. I have watched them change; twisting scripture to suit their politics, creating their own reality based on nonsense, bowing to the constitution as if it were brought down from the mountain by Moses (while at the same time actively undermining some of its foundational elements), and spewing hate, anger, vulgarities, and deception as if each of these are Christian virtues. Their version of “Christian” faith has become unrecognizable to me, but even worse, it has become completely unrecognizable and despised by the rest of the world, whom they claim to want to reach for the sake of the gospel. The Trump-cult representation of faith has become the embodiment of all that is wrong with evangelicalism.

Recently, David French wrote an opinion titled, “There Is No Remaining Christian Case for Trump,” (as if there ever was). What really grabbed my attention was the subtitle teaser, “Trump disciples the church more than the church disciples Trump.” What I have been seeing happen before my eyes is exactly this – discipleship. Despite all the early bluster that prominent evangelicals were guiding Trump in the Christian faith, exactly the opposite has happened. Once well-intentioned evangelicals have lost their identity as followers of Christ and become disciples of Trump, becoming like him in almost every way, from their anger to their vulgarity, from their strange relationship with truth to their obsession with labeling everyone a communist who disagrees with them. The whole point of being a disciple is to not only embrace the teaching of the teacher, but to become like the teacher. That is precisely what has happened to many who call themselves evangelical Christians. They have become just like Donald Trump in almost every way and have somehow convinced themselves that it all counts as Christian virtue.

Of course, as a Christian, the aim is to be a disciple of Jesus. The life and work of Jesus during his time on earth is held as the ultimate example of who followers of Jesus are called to be. It should be the aspiration of every Christian to be his disciple; to be just like him in both words and deeds. When Christian lives are held up and compared to the life of Jesus, the similarities should be obvious. Conversely, differences become obvious when the lives of those following someone else are held up and compared to the life of Christ. It should be the hope of Christians that people will look at the Jesus of the gospels and look at us and say, “you look a lot like Jesus!” But those in the Trump cult have convinced themselves that looking like Trump is a viable alternative and that looking like Jesus is of secondary importance to advancing a particular political agenda that they have deemed “righteous.” In this way, they have become disciples of Trump, so much so that they do not even recognize in themselves their own dissimilarities from Jesus. They have cast Jesus in the image of Donald Trump and righteousness in the image of Christian nationalism. Like any effective cult, those immersed in the cult of Trumpism see nothing but virtue in their own disillusionment, while those standing on the outside looking in are perplexed by their blindness.

When I shared the David French opinion on Facebook recently (along with a bit of commentary that was shorter but similar to this blog), a friend thoughtfully posted a simple quote of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew, that I thought was the perfect response:

“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

Anyone with even a cursory familiarity with scripture (and even some without any familiarity), can easily surmise the implications of this verse. What makes it even more interesting, though, is understanding it in the context of the verses that precede it. The quoted verse is Matthew 7:20 and comes near the end of the Sermon on the Mount. In this particular portion of Jesus’ teaching, he is warning about false prophets. With apologies to my friend who referenced the King James Version, here is the larger passage from the New International Version:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:15-20)

For anyone outside the Trump cult, this hardly needs additional commentary. Trump is a false prophet who has spawned thousands of other false prophets to do his bidding. The proof is in the fruit of their character. The proof is the dissimilarity of their fruit to that of Jesus.

Undeterred by annoying things like honesty, even when it comes from the very source of truth that they claim to be defending (as if God needs help), a Trump loyalist and Facebook friend, responded to the Matthew 7:20 quote with sarcastic[1] agreement and a list of Trump's political “accomplishments” contrasted with the “failures” of the present administration. In his own delusion, he no doubt felt as though he was presenting irrefutable evidence of the “good” fruit of Donald Trump. In reality, however, he simply provided more evidence for the opinion of David French – that he had in fact been effectively discipled by Trump and Trump’s minions to understand even the most basic elements of scripture in political terms. “Fruits” in their world are no longer references to qualities of integrity, but instead have become references to political results. In the world of Trumpism, scripture is a tool, just like everything else, to accomplish an end (to protect their vision of the United States as a consecrated nation). Understanding the intended meaning of scripture is irrelevant. All that is relevant is how things, including the Bible, can be manipulated to spread the desired political propaganda with the proper tone of confidence (arrogance) and self-righteousness (hypocrisy).

The New Testament is filled with references to “fruit” both directly and indirectly, and none of them have to do with political accomplishments. Fruit has everything to do with integrity. Good fruits are often those intangible things that you know when you see them, and you know when you don’t. They are those character traits that emerge in their greatest form when the world seems to be crumbling around the person displaying them. Paul gives a relatively concise list of fruits in his letter to the Galatians:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23a NET)

This is not a list that most people would associate with Trump or his followers. Trump’s disciples, though, like to point out that they are in the midst of a battle – a fight for the survival of the nation and the Christian faith – as if that excuses their bad behavior. Interestingly, Peter, writing to Christians scattered around the margins of the Roman empire and suffering through persecution, gives a similar list to encourage them to remain faithful. He does not encourage anger, rudeness, divisiveness, or political rebellion, but instead tells them:

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control, to self-control perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love. For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately. But concerning the one who lacks such things – he is blind. That is to say, he is nearsighted, since he has forgotten about the cleansing of his past sins.” (2 Peter 1:5-9 NET)

Although Peter does not specifically identify these characteristics as “fruits” it is clear that this is how he expects Christians to be known, even during difficult times, facing aggressive opposition. These are the things that we are encouraged to add to our lives. This is the way that we advance the gospel. It is this counter-intuitive way of living that makes people wonder what is going on with us (in a good way). This is what should put us in the position to “give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess” (1 Peter 3:15).

Integrity matters to God. When we forget that basic principle, the fruits of our lives give us away.

Donald Trump has successfully discipled his followers so that they are willing to trade the good fruit for bad for the sake of political gain. Trying to advance the gospel through political means has long been a misguided notion of conservative evangelicals, but in the era of Trump’s discipleship, such efforts have had disastrous effects on the witness of Christians. We have lost sight of who we are called to be and how we are called to behave. We have rationalized away the difficult teachings of Jesus and accepted an easier way that allows us to give in to the very nature that we have been called to leave behind. We have convinced ourselves and others on the fringes of faith, that radical transformation leads us to look more like Donald Trump than Jesus Christ, but we can still call ourselves “Christian” when that is how we look. We created borders where there should be none and pledged our allegiance to a country rather than the Kingdom but convinced ourselves that they are one and the same.

I want to believe that there is still hope. I want to believe that my friends who have submitted themselves to the discipleship of Donald Trump will have their eyes opened and they will desire good fruit rather than bad. I want to believe that there will be repentance – that there will be enough humility to admit mistakes.

I have been asked why I keep followers of Trump as friends on social media. My response is simply that I want to be reminded that they are real people. They are people that I have shared meals with, prayed with, had in my home, laughed with, and worshipped with. I may believe that they are deceived (as they do with me), but I must remember that they are flesh and blood. I must remember my fight “is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens” (Ephesians 6:12 NET).

Ultimately, I believe that God is still calling out to them, just as he is to everyone else. They are not beyond the reach of God, even if they are beyond mine.

Jesus can still save Christians.

[1] I am making an assumption that the response was sarcastic, but it is also possible that the response was blind ignorance or simply an attempt at intentional deflection to derail the conversation. Any of the three are possible and, frankly, I’m not sure which is the worst-case scenario. In any case, it is a sad, but all too familiar example of how “Christians” have chosen to disregard the intent of scripture and created their own meaning from the very book that they claim to hold so dear. Although many of us have learned to be dismissive of responses like this, we should not lose sight of the insulting nature of such a response, not just to the person they are engaging, but to the very God we worship and the words that we embrace as his revealed truth.