President Lazarus? Understanding US politics

Having spent a lifetime teaching and writing about American politics, I’m often asked this question by bemused church friends: “Why did 82% of white evangelical men vote for Donald Trump in 2024?” And the first thing that I want them to understand is that both they and those American voters are using the word “evangelical” to mean two different things.

My friends use the word to refer to something spiritual centring on the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ concerning man’s sinfulness, Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross, the empowering of the Holy Spirit to live God-honouring lives, and the need to preach that gospel to those as yet unsaved.

But for millions in America, the word refers to something primarily political, centring on anti-abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, pro-gun rights, and the limiting of federal government power. Their primary aim is not salvation for others, but political power for themselves. And it gives the game away when you discover that white men made up 34% of voters and two-thirds of those called themselves “evangelicals”.

Sadly, many churches in the United States that would have been recognisable to me as spiritual “evangelical” churches a few decades ago have sold out to the political version. Hardly surprising when folk like Franklin Graham have done the same. In his inaugural address back in January, Donald Trump declared categorically, “I was saved by God to make America great again.” When I heard that, it shocked me – deeply shocked me. But within a few minutes, Franklin Graham spoke these words from the same lectern: “Father, when Donald Trump’s enemies thought he was down and out, you and you alone saved his life and raised him up with strength and power by your mighty hand.” Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist pastor, and now the Trump-appointed US ambassador to Israel, said of Trump’s 2024 victory: “This wasn’t a comeback. It was a resurrection, and it was a powerful one. He might be called President Lazarus after this.” When such so-called evangelical leaders speak publicly in such blasphemous terms, we shouldn’t be surprised that much of the flock follows.

But don’t take this from me. If you really want to know about the sad demise of so much of American evangelicalism, then read Tim Alberta’s compelling book, The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory: American Evangelicalism in an Age of Extremism (HarperCollins, 2023). Like me, you’ll probably be deeply shocked. But if you have Christian friends – especially American Christian friends – who speak warmly of Donald Trump, you really should read it.

I’d also like to debunk two common arguments used by Trump apologists. In defending his immoral life, they point out that King David was an adulterer and a murderer. So we’re meant to copy or excuse all the sinful behaviour of Biblical characters? What has Biblical exposition come to? Furthermore, it’s frequently pointed out that Cyrus, the Persian king, was used by God to fulfil His plan to return the Jewish exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. True, but He also used Pilate and Judas Iscariot in His plan of salvation! Furthermore, Americans are not God’s covenant people – although some of them seem to talk as if they were.

A final thought. When the 93-year-old former Democratic president Jimmy Carter was asked in a 2018 TV interview to comment on Republican president Donald Trump, Mr Carter replied: “I pray for him.” Now that’s wonderfully godly advice.

For a contrasting view on Donald Trump, see the en website article “In Defence of Trump” by Rhys Laverty.