Barring some unforeseen scenario, on Wednesday morning, November 9, either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be our president elect. What does this mean for Christian conservatives, and how should we respond?
If Hillary wins:
1) Christians who voted for Trump in the primaries, telling us he was the only one who could defeat Hillary, will only have themselves to blame, since it seems almost certain that virtually any of the other Republican candidates could have handily defeated her. This would mean that these AlwaysTrump Christians chose nationalism over biblical principles and, with all their claims to spiritual insight, saw things after the flesh, not the Spirit, overlooking his serious shortcomings because they wanted an Alpha male to fix the nation.
2) We need to pray that what appears to be the massive corruption of the Clintons will still be exposed. It will be difficult with Hillary at the helm, but it can still be done. We should pray for the corruption of the media and the political establishment to be exposed as well. Perhaps a Trump defeat will not signal the end of Trump after all and he will give himself to this task as a private citizen.
3) That being said, our focus for the next four (or 8) years cannot be on the evils of the Clintons and the destructive policies that Hillary will seek to introduce. Instead, our focus must be on revival in the church, on winning the lost and making disciples, on caring for the hurting and the poor in our society, and on calling America to repent, recognizing that we are under divine judgment.
4) But that doesn’t mean we ignore Hillary’s politics. We need to pray for conservative politicians and judges to show backbone and integrity and for harmful policies to be thwarted, but our emphasis cannot be on Hillary. It must be on the Lord and on our responsibilities. A backslidden, compromised Church remains America’s greatest problem.
5) We must prepare for civil disobedience (meaning biblical obedience) on a widespread, national scale should our freedoms of religion, speech, and conscience be attacked. As a Body, throughout the country, we must refuse to comply with legislation that would seek to silence us, restrict us, or, worse still, force us to engage in practices that violate our sacred, historic beliefs. We must do this peacefully and with respect for authority, but with courage and unshakable faith, regardless of cost or consequences.
6) In short, if Hillary is elected, it is wake up time for the church.
Conversely, if Trump is elected:
1) We must give credit to those Christians who saw God’s hand on Trump through the election season, despite his fleshly flaws, recognizing that there must be a unique, divine purpose in his presidency. There is simply no other way to understand how a man like him could defeat so many fine candidates in the primaries and then bring down the Clinton machine in the general election.
2) That being said, a Trump presidency could do as much harm as good, since his “wrecking ball” methods and his questionable character are so volatile and unpredictable that he could bring us down as easily as he could bring us up. (Imagine what could happen to America if Kanye West and Kim Kardashian were the president and first lady. I know this is a jarring, exaggerated example to use, but you get the point.)
3) We should therefore pray for divine restraint on Trump lest he do or say something rash as president, and we should pray that he will not only surround himself with godly and wise counsel but that he will also listen to his counsellors, doing what is fair and just when it comes to immigration and security and healthcare and the economy.
4) We should also pray that his resolve to do what is right will not waver and that he will not become a compromiser who wants to prove he can work with everyone. (Should Trump’s health fail as president and he be succeeded by Mike Pence, we need to pray the same thing for him, since he infamously caved in to pressure in 2015 with the RFRA bill in his state, and, while still a fine Christian man, betrayed his Christian constituency.) We must encourage Trump to stay true to the Republican platform and to nominate Supreme Court justices in the image of Scalia and to stand up for religious liberty.
5) As God’s people, we must work against the deepening divisions in our country, seeking to build bridges and be peacemakers, not troublemakers, also addressing issues of injustice and oppression, be they from the right or the left. And we must pray for revival in the church with the same urgency as if Hillary was president, since we would be making a terrible mistake to look to Trump as some kind of savior figure or to take our foot off the gas because the Clintons, who for many conservatives are the epitome of evil and deception, were kept out of the White House.
6) In short, if Trump is elected, it is still wake up time for the church.
Either way, things will get very messy in the coming months, with emotions high, news headlines blaring, and our nation being torn and shaken. (I would think that only some kind of national calamity would bring us together, and we certainly hope and pray that will not be the case.)
The bottom line is that the solution to our many problems will not be found in the White House and we must turn the passion and focus and attention we have put on the elections back to where it belongs: on the Lord and on our responsibilities as God’s people.
After all, Jesus never said that the president or the Congress or the Supreme Court were the salt of the earth or the light of the world. Instead, He said that to us, His followers (Matthew 5:13-16), and if there is to be a positive, nationwide, moral and cultural revolution in America, it must begin with us.
