As I write, the final results are still to come in but it looks absolutely certain that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. What are we to make of that?
Well, the first question we might want to consider is how did Trump win and the Democrats lose? Four years ago, Trump was turfed out of office. Since then he has been mired in legal cases including with criminal charges.
It is probable that from the moment he survived that assassination attempt that Trump was likely to win. However, other factors include that post COVID economic challenges and an increasingly frail, sitting president all went in favour of Trump. It’s not just that Biden was clearly ailing but that those around him refused to admit that he was. It made them complicit and let’s be clear, if he wasn’t fit to run again then the question is whether he should have remained in office.
There may have been ways in which the Democrats could have recovered things. For example, if Biden has stood down mid term allowing Harris to take over, then she could have ran as the incumbent and faced a proper nomination process. Americans then would have been able to make a proper judgement on her. That the handover was begrudgingly late does give the impression that she wasn’t respected or trusted.
It is possible too that a different candidate could have won. I suspect that the only potential victor on the Democrat side would have been Michelle Obama. She would have been able to appeal as a mother of the nation type figure to a fractured nation looking for a unifying figure.
It bears saying that whilst we may be tempted to see that result as the polar opposite of the UK in that a centre right government lost to the centre left, I think the similarities are closer than assumed. Whilst the populist right did not ultimately benefit, it was their insurgency that ultimately did for Rishi Sunak here. It’s fair to say that both Harris and Sunak inherited a position where the incumbent government had struggled to live with the aftermath of COVID and the Ukraine war resulting in economic pain and uncertainty. Both were not really trusted by predecessors and both ultimately fought terrible campaigns.
Now as it happens, and this is perhaps pretty obvious to readers both in this post and stuff I’e written in the past, I personally am not too keen on a Trump presidency. I don’t think it will be good for America, nor do I think it will be particularly good for the world. Whilst in the DND, Governments are there to exercise authority because God wills it and so far our good, regardless of the moral character of those holding power (Romans 13), this does not mean those things don’t matter when we as Christians express our desires and wishes
It seems at times that conservative Evangelicals (theologically and politically( in the US) were focused on the single issue of abortion and so convinced themselves that they could endorse Trump.
There is also the bogeyman for US evangelicals of “socialism” where anyone to the left of Norman Tebbit is labeled a socialist and therefore dangerous. It’s ironic that they seem happy to tolerate a level of debt and deficit that even centrist parties would at least balk at in principle here in the UK, they opt for a protectionist which goes against free trade and Trump’s position on Ukraine is one that would have a hearing from Jeremy Corbyn. I might cheekily suggest that they are opting for socialism, just without the nice bits! C’est La Vie.
When we are so desperate to find reasons to vote for this or that person despite their obvious unsuitability, I’m afraid that it undermines our claim to trust in God’s sovereignty. That’s why I’ve argued persistently that it’s possible to refuse the dilemma.
What’s the outcome? Well of course it’s that you get a president you did not vote for. Is that so terrible though? The believers Paul wrote Romans 13 to didn’t get to vote for the Emperor and governors they were being told to obey, nor those that Peter wrote to.
Hence we need to ask more questions about what we make of this result. Our usual stock answer is “God is sovereign.” This is true but risks becoming a trite catchphrase open to misunderstanding.
It is important that we are clear about what we do and don’t mean by this. God is sovereign does mean that the result is his will and will fulfill his purposes.
What it does not necessarily mean is that God prefers the character or policies of the president elect. It does not mean that this is how Gof will bless America because, whisper it quietly, America is not the vehicle for God’s blessing. The US is not God’s Nation.
All of this means that it is okay to say “I don’t know what to make of it.” To use the words of the hymn “I cannot tell … But this I know.”
As a non American I should see this as a reminder to pray for my brothers and sisters in the US, that they would stay faithful to Christ and see Gospel fruit.
Faithroots 