Dear Pastor: I'm Very Sorry to Hear You're Voting for Trump

After seeing a former pastor make a social media post of the reasons he was supporting Trump, which included an attempt to make Trump's immorality and worldliness irrelevant to his decision, I decided to respond.  This is the kind of thing that is happening all through conservative, Evangelical churches in this country, and is the most relevant explanation for the membership and attendance loss they have experienced since 2016.  

Dear Pastor,

I saw your social media post, the one where you listed the reasons you were voting for Trump.  I was extremely disappointed that you chose to put your political opinion over your credibility as a pastor and preacher, and endorse a candidate, any candidate, for office.  I recall that in previous elections, you told your congregation that the church was not a "political action committee" and that it was important to put the preaching of the gospel in a place where secular politics of much lesser importance would not distract from its message or interfere with its proclamation.  

The fact that your position has changed in order to support this particular Presidential candidate is especially disappointing.  By choosing sides, you have now placed yourself in opposition to those members of your congregation who, by their own choice and conviction, have chosen not to support Trump and you have challenged their spiritual convictions and the prayerful consideration with which they came to their decision.  You hold a position of spiritual leadership in this congregation, entrusted to you by all of its members, not just those who are Republicans or who support one specific candidate.  There is no authority given to you, either by the congregation or in the scripture, which permits you to make this kind of judgment.  

Clearly, you have not considered the many reasons, including reasons rooted in the truth of the scripture which you claim to believe, and preach every week, those of us who are not voting for Trump have considered and from which we have drawn our own conclusions.  And you have assumed that those in the church who aren't supporting Trump can be easily persuaded to do so, since that would be, as you hinted at, the "Christian" thing to do.  

Personally, though you never asked, but chose to put yours out on social media, here are my reasons for not supporting or voting for Trump.  

• I cannot, in good conscience, seasoned by my years of being Christian, and of being instructed in the principles of the Christian gospel in church, trust or support a politician in the leadership of our country who has openly cheated on three different wives with multiple women, who put them publicly through that shame, using the media to justify his reasons for having affairs with other women, and who subsequently married the "other" women with whom he committed adultery.  The most recent humiliation of his current wife, during her pregnancy and the infancy of their son, with a porn star, makes it clear that this man doesn't have a shred of respect for the truth.  He's not qualified for any public office. 
• As the Christian gospel makes clear, experiencing conviction for our sin, desiring forgiveness, repentance, and placing trust in Jesus' sacrifice for our sin is the Christian gospel's path to restoration and reconciliation with God.  But this man openly denies that he needs to ask God for forgiveness for anything, and the god he proclaims to believe in is more like a Santa Claus in the sky, bestowing financial prosperity on those who claim it.  So I take it that you no longer condemn the prosperity gospel cult that loves and worships money, since you are supporting someone for President who believes in it and claims a prosperity gospel prophetess as his "spiritual leader"?  
• I understand that Trump has been a useful tool in achieving the political goals of overturning the Roe v. Wade decision, though his conviction on abortion, which is to let states decide whether they want it or not, is not consistent at all with your desire to see it banned across the country, or with your belief that it is evil. That's kind of hypocritical, as is the fact that I've never seen this church actually reach out to anyone in the kind of circumstances and situations that tend to be the cause of most abortions.  We've had several members of our own church find themselves in difficulties as a result of an unexpected pregnancy and the response has been to condemn their mistake and sit in judgment over their sexual immorality, resulting in their feeling pushed out the door by the people they depended on to love them the most.  And that, to me, nullifies our attempts at using political influence to achieve something that we possess the spiritual power to achieve.  Or so you've preached from the pulpit.  
• I was around, and I was observant during Trump's first term in office.  Regardless of the issues and the sides that are taken by different political parties, Americans have to be able to trust the words of their President.  Our national security depends on it.  The ability of the government to serve its people depend on it.  Trump is a proven, pathological liar.  He has manipulated and used the power of his office for his own personal benefit, and that of his close families and the financial interests of the billionaires who are finally his friends, and he has lied over and over again to protect his ability to use this power.  
• I cannot vote to support anyone running for office who does not respect the constitution and understand the limits it places on government power.  Trump incited an insurrection, based on the lie that the election was "stolen" from him, and attempted to solicit support from his followers to violently overthrow the government and put himself in the executive office.  Such a rebellion, without a legitimate cause, goes against the words of two of the great, early church Apostles, Peter and Paul, recorded in I Peter 2:13-17 and Romans 13:1-7.  
• I cannot support a candidate for public office who has turned his entire campaign into an act of denigration of political opponents who simply disagree with his politics.  The Bible says that fresh water and salt water cannot come from the same spring, and the personal denigration, name calling, accusations and character assassination that is a much bigger part of Trump's campaign than anything he has to say about the issues is the sign of an unrepentant, worldly heart, and a mark of his complete inability to be an effective leader.  It's also an indicator of his character, or should I say, lack of it. 
• I cannot support a candidate who is a convicted felon, tried by a jury of his peers based on the evidence.  It is not possible to claim to believe in "law and order" and then fail to accept the outcome of a fair trial or the consequences of the crimes that were committed.   

Hatred and bigotry radiate from Trump's campaign.  Don Trump Jr. made the point, at a Turning Point rally in Phoenix last year, that Jesus' teaching on turning the other cheek wasn't getting them anywhere in this world.  That statement was made to cheers of a crowd gathered for the rally inside an Assembly of God church auditorium.  Russell Moore, the editor of Christianity Today, reports that members of churches are coming up to pastors, after they've preached on the Sermon on the Mount, asking them, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?"  There's plenty of evidence that Trump and his political, right wing MAGA base have infiltrated the church and are quickly replacing the Christian gospel with one of their own that uses hatred, bigotry and even violence to get its way.  

The Apostle Jude provides us with a prophetic warning about those who will intrude into the church, bearing falsehood and licentiousness.  He says these intruders "walk in the way of Cain and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and perish in Korah's rebellion."  He calls them "hidden reefs at your love fests, waterless clouds swept along by the winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever."

I know you are familiar with the epistle of First John.  I'm not a Christian nationalist, and I don't believe, as a Christian who has been given the responsibility of voting to choose the leadership of a constitutional democracy, that the leaders I choose must walk in lock step conformity with my religious beliefs and values, or my personal convictions, in order to earn my vote.  But I will not, in good conscience, vote for anyone who trashes my religious beliefs or my values by elevating himself to some kind of godhood in order to excuse inexcusable behavior. 

Trump has openly proclaimed that he has not done anything in his life for which he must ask God's forgiveness.  He has stated that he has his own perception of who god is.  As far as I am concerned, he's as free to make that kind of declaration as I am to deny it.  But, as you well know, that statement is a denial of the Christian gospel, a blasphemy of the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and a denial of Christ's messiahship.  I John 1:1-3 addresses this, and assigns a title to the one who does it.  You know exactly what that is.  

Pastors can have their own political opinions, and can vote for whomever they choose, as do you.  But in their stewardship responsibility of the local church, they are also responsible to guard their congregation from intruders, as the Apostle Jude warned in his epistle.  It is false teaching to claim that one partisan political party's perspective is "Christian."  And this particular individual is clearly, in every way, a pagan intruder into a church which he has used for his own purposes and to which he has introduced a gospel that has replaced the Christian gospel.  You could support whomever you choose and still maintain the integrity of the office by keeping those views to yourself, separate from your ministry stewardship, but you chose to open the door to this licentious intrusion into the church [see Jude v.4] by publicly displaying your political preferences.  

You have ignored the warning of the Apostle and failed to protect this church from this intrusion of "licentiousness," in the form of extremism in right wing politics. You've given in to the temptation to use your influence and position as a pastor to support a secular politician who does not reflect its values or respect it for what it is, in exchange for the political power he provides on a few issues of interest to you.

I was an active, supportive, serving member of your congregation for eight years.  I submitted to your leadership, was encouraged and motivated by your preaching, respected your theological and doctrinal interpretations of the Bible and supported your ministry.  This social media post has undermined all of that.  Had you kept your political opinion to yourself, along with the freedom to vote for whomever you choose, as a matter of good stewardship of your pastorate of the church, nothing would have changed.  Your political perspective is irrelevant to your ministry, so your revelation of it via a public social media platform has prioritized it over your ministry, and undermined your credibility, and my trust of pastors.