Trump’s ‘authenticity’ should repel Christians

Bob Vanderplaats, one of the most prominent leaders of Iowa’s “evangelical” community, says that if the Former Guy doesn’t run in 2024, his churchgoing supporters here will be looking for someone with his “authenticity,” but without his “demeanor.”

But how does one seperate the two? It’s a revealing- and disturbing- statement. A notoriously unethical businessman, a lifelong bully, a self-confessed serial molester of women who has been accused by one of them of having raped her as at a Jeffrey Epstein orgy when she was 13 (and has an eye-witness to the event), who is a serial adulterer, an apologist for racism and bigotry who continues to lie about having been cheated out of a second term, and above all the most prolific liar, slanderer, and libeler in the history of American politics is virtually the antithesis of the values of Jesus. Yet he claims to be a devout Christian. He is hardly a paragon of authenticity, and the fact that so many conservative Christians miss that point is, one might say, a scandal of biblical proportions.

What does it say to those outside the Church when those inside it praise the “authenticity” of such a man? To be blunt, the fact that they can both praise his “authenticity” and support him casts Jesus Christ and the Gospel in a bad light indeed. As a conservative Christian myself, I have to wonder how many souls will be lost because of “evangelical” support of Donald Trump. Beyond that, it suggests that a great many American Christians may be confusing a deal with the devil- a blind eye to evil in exchange for political power and support for a political agenda aimed at winning its victories by legal compulsion rather than the changing of hearts- with the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

Martin Luther, in commenting on the corruption of the medieval Church and its mistreatment of the Jews, wrote early in his career that if he were a Jew, he would rather be a pig than a Christian. It’s time contemporary American Christians began asking themselves what message they are sending the people whose primary mission is supposed to be the spreading of the Gospel when they can give the “authenticity” of such a man as their reason for supporting him.

Or are the negative things what Vanderplaats means by Trump’s “demeanor?” Strange term to use for established personality characteristics. And strange personality characteristics for a politician so strongly favored by “evangelical” Christians!