During the past year, numerous authors and columnists including David Brooks, Russell Moore, Rod Dreher, Ed Stetzer, and many others have done a good job of voicing perspectives on the confluence of religion and politics with which I agree.  So, other than repeating or merely passing along their works (although sharing is a good thing), I have felt less pressure to pile on when the right message is being conveyed.

I’ve also been reluctant to add to the cacophony of commentary.  President Trump’s daily reality show continues to “suck the air out of the room” and fixating all forms of media on his circus: a twitting, bombastic clown show hosted by an egotistical narcissist.  It’s a distraction of epic proportions, and keeps the attention off the back office operation that is restructuring this country for easier profiteering under the deeply flawed assumption that what’s good for corporate America is good for everyone.  That deserves news coverage it’s not getting.

Whether by accident or design, Ringmaster Don is keeping genuine issues out of each news cycle by being one continuous pratfall. The issues and consequences are real, but plod along below the radar of most citizens.  That’s bad for America.

Also bad for America are people who believe Trump is defending the Christian faith.  He cozied up to evangelical leaders only to secure their votes.  I don’t fault him for that – it’s just good politics.  But the president’s glaring ignorance of the very Christian faith he professes makes him both a reckless ally and a malignant charlatan.  Critics of Christianity have enough to dislike about us without them thinking we claim Trump as one of our own.

A press release in July 2016 is the first I learned of Trump’s promise to “destroy” the Johnson Amendment as compensation to the Religious Right for their supporting his candidacy.  The 1954 amendment, signed by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower and named for then-Texas Sen. Lyndon Johnson, is a provision in the U.S. tax code that prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations (including churches) from endorsing or opposing political candidates.

Beginning in May 2017, Trump first weakened the Johnson Amendment, and then as part of the December 2017 tax bill,  attempted to entirely repeal it.  Doing so would be a green light for some churches to declare “open season” on anything deemed un-Republican, which could “destroy” the church in the name of religious liberty.

Ironically, the IRS doesn’t actively enforce the Johnson Amendment and only in the machinations of the most distorted advocates of free speech is the content of sermons negatively affected.  So, who does enforce it?  Smart pastors who know that such political advocacy would split their churches.

So, what is the Religious Right up to?  The same game as always – to permanently wed Christianity and the Republican Party in a foolish gamble to make America a Christian nation.  And that, my friends, is a colossal mistake of biblical proportions.  (To be clear, it would be no less of a mistake if a similar arranged marriage was occurring with the Democratic Party, the independents, the Green Party, etc.).  Although we have a civic duty to vote, Christianity and partisan politics are fundamentally incompatible (more on that in future posts).

Jesus’ bride is the church, not the government, and He did not choose to bring about His kingdom through government.  Isaiah 9:6 (“… and the government will be on His shoulders…”) is often quoted to justify dominionism.  But, according to acclaimed pastor John MacArthur, that phrase, in the context of Christ’s birth, “affirms His Lordship” and speaks to His eventual “… reign over a literal, earthly, geopolitical kingdom that encompasses all the kingdoms and governments of the world (cf. Daniel 2:44; Zechariah 14:9).  In that day, the government of the whole world will rest on His shoulders….”

How does freeing churches to engage in divisive partisan posturing build God’s kingdom?  It doesn’t.  This move toward dominionism uses the power of government to inflict a particular matrix of faith on everyone.  It attempts to recreate a Muslim model of compliance that some refer to as “Christian sharia.”  The prohibition against a state-sponsored faith is clear in the U.S. Constitution; it’s one of the things that led our Founding Fathers to leave England.  Apparently some on the Religious Right think they know better (they don’t) and that history has nothing to teach them (they’re wrong).

People come to Christ through a lot of avenues; it is a humbling and overwhelming experience for many.  Faith by government mandate is not a valid path. It was never an option used by God or one that should be pursued by man.  The mere suggestion of such a thing by the Religious Right demonstrates a profound ignorance of the biblical faith they claim to represent, and paradoxically, risks diminishing further the influence of the Christian church in America.

If even a fraction of Christian churches take the bait and morph into unbridled bastions of partisan hackery, all Christian churches will lose their credibility.  What “godless liberal” (the very person the Religious Right says needs Jesus) would darn to darken the doorway of the First Congregational Church of Haters?

Repeal of the Johnson Amendment is not inevitable, but seeking new ways to put partisan rhetoric in the mouth of our Lord displaces His message of redemption and hope.  The repeal of Jesus is a death sentence.