I’ve been toying with a post regarding Donald Trump for some time now, simply because he has unsurprisingly emerged as the Republican frontrunner by a big lead. That alone was newsworthy. Now with his indictment, the list of abuses and character flaws continues to skyrocket.

Revisiting An Unpleasant Past

In 2016, we were under no illusions. Everyone knew he was deeply flawed, a liar, womanizer and serial sex abuser of women. Amazingly, it came from his own lips. He was a star and a star can do to women whatever he wants. Just grab them by . . . you remember his words.

Evangelicals were by far the worst, excusing his behavior, claiming his sleeping with a porn star was old news. Cheating on his wife while she was pregnant? No problem, that sin had also sufficiently composed where it didn’t matter to our leaders, even if it mattered to God. None of our leaders chose to weigh in on that one.

As long as they got a mean, tough, fighter, that was all that mattered. Apparently, Jesus isn’t mean enough, or tough enough even though He suffered crucifixion. Most important, Christ isn’t fighting for us, or at least, He’s not fighting hard enough. That’s clear from their perception that somehow Christians are little more than an embattled religious group losing the fight in our country. We’re simply victims needing a fighter.

Staring Down an Ugly Present

Four years later, we got to see an endless stream of lies, total chaos for four years, intervention by his staff to prevent him from making deeply damaging decisions, and an attempt to stay in power through lies and abuse of the levers of power.

He has since been found guilty of rape, twice impeached, whipped up a crowd of supporters to breach the Capital building, took top secret documents and kept them in unsecure conditions, attempted to manipulate key states to overturn legitimate elections, schemed for fake delegates to the electoral college, brow-beat Mike Pence to overturn a legitimate election, and of course, surrounded himself with the worst moral characters like Rudi Guiliano to promote his lies.

Did I miss anything? The list is sooooo long, I must have. No matter. None of it has turned the bulk of white evangelicals against him. And it seems, nothing will. Now with Trump’s third indictment . . . that’s right, count ’em, third indictment and Trump’s monumental lead in the Republican primary, he’s now positioned to be the presumptive Republican nominee regardless of how the indictments turn out.

Facing A Choice that Defines our Christianity Yet the Outcome is Already Known

It’s not like we shouldn’t have known better in 2016. The reality is that we knew what we were getting, but we hated Hillary and loved the idea of a conservative Supreme Court. Well, Hillary is gone . . . forever. We have our conservative Supreme Court and we got Roe overturned. So, what’s our rationale for continuing to vote for a man who is now proven leagues worse than what was known in 2016, and even in 2020?

How do we rectify standing with a man who we know is anti-democratic, authoritarian, mean spirited, vindictive, incredibly narcissistic, corrupt, manipulative, lawless and deeply disrespectful of his own base? (By disrespectful, I mean, lying repeatedly to his own base as the ultimate form of disrespect. You don’t lie to those you love.)

But that isn’t the problem, is it? It has nothing to do with Trump’s love of us. It has to do with our love for him. Because we love him, we’ll never turn our backs on him, never leave him. We will love him looooong after he’s gone. We’ll be talking to our children and grandchildren about how he was the greatest President America ever had. All the other things I mentioned earlier about him? They don’t matter. They never did. They never will.

Herein lies the real problem. As characterless and immoral as Trump is, his supporters have proven over and over again, that they are even more characterless and immoral. Sorry Christians, but I got to call it for what it is. We have proven we will abandon our morals, everything that’s right, our Christian witness, everything, just for political power.

We’ve proven it not only in our unwillingness to abandon Trump, but we’ve committed to electing as many “mini-trumps” as possible, filling our government with liars, each competing to show they are worse than Trump in character, corruption and morality. This is what we’ve seeded to our children. God forgive us. We have no clue what we are doing.

I don’t know who will win in 2024, but I’m certain the loyalty of the white evangelical church will continue to stand by Trump, regardless of what happens between now and then. I’m also quite certain, that those outside the church will not forgive us, nor join our company. That’s the real tragedy. We’ve already lost our witness of Christ, and no one seems to have noticed. No one seems to even care, except Christ.