Almost nothing of Donald Trump’s lifestyle, message, values, ethics, or actions has any discernible relationship to the Jesus reported in the gospels. Some of his evangelical Christian defenders, when asked, tend to agree with that assessment, but go on to praise what he has done or will do, which they see as faithful to Christ. I usually do not agree with their understandings of what the Bible generally regards as leaders’ key responsibilities toward the peoples and nations they lead. I just do not see Jesus, or the prophetic tradition out of which he ministered, in the man in the White House.
Something was shared with me on Facebook yesterday that gives me insight into the passion of some evangelical Christians for Mr. Trump. It’s a short video that declares, “President Trump Born for Revival!” In it, Dr. Clarence Sexton, founder and president of The Crown College in Tennessee, tells how a Bible that is tied to a revival in the Hebrides in the 1940s and 50s now sits in the Oval Office. He suggests that perhaps this means God is using Mr. Trump to bring revival to the United States.
I confess I am not much on revivals. I realize that some who are reading this understand the term even less than I do. Here’s my take: basically, a revival is a religious service, or series of services, in which powerful preaching results in powerful, emotional, and visible response by the congregation. Lives are changed in revivals as people make heart-felt confessions of faith in Jesus, and commit their lives to following him. Revivals have an important place in American religious history, and many churches today still hold revivals.
Unfortunately for Dr. Sexton’s story, at least one website (godreports.com) that is sympathetic to revivals and revivalism says it is not true. It reports that there was a revival in Scotland in those years, and it was quite powerful. But the part about the Bible and Mr. Trump is not true, did not happen. Remember, this is from a site sympathetic to revivals, not from some “fake news” outlet.
I suppose the first thought that comes to many minds is the thought that came to mine: Since when does truth matter when some people talk about Mr. Trump? But we need to go beyond that to see in this story the conviction that even when you cannot see any link between Jesus and the president, such a relationship is there anyway. God can work in ways we do not see. In other words, you do not see the relationship; you do not see how God is using Mr. Trump to bring revival to the US; you do not see how what he says and does is congruent with the ways of Jesus—you do not see any of that, but it is there. Because you know it’s there, you just know it.
How do you argue with that? How do you talk about real issues when the person you are talking with “just knows” the truth, a truth you are obviously not gifted to access?
I suspect this sort of “spiritual secret” about the man is circulating widely among many passionate Trump supporters. It is fed by the likes of “President Trump Born for Revival!” It really allows no room for serious political back and forth.
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