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Pew Research polling confirms a high percentage of White Protestant evangelicals are in steadfast alignment with President Donald Trump’s policies. While faith-based opposition to abortion is understandable, it’s bewildering the extent to which evangelicals outwardly sidestep other moral challenges in this Trumpian/MAGA moment.
Years ago, there was a ubiquitous bumper sticker that simply queried: What Would Jesus Do? That question still carries resonance today as we witness what I see as the evading of Christian admonitions related to:
Mercy. With our government’s shuttering of USAID, humanitarian assistance is being withdrawn from the world’s poorest. Inevitably millions, mostly children, will suffer and perish. America First turns its back. What would Jesus do?
Stewardship. The faithful credit Earth’s creation to God’s handiwork. Scriptural admonishments call on the faithful to care for Eden, work to keep it, and not defile “my” land. The Trump administration’s undermining of efforts to confront the existential threat of climate change seems in conflict with the creator’s stewardship charge. What would Jesus do?
Brotherly Love. The Golden Rule beseeches the faithful to be generous, bear one another’s burdens, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. As the Trump administration’s masked brownshirt ICE raids unfold across the country with families being brutally torn apart, it begs the question, what would Jesus do?
If these malicious acts constitute a pathway to national righteousness, then I, and I suspect many others, are woefully misinformed regarding fundamental Christian values. The extent to which some evangelical MAGA are animated by this tribalistic cruelty is simply baffling, leaving one to ponder, what would Jesus do?
Neal Guyer
Thomaston
