Membership in the club of presidents not known for their church attendance, and yet being open about staking the high ground on matters such as morals, conscience, and biblical principles, includes Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. All were Republicans who regarded their respective eras’ fight against Slavery/Communism as much a matter of morality as it was political, and all were not regular churchgoers. Ditto for Donald Trump. But to label Trump as apathetic to religion and devoid of at least an appreciation and love for the teachings of Christ—just because he doesn’t speak in tongues or memorize scriptural passages (as far as we know)—doesn’t make him an atheist or agnostic.
Donald’s mother Mary Anne declared her commitment to the spiritual upbringing of her children when she said, “I tried to get it into their heads that they had to believe. Whether it shows or not, it’s in there because I put it there.” 1
The one person other than, presumably, Mary Anne, Trump’s wife Melania, or any of his three adult children who knows the president’s spiritual walk better than anybody else is Rev. Paula White, pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida, and chairwoman of Trump’s evangelical advisory board. At Trump’s presidential inauguration on January 21, 2017, she became the first female clergyperson to speak at such an event. White’s detractors point to her belief in the “prosperity gospel” as a sign that she wasn’t an authentic Christian. Perhaps, the naysayers say, White was drawn to Trump because of his billions on paper, which in turn might have raised doubt about Trump’s own authenticity when it came to religious matters. White is not shy about sticking up for Trump and his embrace of Christianity, the cynics be, well, ‘darned.’
This from The Faith of Donald J. Trump, by David Brody and Scott Lamb: “‘The man that I know is a believer, a Christian, and a man that’s hungry for God,’ White said, even if ‘he doesn’t know our “Christianese” and perhaps our language that we know in the Christian world.’ As for the spiritual critics lined up at his door, White asked a very simple question: ‘If we just want to hold Mr. Trump to saying every day . . . he’s going to be just spot on with God, well then I’d say, “Are you?” No! None of us are. [The Apostle] Paul wasn’t. The only one that was, was Jesus Christ.’” 2
Trump has surrounded himself with Christian and evangelical leaders, which he started doing years before he announced for a presidential run in 2015. Still, without the Christian evangelical voter base behind him, he didn’t stand a chance of winning in 2016. Evangelical leaders not already aligned to Trump the man weren’t going to hand Trump the candidate their support and endorsements unless he came to them, which he did on September 29, 2016 in a private meeting at Trump Tower with a group of religious leaders that included Christian evangelicals and Catholics. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, mediated the meeting. “Many in that group were Never Trumpers, and you could tell they came ready to give him a piece of their mind that they probably couldn’t afford to lose,” Jeffress said later. “When he walked into the room, and I introduced them, he listened to them, he delayed his departure, and by the end of the meeting he had them eating out of the palm of his hand.” 3
White, self-professed as having risen out of “trailer trash,” wasn’t among those Christian evangelical leaders who needed to be won over to Trump in 2016. She had already been there for him for more than ten years, dating back to the first time he contacted her, by phone she said, after he saw her preach on TV in 2002. 4
“Way before his run for the presidency, way before involvement in the (Republican) party, way before becoming a politician—he was a man seeking God,” White said. “A man who was spiritually hungry, watching Christian television and listening to Southern Gospel music. We are this work in progress that is continually growing, as long as our heart is open to God and as long as we are seeking God.” 5
Another televangelist who has befriended Trump and served as a spiritual counselor for many years is Texas-based James Robison, who has said, “God uses imperfect people to accomplish his perfect will. He always has and always will.” 6
We all can probably agree that Donald Trump is less than perfect.
As president, especially one leading a nation at war with itself, Abraham Lincoln found some comfort in his interpretation of divine providence as evidenced by his mentions of deity in his second inaugural address: “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous, altogether.” Much like Lincoln long before him, Donald Trump found that once he became president, he would discover that he needed to be on the right side of a power much higher than his own. “I’ve always felt the need to pray,” Trump said, “so I would say that the office is so powerful that you need God even more . . . there’s almost not a decision that you make when you’re sitting in this position that isn’t a really life-altering position. So God comes into it even more so.” 7
Mike Huckabee, a two-time presidential candidate and former Southern Baptist pastor, insists he sees sincerity in Trump’s proclamation of a prayer life in a political world where sincerity and authenticity is on life support. Mindful of Trump’s occasional bouts with crassness and moral missteps, Huckabee has said that Trump has a “deep, abiding respect, not just for God, but for all people who truly follow God. I think he’s intrigued by it. I think it almost is something that he just finds amazing and fascinating. He has real respect for people of faith.” 8
Pope Francis, the worldwide leader of the Catholic Church, wasn’t buying it. At the same time that Trump in 2016 was accusing fellow Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz of telling lies (although without questioning Cruz’s Christianity), Pope Francis was disputing Trump’s profession of faith: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not a Christian.”
Now, Trump’s turn:
“For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian, and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President (Barack Obama). No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.” 9
To be continued…
Notes:
1. Gwenda Blair, The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000), 301.
2. Brody and Lamb, 290.
3. Brody and Lamb, 251.
4. Benjamin Fearnow, “Trump’s Spiritual Advisor Paula White
Appeals to Christians to Give to the Church Before Paying Mortgages,
Electric Bills,” Newsweek, February 18, 2020.
5. Brody and Lamb, 138.
6. Brody and Lamb, 406.
7. Brody and Lamb, 286.
8. Brody and Lamb, 209.
9. Brody and Lamb, 192.