I don't know about you but most weeks my news feed is quite predictable. The
stories change but the
responses from the left-leaning, political wing of evangelicalism and the (social) "Gospel" Coalition are
unsurprising.
The big story that garnered all the media coverage last week was "Did our (presumed racist) Commander in Chief call corrupt, third world nations and/or impoverished people" a 4-letter word?" When this story broke it quickly became "the same song, different tune."
In short, a pattern of rush to judgment, pro "social-justice," pro "illegal immigration" fueled commentary pieces from evangelical leaders- such as Russell Moore and Thabiti Anyabwile- and from evangelical ministries such as "Desiring God: and "the Gospel Coalition"- has become par for the course. More on this in a moment.
Back in 2016 the
Tim Keller-led Gospel Coalition failed to convince enough professing evangelicals that it was unwise and/or unbiblical to
vote against the pro-abortion, pro-LGBT, pro-globalization agenda of Hillary Clinton. As the polarizing presidential election of 2016 played out many evangelical "Never-Trumpers" warned Christian voters that "the Donald" was a liar, a narcissist, a sexist, and that he would run the country as a "closet Democrat" anyways. "He's only telling socially-conservative voters that he will protect your religious liberties because he wants to win." "He'll appoint a liberal-leaning Supreme Court justice" (which was perhaps the most important issue on the 2016 ballot). Plus, "if you vote for Trump/Pence, for any reason, it will ruin our Christian testimony in the world," etc.
For a number of reasons Donald J. Trump was NOT our first, second, or third choice during the Republican primary. However, my wife and I agreed with the collective wisdom of Robert Gagnon,
John MacArthur, and R.C. Sproul and
voted against the far-left, anti-religious freedom, hyper-Feminist candidate Hillary Clinton.
Despite Trump's loose tongue and his unsavory personal baggage it was an easy decision to vote for Trump/Pence (when the only viable alternative was Clinton/Kaine). After 8 years of far-left governance we came to see exactly what President Obama meant when he talked about"fundamentally transforming" our nation. If nothing else, Andrea and I hoped to prevent the pro-SCOTUS Clinton/Kaine ticket from winning the White House/Supreme Court-but now I digress.
After his unexpected victory, Trump kept many of his campaign promises to "the religious right," such as appointing Judge Neil Gorsuch as a Supreme Court nominee (in addition to appointing many other social conservatives to key leadership positions).
