Divine Resignation

Responding to an Old Calling with A Renewed Perspective

Pervasive dread. That’s how I would describe Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2024, and the remainder of that week. Since August, polls in the presidential election had consistently shown Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in a dead heat in most swing states. But I hoped voters would remember the chaos of Trump’s first term, that they had heard his unhinged and unAmerican comments for the past year, and they would ultimately choose not to go down that road again.

I was wrong. My distress, however, was about more than simply being wrong. Something had profoundly changed in me. It took me a few days to more fully understand what was causing my deep foreboding.

The first realization was accepting that I clearly don’t know the majority of my fellow citizens. If they had listened to the same vile and hateful things I heard Trump repeatedly say and promise to do, then we held two very different visions for this country. I am no fan of Harris and some of her policies, but unlike Trump, she was not a threat to our Constitutional form of government or the rule of law.

Among Trump’s many statements, he has said, “I want to be a dictator for one day….” He has promised to prosecute political opponents and pardon hundreds of people convicted of participating in the insurrection at the U.S. Capital on Jan. 6, 2021. He has said he will impose massive tariffs on imported goods, significantly raising consumer prices. He has promised to end climate regulations, the goal of which is to prevent increasingly catastrophic events for future generations. And, he has vowed to end the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) and Medicaid expansion coverage, which benefits more than 45 million Americans.

Those are a few issues where I expected Trump’s rhetoric and anti-democratic desires to turn away voters because his plans could negatively impact millions (if not billions) of people here and around the world.

But I was wrong.

Second, I also do not share the same values as many of my fellow Christians. Some of those differences are not new, but they took on new significance given what we now know about Trump 2.0. In his second term, Trump has said he would use the Dept. Of Justice to seek retribution for his petty grievances. In 2023, he was found liable for sexual abuse and fined millions, and earlier this month, he became a convicted felon. He is an egomaniac (i.e., narcissist), a bully, and a philanderer. He exploits people and breaks laws for personal gain (i.e., corruption and greed). He continually denigrates the weak, the poor, and the vulnerable (e.g., undocumented immigrants) using terms that Adolf Hitler used to describe Jews, such as “vermin” and “poisoning the blood of our country.” And, he plans to worsen the humanitarian crisis on our southern border by removing immigrants via “the largest deportation operation in American history.”

None of that, in any way, aligns with biblical values or the life of Christ. Furthermore, Trump is a pathological liar who regularly engages in wild rhetoric and deception, so — regardless of what his supporters claim — it is impossible to distinguish between what is true, false, or exaggerated. His immoral, unethical character and his rampant and malicious dishonesty stand in stark opposition to Christian values.

Some Christians who voted for Trump undoubtedly believed they were still voting for a pro-life party; they were not. Others bought the myth that Trump was a modern-day King Cyrus, which, according to Tim Alberta’s 2023 book titled The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory, is a fabrication concocted by several evangelical pastors seeking Trump’s favoritism by giving their followers a justification for voting for him.

I expected Trump’s glaring personal failures and his stance on those issues to cost him the support of millions of Christians who claim to value the Bible, the teachings of Christ, and this country — the founding of which many Christians (including myself) believe was blessed by God.

But again, I was wrong.

I am heartbroken that my fellow citizens and Christians did not see the blatant dangers posed by Trump and deny him a second term.

When a majority of Americans no longer care about defending democracy, this country is in trouble. And, when a majority of Christians advocate for immoral and unethical leadership for our nation, we have gone beyond a critical tipping point.

That awareness led me to my third realization: Trump’s return to the White House signals the end of the American experiment. The small group of brave and extraordinary people who founded this country in 1776 began a bold experiment in self-government, one that was later articulated in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Our democracy (or constitutional republic) has some elasticity — it can flex and rise to meet challenges. But it is fragile and can be broken. At a minimum, the Constitution assumes moral and ethical leadership. John Adams, the second president of the United States, said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Trump’s administration is populated by individuals who did not swear an oath to put the country first; instead, Trump hand-picked them because of their unwavering loyalty to him. That sets up an oligarchy (a small group of people having control of a country) with Trump as its autocrat (a ruler with absolute power), which moves us from a democracy to a plutocracy (rule by the wealthy) and a kleptocracy (where rulers plunder the country’s resources).

None of that resembles the country envisioned by our Founding Fathers, who risked their lives to be free from the oppressive rule of King George III and his British monarchy.

Our first “experiment” with Trump was nearly a disaster. If he follows through on even half of the crazy, vengeful, and unAmerican things he has promised in his second term, the country will be unrecognizable in four years. That is a terrifying prospect.

Underpinning that fear, however, is a deeper impulse: preservation. I wanted to hold on to the country I grew up with and have benefited from my entire life. I wanted it to remain familiar. It’s not perfect, certainly not for everyone, but it personified the possibility of improvement, of raising people up, of being a shining city on a hill for a desperate world (Matthew 5:14-16). I wanted to ensure it continued living up to its highest ideals. But owning that outcome or believing I can influence it can easily become an idol: the nostalgic America I recall.

That is the allure of Make America Great Again. It evokes an individual nationalist vision that puts the higher purpose of our Creator in second place. God is relentlessly committed to building His kingdom, and to accomplish that endeavor, He raises up nations and kings and deposes them (Job 12: 23 and Daniel 2:21-22). God’s message — first and foremost — is Make My Kingdom Great.

But on Nov. 5, America chose to Make America Great (Again), to disregard the need for basic moral or ethical leadership, and to renounce the constitutional principles that have allowed this nation and Christianity to flourish here and around the world.

Voters chose to build Trump’s empire instead of God’s kingdom. That was a mistake. And Christians played a pivotal role in that decision. I don’t see things going well for this country, even if the results of this watershed election take years to manifest. God may have mercy on our nation and extend us grace (again) or He may let us have our way. I’m confident that whatever path He choses will be most beneficial to building His kingdom.

In the midst of those realizations, I experienced a divine resignation — a peace that dissipated my dread, lightened my burden, and called me back to God’s essential mission. The loss of my aspirations for this nation has allowed me to hear His calling more clearly. The mission Jesus gave His followers two millennia ago: Love God and love your neighbor (Mark 12: 30-31 & Luke 10:27-28), and care for the poor (Matthew 25: 35-40) and the widows and the orphans (James 1:27, Psalm 68:5 & 82:3).

I know Trump supporters see the world completely opposite of me, but I’m not trying to win them over. I’m not here to debate history or scripture with MAGA enthusiasts, Christian nationalists, apologists for Trump, or conspiracy theorists. I’m not making hard and fast predictions, and only God knows how things will ultimately play out. My goal is to testify to my own experience and share what I see as the way forward for Christians committed to building His kingdom: Caring for “the least of these” in our communities (Matthew 5: 31-46) — the people most vulnerable to being harmed by Trump’s “elitists-first” policies.

Given my track record since Nov. 6, I sincerely hope I’m wrong (again) about the fate of this nation. I pray the United States genuinely becomes a better nation in the next four years. But given all that we know about Trump’s deeply flawed character, the misguided people in his administration, and his anti-democratic agenda, I have little hope for the future of this country.

From my perspective, we turned a corner of biblical proportions on Nov. 5 ensuring America will never be great (again).