Trump's conviction makes me worry for the American Church
Conservatives have always said American policy is 10 years behind Canadian policy. When the Supreme Court of the United States legalized gay “marriage” in 2015, they were following the progressive policies of the Canadian government when they legalized gay marriage through a bill called the Civil Rights Act in 2005.
A lot has changed since then. The gap between America and Canada is narrowing. American policy is still superior to Canadian policy. But in some ways, America has become even worse than Canada.
Last week, for the first time in its history, America convicted a former president and a major-party presidential nominee of a crime. A New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to aid his 2016 election.
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As the Daily Wire writes, “Prosecutors accused Trump of improperly masking reimbursements to repay his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence on an alleged extramarital affair by classifying them as legal expenses.”
The trial was presided over by an activist judge who donated to President Joe Biden and the Democrats in the 2020 election. The unjust verdict is political persecution encouraged and approved by Joe Biden.
It’s shocking to consider that despite all of his authoritarian ambitions and unjust character, Justin Trudeau hasn’t criminalized his political rivals. Under Trudeau’s leadership, Canada has prosecuted powerless, average citizens. When Canada arrested and jailed pastors like James Coates and Tim Stephens during the COVID lockdowns, Christians in America were shocked by Canada’s unprecedented actions.
To be clear, it’s more unjust to persecute righteous pastors than unrighteous politicians. When governments persecute shepherds of the local churches, they are persecuting the Good Shepherd.
However, I think the guilty verdict against Trump is more shocking.
Some Trump supporters are comparing his political prosecution to Jesus and the Apostles’ persecution. It’s ridiculous that I need to explain this, but unlike Jesus and the Apostles, Trump isn’t being unjustly persecuted because of righteousness. He’s being unjustly prosecuted because of his sin.
However, if America is now willing to unjustly convict former presidents, why wouldn’t it unjustly convict pastors?
If Lady Justice no longer wears a blindfold when Republican presidents are unjustly charged with a crime, then why would she wear a blindfold when righteous pastors are charged with a crime?
After the verdict, Russell Moore — the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today and the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s ERLC — said: “The question is what it has always been - fit or unfit. And the answer was obvious all along. Character matters, still.”
I agree Donald Trump is unfit to be the president of the United States.
But what “evangelicals” like Russell Moore refuse to acknowledge is that Joe Biden is more unfit to be president than Donald Trump.
More importantly, even if Trump’s character makes him unfit for the presidency, it doesn’t mean he’s fit for prison.
I think people like Moore know that. However, just as he approves articles promoting progressive “Christianity” for Christianity Today, he approves people who practice partiality and injustice.
So when leaders in the Church no longer maintain a biblical view of justice, we shouldn’t expect leaders over the justice system to maintain it either. The Church in America has dimmed its light, so America is no longer a beacon of justice.
This echoes what Alexis de Tocqueville once said about America:
“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers — and it was not there ... in her fertile fields and boundless forests — and it was not there ... in her rich mines and her vast world commerce — and it was not there ... in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution — and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”
This article is a lament for America, but more than that, it’s a lament for the Church in America. As Tocqueville said, what has primarily sustained America since its founding isn’t the Constitution — it’s churches.
So it doesn’t matter what people do to the Constitution if local churches remain biblically inept and spiritually weak. Without a revival in local churches, there won’t be nationwide reform.
But so long as there is a remnant of faithful Christians in the country, America is terminally ill — not dead.
Originally published at Slow to Write.
Samuel Sey is a Ghanaian-Canadian who lives in Brampton, a city just outside of Toronto. He is committed to addressing racial, cultural, and political issues with biblical theology, and always attempts to be quick to listen and slow to speak.
