Go Ahead and Vote for Trump and the GOP, Just Do It With Your Eyes Wide Open
As a Republican Party voter for as long as I can remember, I’m not discouraging you from voting for the GOP. Not in the least. And as a two-time Trump voter, I’m not discouraging you from voting for Trump. That is not my intent at all, as I personally plan to continue to vote GOP. Instead, I’m urging each of you Christian conservatives who votes for Trump and the GOP to do so with your eyes wide open, recognizing that the GOP is not God’s party and Trump is not the Jesus-centered leader of the Christian Right. Far from it.
Already in 2016, a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention was gay billionaire Peter Thiel, a personal friend of Trump, who said, “Of course, every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American.” (He said this to applause.)
He added, “I don’t pretend to agree with every plank in our party’s platform, but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline. And nobody in this race is being honest about it, except Donald Trump.”
That was 2016.
Today, Republicans like Thiel don’t need to worry about differing with the party platform. All affirmation of God-ordained marriage has been removed from the GOP platform along with all opposition to same-sex “marriage.”
That’s why the headline to an op-ed on Newsweek by Brad Polumbo proclaimed, “Trump’s New GOP Platform Is a Massive Win for LGBT Americans.”
He wrote:
For years, a key goal of gay Republicans and their allies has been the removal of the GOP’s anti-gay-marriage plank from its official platform. While Trump made history as the first president to take office accepting gay marriage, the Republican platform he formally ran on in 2016 explicitly endorsed ‘traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman’ and specifically denounced the Supreme Court cases enshrining gay marriage as the law of the land. And in 2020, Republicans essentially recycled the 2016 platform and ran on it again, rather than produce a new one, citing the pandemic’s disruptions.
In stark contrast,
In the new 2024 platform Republicans just released, this language is nowhere to be found. The document says nothing about gay marriage at all. There is no endorsement of ‘traditional marriage,’ no call to overturn the Supreme Court’s decisions, or anything else. The absence of a formal position implies that Republican candidates are officially free to adopt their own position on the issue, a tacit statement that the GOP has no problem with candidates and politicians who, like Trump, have embraced gay marriage.
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How important is this? Polumbo writes,
It’s hard to overstate the significance of this development. Overnight, with almost no fanfare, the single biggest objective of gay Republicans was achieved—and no one really noticed! So far, there’s been only a minor outcry in niche socially conservative circles, with nowhere near the level of backlash you’d have expected had the GOP taken this step in years past.
It’s the same with the GOP’s pro-life platform. That has virtually evaporated into thin air.
As the headline to an op-ed for the National Review stated, “The GOP Platform Is a Major Loss for the Pro-Life Movement.”
As explained by Alexandra DeSanctis,
For decades, the Republican Party platform has invoked the unborn child’s “fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed” and called for a constitutional amendment and legislation “to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.”
No longer. In its draft of a much-truncated platform, the GOP has gutted its language regarding abortion. It no longer mentions the fundamental right to life of the unborn, instead stating blandly that “we proudly stand for families and Life.”
Trump has stated explicitly that he would not support a federal ban on abortion.
There is no ambiguity here.
As for his views on same-sex “marriage,” he already stated on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Nov. 13, 2016, that, “It’s law. It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean, it’s done.”
And despite his strong stance against transgender activism, Trump said in 2016 Bruce “Caitlyn” Jenner could use the bathroom of his choice in Trump Tower, which he proceeded to do several days later. (Yes, he chose to use the women’s room.)
The truth be told, despite Trump’s frequent professions of faith (most recently, at a Turning Point USA Believer’s Summit, saying, “I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian”) and despite saying the “sinner’s prayer” privately with different Christian leaders (I’ve heard this anecdotally), there is no real evidence that Trump understands what it means to be a Christian, let alone a “born-again” Christian. (As for Trump being a changed man after coming within an inch of his life, he has jokingly stated the change lasted for a few hours at most.)
That doesn’t mean Christian conservatives should not vote for him or for the GOP in general. Not at all. What are the real alternatives? Just the Biden-Harris proposals to radically revamp the Supreme Court should draw our serious opposition.
I also believe that we should be deeply appreciative for the great things Trump did as president, including appointing many fine judges to the courts, most notably to the Supreme Court, standing for religious freedoms, moving our embassy to Jerusalem and successfully negotiating the Abraham Accords.
I’m simply saying that we should vote with our eyes wide open, not misrepresenting or exalting Trump, not sanitizing the GOP and, above all, not looking to politics to do what only the gospel can do.
So, yes, by all means, get out and vote, and yes, recognize just how debased and evil some of the Democrats’ agenda really is. No argument there.
But then, with far more zeal and passion and focus and energy and effort and devotion, let’s give ourselves to the Great Commission, meaning, let’s be disciples and make disciples. That’s the primary way America will be changed.
Politics has its place, but politics is not the gospel, and there is a vast difference between the kingdom of God and the GOP, not to mention an infinitely large difference between a Messianic Savior and Donald Trump.
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Dr. Michael Brown (www.thelineoffire.org/) is the host of the nationally syndicated The Line of Fire radio show. He is the author of over 40 books, including “Can You be Gay and Christian?”; “Our Hands are Stained with Blood”; and “Seizing the Moment: How to Fuel the Fires of Revival.” You can connect with him on Facebook, X or YouTube.
