Evangelicals, the 2020 Presidential Election, and Matters of Conscience

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“One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.” Romans 14:5

The early church had a problem: Jewish Christians had been taught for centuries that worship had to occur on Saturday, the Sabbath. Gentile Christians, on the other hand, preferred to worship on Sunday, the first day of the week – the Lord’s Day – because that was the day Jesus rose from the dead.

One would think that the Apostle Paul, a Jew himself, would side with his fellow Jewish believers. After all, there it is, in black and white in the #1 spot in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-2).

But Paul did something which, for the time, was radical. He described Sabbath observance, not as a moral absolute, but as a matter of conscience. That is, since Christians are no longer under the Mosaic Covenant, they are free to worship on whatever day they felt they should worship on, so long as they were “fully convinced in their own mind.”

Imagine that. For a while in the history of the early church, Christians worshiped on two different days…and maybe some on every day…of the week. And though they disagreed on this subject – often vehemently – both camps were right in God’s sight!

And because both were right, Paul states that they shouldn’t condemn each other for their conviction.

“Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.” Romans 14:4

Fast forward two thousand years and the modern church, at least the modern church in America, has another divisive issue to deal with: what to do with President Donald Trump.

The majority of Evangelical Christians are die hard supporters of President Trump, primarily because of his pro life stance. But there are other Evangelical Christians who see President Trump using his pro life stance as a “trump card,” so to speak, to excuse all kinds of egregious behavior, behavior that endangers the very fiber of American democracy.

I, for my part, fall into the latter group of Christians. I believe President Trump is inept and morally decadent. For years I have for the most part kept quiet regarding my convictions about Trump. But when Trump used the military to forcefully remove peaceful protesters – the military against U.S. citizens! – so he could cross the street in front of the White House for a photo op, that was the last straw.

Since then, I have been posting daily on my personal social media accounts links to articles about what people who are closest to President Trump and “in the know” think about him.

For the most part, the comments on these posts represent a healthy discussion by mostly Christians on the pros and cons of the articles.

But of course, I have also received a lot of push back on why I’m doing this. So, for the purpose of explanation, here is my response to an email I recently received:

“I have not taken the step to post about Trump on my private social media pages lightly. I am deeply concerned about the very close association between Trump and the Evangelical church. I feel that President Trump is doing irreparable harm to the Evangelical cause. My reason for posting about Trump is simply to show that people who know him well, who know him the best – his own staff, leading Republicans, the military, and soon even a member of his own family – consider him to be a mortal threat to our country.”

“I also want to show by example that not all Evangelicals march in lockstep formation with Trump. Some seem to have forgotten that there is room for disagreement on this issue. I cannot in good conscience standby and say nothing.”

So I want you to know that I’m going to continue posting daily links to articles in my personal social media accounts that sound the alarm on President Trump.

I also want you to know that I realize that there are many of you who vehemently disagree with me and I respect you for your conviction. So long as we are “fully convinced in our own mind” on this matter of conscience and maintain proper decorum, then before God we are both right.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

Since 2003 New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry

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