Donald Trump Survived by the Grace of God

But What is Grace?

Last Saturday, July 13, my brother and his wife came to visit, and we were finishing up a lovely dinner of mahi-mahi grilled to perfection when Mom got a text from my sister in Maryland. It simply read “Turn on the news.” That is how we found out that someone attempted to assassinate former President Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Though I strive to keep this blog focused on Christ rather than partisan politics, I have been fully transparent regarding my rebuke of Donald Trump. Jesus was neither a democrat nor a republican, and all elected officials will fall short of God’s righteous standards. But Donald Trump’s conduct is particularly egregious, made worse by the fact that many of his supporters misuse the name of God to condone it. But this does not, by any means justify the assassination attempt on him. Political violence of any kind is inexcusable, not only because it is a threat to the values of liberal democracy, but also because it is unbiblical. Satan is clever in his ability to convince us that political violence can be righteous. Peter no doubt thought he was doing the right thing, defending Jesus by striking Malchus, the servant of the high priest who came to arrest Jesus, with his sword cutting off a piece of his ear. But in addition to Jesus’s rebuke of Peter because his crucifixion had to happen in order for Scripture to be fulfilled, Jesus also said, “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). In other words, Jesus understood that in sinful human hands, violence only leads to more violence, or put another way, anarchy. Our God is a god of law and order—and not in the coded racism sense of the phrase. No one, regardless of ethnicity or socioeconomic status is above the law, and in fact Jesus teaches that those blessed with societal privilege are held to an even higher standard (Mark 12:41-44). We don’t yet know the motive of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the young man who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we find out, consistent with past perpetrators of political violence, that his dislike of Donald Trump was so intense he irrationally believed he was justified in attempting to kill him. The problem is that because of the evil in every human heart, if we start tolerating political violence against anyone, it starts a dangerous cycle of continuous retribution, which carried out to its logical conclusion, can trigger civil war. That is why Jesus insists that until his return and final redemption of Creation, we must submit to the earthly governments of our respective countries, trusting that God will judge justly. Jesus himself could have called on his Father who would have sent “more than twelve legions of angels” to save him, but while on earth, even he submitted to the governing authorities—paying his taxes, and not resisting when he was arrested and ultimately crucified.

That being said, we have a unique privilege that was unheard of in biblical times, the privilege of having some say in who governs us. Thus in our context, wouldn’t loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength involve stewarding this privilege for God’s glory by voting for the candidate whose life shows evidence of good fruit? Couldn’t ministering to “the least of these” in our context include voting for the candidate more likely to take “the least of these” into consideration when enacting policy, rather than thinking only of our own interests?

This past week, Milwaukee hosted the Republican National Convention. We live in a suburb just a short drive from the convention site. My parents and I decided not to venture downtown, but I couldn’t resist watching it every night on television after work. If not for the events of last Saturday, the convention would have been difficult enough to watch, what with speaker after speaker riling up the delegates with alternative facts about the success of Donald Trump’s first term, and downplaying what a second term would mean for “the least of these.” But in light of last Saturday’s tragedy, I have found something especially offensive about the way proponents of Christian Nationalism like Franklin Graham gushed that God saved Trump’s life for a reason. Again, for the record, I’m glad Donald Trump didn’t lose his life last Saturday. Jesus and the apostle Paul both rebuked those who sought to resolve political differences with violence, and if Donald Trump had lost his life, I shutter to think of the anger, the calls for retribution, and societal instability that might have ensued. It is also unbiblical to demonize political opponents as the devil incarnate when they, like us are bearers of God’s image whom we are called to love and pray for, and we are just as capable of the pride and narcissism we criticize in them. And just on a human level, when Donald Trump Jr.’s daughter Kai spoke about how her grandpa gives the grandkids candy and soda when their parents aren’t looking and loved to hear how they were doing in school, it softened my heart a little, not enough to believe he should be our next president, but enough to realize that while most of us only know him from a distance, to some he is Dad or Grandpa, and I cannot imagine how difficult it would have been to have to grieve the loss of your dad or Grandpa with the whole world watching, and a few on social media no doubt taking partisan politics way too far by celebrating his death. I wouldn’t wish this kind of trauma on any family, especially innocent grandchildren like Kai. But to say that God spared Donald Trump for a reason is unbiblical.

Due to his common grace, God allows sun to shine, and rain to fall, on righteous and unrighteous alike (Matthew 5:45). In our context, you could say God allows cancer, car accidents, gun violence to befall righteous and unrighteous alike, and therefore according to Philip Yancey, we should never presume anything about the righteousness of the people involved when say, an earthquake in South America kills a lower percentage of Christians compared to the rest of the population. Given this theological reality, the statement that God spared Donald Trump for a reason is incredibly offensive in its disrespect and dismissiveness toward Corey Comperatore’s grieving family.

But this argument is also flawed because in reality, there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10). In the context of Matthew 5:45, Jesus is referring to those who have accepted Him as righteous, which theologically speaking, they are because we are saved by faith alone. But sanctification is a lifelong process, and thus, I don’t know about you, but I am always grateful when I am given one more day to try and do better, be a little kinder to my parents, a little more patient with difficult situations at work, a little less envious of other people’s lives. But if my acceptance of Christ could serve as a sort of vaccine that would forever prevent hardship from befalling me in this life, this sanctification would be stunted. I would become complacent, take life for granted, become entitled in the sense that I would see no higher purpose to life than pursuing comfort and pleasure and ultimately, decide I can get along just fine without God. That is why God does not interfere with the laws of nature, or human free will, thus allowing suffering to impact righteous and unrighteous alike (Luke 13:1-5). Put another way, catastrophe “joins together victim and bystander in a call to repentance, by abruptly reminding us of the brevity of life” (Where is God When It Hurts, Philip Yancey page 84). As a baby, I survived a brain tumor which damaged my optic nerve, which is why I am blind. The tumor also damaged my pituitary and this means that occasionally, my electrolytes get off-balance, especially if I catch a stomach bug. Of course, I don’t remember the three surgeries required to treat the tumor itself, or the touch-and-go recovery process after each. But this experience brought the fragility of life into sharper focus for my parents. Then during my 20s, I had to go to the emergency room 3 separate times for aforementioned electrolyte imbalances, which brought the fragility of life into my awareness, and into sharper focus for my parents again. After each of these incidents, I came away with renewed gratitude and appreciation for the little things, like gathering around the dinner table with my parents, savoring the smell of fresh Spring air, or singing along to a beautiful song. The scariest of these experiences was the seizure in 2017 due to low sodium. When I came home from the hospital after that experience, I had what I can only describe as a sort of born-again sensation. A sense of contentment and peace seemed to surround me as I went about my work, and certain things that used to upset me like office drama, I realized just don’t ultimately matter. Instead of getting emotionally invested in the drama, I found I could just smile and go about my work, letting the office drama just swirl around me like meaningless background noise.

The whole nation has been a bystander to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump last Saturday, and many did recognize it as a call to repentance, a recognition that united we stand, divided and polarized we fall, and therefore we need to tone down the rhetoric. Christianity is all about redemption and second chances, and as such, I, like Skye Jethani, a host of The Holy Post podcast, hoped that this incident would serve as a “road to Damascus” moment for Donald Trump, where he, similar to the apostle Paul, might repent for his contribution to the violent rhetoric that led to the incident, take responsibility for the crimes he has committed and make amends to the people he has hurt over his lifetime from the women he sexually assaulted, to the people he cheated in his real estate deals, to the children separated from their parents at the border to the whole country with the “big lie” and the insurrection on January 6, 2021. But judging by his abandonment of the unity speech on the teleprompter in favor of his usual hate-filled tangents, and his ungracious response to Biden’s wrenching decision to withdraw from the race, it is becoming painfully evident that the assassination attempt against him didn’t change him at all. I will grant that with the passage of time, the vividness of God’s grace in keeping you alive can fade, and with it, the appreciation for the fragility of life. In the years since my seizure, I have gotten into a couple bitter arguments with my parents, ironically, over their anxiety about letting me stay home alone because had I been home alone on the occasions my electrolytes got off-balance, I might not have survived. We have come to a compromise where they will let me stay home alone when they occasionally go out of town as long as I promise to keep my phone with me at all times, answer it when they call, and consent to a Ring “spy camera” in the kitchen so they can monitor from a distance if I don’t look well. But my distaste for gossip and drama, as well as shallow television shows that have no socially redeeming value, has stuck with me to this day. So the absence of any noticeable spiritual fruit even in the immediate afterglow of realizing he survived an assassination attempt, is chilling to me.

Donald Trump and proponents of Christian Nationalism did make one theologically correct statement. It is by the grace of God that Donald Trump survived. But sadly, both have a warped understanding of what grace actually means. Since God does not interfere with the laws of nature or human free will, allowing suffering to impact righteous and unrighteous alike, any time someone survives an incident that took the lives of others, it is a blessing that is undeserved, the very definition of grace. But instead of being humbled by this grace from God, it has made Donald Trump, and the proponents of Christian Nationalism who support him more arrogant. If proponents of Christian Nationalism were sincerely interested in true Christianity, they would have viewed Donald Trump’s survival as an opportunity to administer much-needed spiritual care, helping him turn toward God and repent for the behavior that led to this incident, and our country’s polarization in general. Instead, they have reinforced the arrogant notion that God saved Donald Trump for a reason: God is on America’s side, and He has ordained Donald Trump to “make America great again!” And in this way, it would seem human nature hasn’t progressed at all from the Ancient Near East, the cultural context in which the Old Testament was written, when kings were allowed to believe they were God.

That Reminds me of a Song: Just a few days after the hospitalization for my seizure in 2017, I was watching Last Man Standing—a cute sitcom that is no longer on the air—with my parents. In this particular episode, there was a church scene, and in the background, they played Put Your Hand in the Hand, by Ocean. It has a definite 1970s sound, like something that might have been performed at Woodstock. Something about this song struck my born-again brain as particularly beautiful, and I couldn’t stop singing it for days. I didn’t fully realize it then, but looking back, I think it resonated with me because it is all about the importance of humility, and appreciating the peace and grace Christ offers when we put our hand in His hand. In these tumultuous times, that is what we all need to do.