Viewing the US Elections through a Christian Lens

 Donald Trump’s election victory on 5 November 2024 has set many tongues a-wagging, including many belonging to Christians. There are those who are overly angry about his re-election, like this fellow, ‘Bishop’ Talbert Swan of Massachusetts:

‘“The election of Donald Trump threatens the hard-won rights of marginalized communities. Under his leadership, we risk seeing setbacks for black Americans, immigrants, women, and the disabled as he empowers policies rooted in bigotry and exclusion,” he wrote on X.’

No doubt he would make for pleasant company over a cup of tea. But we digress.

There are also those who are a little over-elated over Trump’s win, like these folks:

‘Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump praised God after the election, belting out the hymn “How Great Thou Art” after Trump’s historic victory.

‘“Witnessing this as I left the Trump victory party moved me to tears,” conservative commentator Lisa Boothe, host of The Truth with Lisa Boothe, said, sharing a video to social media showing Trump supporters coming together, belting out the hymn in unison.’

A Protestant pastor in Texas, Josh Howerton, however, hit many of the right notes in what he said:

‘Give thanks. Our nation was given an undeserved mercy last night, and it is a window for repentance (more on that later). No Christian anywhere should’ve supported the policy platform that was (mercifully) defeated last night and saying that should never have been controversial. In fact, it should prompt *deep* reflection about what happened to the US church in the last ~20 years that made it controversial for a pastor to say that. It is not wrong to celebrate and give thanks today for being spared from something our rebellious nation deserved. If you have kids, they need to see you celebrate because it trains their hearts! “When wicked things perish, there are shouts of joy” — Prov 11:10

‘ . . . Pray. Not only because we are commanded to pray for our governing leaders (1 Tim 2:1), but because of the situation. We elected Jehu (a flawed leader who defeated a greater evil) not Josiah (a righteous leader who led national revival), and that comes with risks. The command to “trust not in princes” (Psalm 146:3) means there is Someone 10 trillion times greater than a President and something 10 billion times greater than an election that we should ache and hunger for — an outpouring of the Spirit in our generation.’

As Pastor Josh hinted at, Trump’s victory is a reprieve from the acceleration of the demonic anti-human agenda that seeks to erase the image of God in man, and basically anything related to good traditions, through transgenderism and other horrific acts.

So far, so good. On the surface, Trump’s victory looks positive for Christians. However, when one delves deeper, problems begin to show themselves, and not only with Mr Trump, who was not the only one on the ballot on 5 November.

Pepe Escobar reveals one of the chief problems with Trump – his alliance with the Zionist war-mongers:

‘As for the bulk of the Global Majority, it harbors no illusions. Trumpquake’s coded message is that the Zionist lobby wins – again.’

And friendship with these fanatics brings with it the likelihood of appointments of them to high office, men like the detestable Mike Pompeo. Once more from Mr Escobar:

‘All that brings us to a supremely nefarious character, Tony Soprano wannabe Mike Pompeo, who is a serious candidate to become head of the Pentagon. That would spell major trouble ahead. Pompeo was CIA director and Secretary of State under Trump 1.0. He is an uber-hawk on Russia, China and especially Iran.

‘Arguably the pressing question from now on is whether Trump – whose life was spared by God, in his own interpretation – does what is expected of him by his uber-wealthy donors, appoints Pompeo and similar gangsters for key posts, and invests on Israel’s war against Iran and the Axis of Resistance.

‘If that’s the case, he won’t have to worry about another failed sniper. But if he really tries to run his own independent game, there’s no question he will be a dead man walking.’

Pompeo, let us recall, was one of the key figures in creating the schism in the Ukraine amongst the Orthodox Christians there, a spiritual act of war which helped pave the way for the physical war that erupted shortly thereafter.

Beyond Trump, there are other troubling signs for Christians coming out of the elections:

-The State of Delaware elected the first transgender member to the US Congress.

-Of the ten States that had abortion measures on the ballot, a majority of voters in seven of them voted in favor of expanding abortion ‘rights’. Some of those States were the same ones who also voted to elect Trump.

-Mr Trump has himself been more vocal about protecting abortion ‘rights’ for women, and his wife Melania went even further, proclaiming in a book she wrote her full support for women’s untrammeled access to baby-murder services.

-A majority in the State of California voted to demolish the traditional view of marriage.

The 2024 elections in the US are a thus a mix of good and bad: Trump’s election brings with it many positive things, but also some serious negatives. Also, the general direction of the States is not in a Christian direction.

This is not unexpected: It is nothing more than the States fulfilling their anti-Christian telos as annunciated by the proponents of Americanism from George Washington to Donald Trump – to be a place where freedom in its pure and pristine form is to be worshipped and adored: ‘And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people’ (First Inaugural Address of President Washington, 30 April 1789).

Contrast that with the way an Orthodox country like Russia views her reason for being. The Holy New Martyr John Vostorgov (+1918) explains, in a sermon from 1908 on the Feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. He first details the failures of the West, the same failures that continue in the United States today:

‘When our ancestors, at the dawn of their historical statehood, were enlightened by the Christian faith, Western Europe had long been Christian. But the truth of Christianity had gradually been obscured there by human rational thinking and institutions. The Church of Christ was becoming worldly, and in the errors of the Roman popes—who reached for the sword and the crown, for the splendor of the earthly power of ancient and proud Rome—the Kingdom of God and Heavenly was increasingly turning into an earthly and human kingdom.’

The holy martyr then states the mission of baptized Russia:

‘At this late hour in history, the Lord raised up a new lamp of the right faith in the far north, in the young Russian principality, among the Russian people—a people young, gifted, full of strength and energy. Divine Providence, calling us, the Russian Slavs of Central Europe, into the fold of the Church of Christ, pointed to our country’s unique geographical position at the border of Europe and Asia, West and East, and to its ethnic makeup, to assign us a great task: to carry the precious treasure of pure and true faith to the little-known East and North of Europe, and beyond, into the then-unknown and mysterious lands bordering Asia; to fight the darkness of paganism and spreading Islam, to enlighten the many wild tribes of alien peoples, and to bring them into participation in the Kingdom of God and the life of enlightened humanity.’

This is the antithesis of the American mission. In Russia and other Orthodox countries, the Church is at the center of national life, giving to it form and direction. Not so in the 50 States. For them Christianity, and religion in general, is a peripheral issue, something to be considered and judged (and possibly rejected) by each individual as to whether it helps or hinders his quest to acquire ‘the sacred fire of liberty’.

But the Orthodox, who do not disdain freedom, realize that it is rather the acquisition of the Sacred Fire of the Holy Spirit that is the goal of human life, not an unhindered freedom of action. The ever-memorable St Seraphim of Sarov (+1833), says of this:

‘And this same fire-infusing grace of the Holy Spirit which is given to us all, the faithful in Christ, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, is sealed by the Sacrament of Chrismation on the chief parts of our body as appointed by the Holy Church, the eternal keeper of this grace. . . . But what on earth can be higher and what can be more precious than the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are sent down to us from above in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism?’

And again, even more forcefully,

‘However prayer, fasting, vigil and all the other Christian practices may be, they do not constitute the aim of our Christian life. Although it is true that they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end, the true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.’

One can summarize this key difference between the US and Orthodox countries this way – the former sees Christianity as only a means to an end, that end being individual freedom and a parliamentary system of government; they subordinate Christianity to the function of a tool. The latter see Christianity (i.e., salvation in Christ through the Orthodox Church) as the end itself of man/society and all else is a means to attaining that end (including governments of any and all kinds).

Many people in the States and around the world are breathing a sigh of relief over Trump’s election. Yet electing post-liberal/illiberal strongmen like Donald Trump will only help the peoples of the States so much. The underlying ideology of the American experiment remains their main problem. Until they overcome their idolatrous obsession with individual liberty, and their denigration of Christianity (particularly the Orthodox Church), they will continue to slide inexorably into disorder and decline.

And they will drag as much of the world as possible down with them as they go.