How to Use Your Donald Trump Vote to Evangelize Your Friends and Family
That’s correct. Donald Trump is an evangelism strategy, if you’re brave enough to attempt it. But, it’s like using a new stink bait for a different species in a pond you’ve never fished before. And it’s just crazy enough to work, if you try it.
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The general consensus among evangelicals is that our support for Donald Trump should be quieted, perhaps not mentioned, and if mentioned, certainly not in the context of our faith.
The reasons for this consensus is multi-tiered. First, are Donald Trump’s moral imperfections. And by moral imperfections, I mean his history of personal immorality that include serial marrying, confirmed extra marital affairs, self-vanity that pretty evidently crosses at some point into sin, and his admission he’s never asked forgiveness. I’m certainly not referring to claims of r@pe, sexual assault, 34 felony convictions, or any other manufactured attempts by his political opponents or grifting harlots to stop his political ambitions.
The second reason for this consensus is the general notion that Christians have to be likable to win over non-Christians, and politics are an unnecessary stumbling block that scares lost people away. This, of course, is only half true (it’s true for Democrats). It’s not true for lost Republicans, who are quite comfortable with us explaining to them why our worldview and theirs has such overlap and similarities.
The third reason for this consensus has nothing to do with evangelism, and everything to do with pastors not trying to keep lost people happy, but trying to keep pew-sitters happy who may or may not like their pastors dabbling in the political.
With my supposition that the above-mentioned consensus is entirely wrong, and that we are failing to use Trump as a springboard to talk about our faith with those most likely not to scream at us we’re at the wrong rally, and that it’s not really different from any other common evangelism strategy.
I’ve sat through more NAMB church planting trainings than I wanted, listening to church planters wax eloquent about their SBC-approved grift of bilking grandma’s tithe money to focus on “reaching their tribe.” These include outdoorsy pastors whose church doesn’t have church on Sunday because “we don’t want to force people to choose between their outdoor recreational activities and God.” These include a pastor receiving NAMB funds to “minister” to his childrens’ weekend traveling sports teams by – and I kid you not – “showing the love of Jesus by sweeping the gym floors.” There’s cowboy churches and Indian churches (I’m unaware if the two groups fight) and biker churches, and everything in between. These are done in the name of “reaching your tribe.”
Do you know what bridges the gap between cowboys and Indians, bikers and outdoorsmen, athletes and little old ladies?
Jesus and Donald Trump.
No, hear me out. Evangelism 101 says to find a mutual shared interest, and use it as a springboard to talk about Christ. For this reason, about a million young Christian men (I’m rounding down) got Bible verse tattoos circa 2005-2015. You know, because people with tattoos will be like, “Yo, bro. Mad wild tat. Is that Chinese?” And then you can be like, “Nah, holmes. That’s Hebrew,” and then talk about Mark Driscoll.
Those are caricatures – real ones – of what is actually a pretty respectable and time-tested, Bible-approved methodology to share Christ. It’s called, and hear me out…conversation.
Do you know who my tribe is? It’s hillbillies who drive pickup trucks and have Trump bumperstickers and wear their good camouflage to weddings.
Maybe you’re different. Feel free to phase out. But for about half (a little more than that) of Americans have their political choice in common. That’s the single largest affinity group in the United States. It’s larger than any religious affiliation. It’s larger than a coalition of any single sport or hobby. It’s massive, and Christians are standing around going, “That’s the one thing you best not talk about because it might scare people off.”
The interaction, should you attempt it, explains the following:
You believe, for some reason, killing babies for the sake of convenience is wrong. Or, for other reasons. If wanted to kill a baby because the unborn child was a girl, or even gay, you would oppose that. Why do you think that? Let me tell you why I think that.
You believe, for some reason, people who have made their sexual fetish into a personality, shouldn’t be dressing up in drag to invite kids to sit on their lap. Why do you think that? Let me tell you why I think that.
You believe, for some reason, gender doesn’t change by the power of your imagination. Why do you think that? Let me tell you why I think that.
You believe, for some reason, government doesn’t have the power to control the weather. Why do you think that? Let me tell you why I think that.
You believe, for some reason, the problem with government is that it is corrupt, because people are naturally corrupt. Why do you think that? Let me tell you why I think that.
You believe, for some reason, the government can’t fix all your problems. Why do you think that? Let me tell you why I think that.
This is standard evangelism. The goal of this is not merely to explain what the Bible says about these things, so don’t stop there. Bring it home, baby.
The next place you go in conversation is, “You know, this is interesting. All of your beliefs, which you hold to intuitively, align pretty perfectly with a Biblical worldview. It seems that what the Bible says is true, and you’ve already noticed this about a lot of things. Why do you think that? Let me tell you why I think that.
The answer, of course, is that God has given men the light of General Revelation (that which can be known about God, that his been made known, by the things God has made – Romans 1:19-20). Common sense, logic, human reasoning, observation of nature are all things God has provided to proclaim to the world things about God without a Bible.
However, General Revelation cannot save by itself. It requires Special Revelation (Scripture) to point people directly Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of mankind. That’s your job. You point out they already grasp many things about God that have been made known to them, but they need to personally know Jesus from what the Bible says about him.
I hope you’ve found this helpful, and tomorrow we’ll explain how to use Donald Trump to evangelize Democrats. Lol, yeah. We’re going to go all the way on this, and you’ll want to stay tuned.
[Editor’s Note: This article is republished from JD Hall’s substack, which you can subscribe to here]
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