Why I'm Not Celebrating Trump's Victory

"Photo: Christian Holmér"

Eight years ago today I wrote a post entitled "Barack Obama is My President" that generated a little controversy from some of my (much) more conservative friends. But it articulated my thoughts on the election of 2008 as best I could, expressing my mixed emotions. It's not a long post so I'd love for you to read it before reading the rest of this one. Go ahead, I'll wait for you......

http://www.oversquozen.com/2008/11/barack-obama-is-my-president.html

Finished? OK, let me revisit a couple of things I shared there. At one point I said, "I think it speaks well for our country to that we did not make a choice based solely on the color of his skin. That encourages me." I still stand by that today. While I did not support candidate Obama based on his platform, I did NOT oppose him based on his race. In fact, I'm proud that America elected an African American president! I just wish it had been a conservative one, like Thomas Sewell, J.C. Watts, Allen West, Condolleeza Rice or Dr. Ben Carson! My opposition was strictly to President Obama's policies. But I'm still proud that our country elected a minority to the highest office in the land. However, that leads me to my next point.....

I went on in that same post to say this:

I remain seriously concerned about the planks in the Democratic Party platform that oppose the values and morals of a world-view that is based in Biblical teachings. Will life be cherished? Will the sanctity of marriage be upheld? Will secular humanism be the promoted religion of our land? These are questions and concerns that only time will reveal the answer.

Unfortunately, time revealed answers that were more troubling than the questions asked. Elective abortion is still legal, and championed, even up to just moments before birth. The sanctity of marriage was certainly trodden under foot. "Gender identity" has become a choice rather than a determination by the creator. Our country has gone so far down a path towards "self determination" (aka, secular humanism") that I don't know if we will ever return to a "firm reliance on the protection of divine providence" (source: Declaration of Independence).

So why am I not celebrating Trump's victory? Since he ran on a platform of life, sanctity of marriage, pro-Israel, religious freedoms, etc, shouldn't I be rejoicing? Perhaps I should. But I simply cannot.

First of all, this election was so divisive and hurtful that some people are literally afraid today because "their side" lost. It's almost as if we have endured a civil war and the wounds are so deep that we need another Abraham Lincoln to proclaim "malice toward none, ...charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, ..." Will there be healing in our land? Or will hate divide and conquer us so that we devour ourselves? For this reason I cannot celebrate when many of my friends in minority communities feel marginalized and less than human today. Because they matter to me.

But the main reason I'm not celebrating is that Trump's victory has NOTHING to do with where my main citizenship lies. I am a citizen of heaven first, and regardless of who is president or king or Caesar or emperor, JESUS IS MY LORD! Presidents come and go, but the Kingdom of Heaven is eternal. I've chosen to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Mat 6:33), not the kingdom of a political party.

Yes, I want traditional values to be championed. I want unborn children to be as safe in their mother's wombs as they are in their mother's arms. I want marriage to be celebrated as God's idea for a man and a woman to represent Jesus and His bride, the Church. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem and want my nation to stand with her. And I hope that our nation will return to those values. But it will take more than a flawed president to make that happen. It will take revival in our hearts. And loving each other, just as Jesus said.

I pray that we will start talking to each other, and more importantly, listening to each other! Hear the pain, hear the fear, hear the hurt and the cry of the heart that feels threatened by the outcome of this election. And as you listen, pray - for them and for yourself, that you can part of God's healing. Pray that more souls will be brought into the Kingdom of God through your life and testimony. That will give you reason to celebrate things that really matter for eternity!