Trump Aftershock

WHAT ARE WE to make of all the changes taking place in the world today? We’re in the midst of a cultural revolution, and it’s no secret that traditional moral values are taking a beating. Looking at the landscape of the past ten to twenty years, and the mounting toll of crimes and crises that fill the daily headlines, it’s hard to ignore the feeling that maybe we’ve gone too far. The culture has drifted way out of bounds and out of control. The hate-filled rhetoric and threats of physical violence coming from the Left reveal just how deeply divided we are as a nation—so divided there seems to be little hope of ever reaching agreement on what’s to be done about it.

As I wrote shortly after the publication of my book God and Donald Trump, few people outside the four walls of a church pay much attention to what God is doing in the world. To them, “acts of God” are what people call tornadoes and hurricanes. But is it possible God has a plan for this nation? Is it possible He has a plan for His people? In that book I cited several examples of individuals who felt Trump’s election was a sign we were being given a second chance.

To put these things in context, perhaps it’s worth noting that all is not well in the church today. Not only are there divisions between denominations, but there are intense disagreements over the forms of worship, the music, the structure and order of service, the liturgy, the preparation and role of the clergy, and, not least, over doctrinal integrity. Some churches are more like country clubs where vice is tolerated and old-fashioned evangelism is virtually forbidden. Others, offering bigger, louder, flashier, less-threatening services, have discarded two thousand years of church history to be more “relevant” to the unchurched and otherwise disinterested. Needless to say, such disagreements pose a lethal threat to the community of believers.

Prophetic passages of Scripture, such as the Old Testament Book of Amos and the New Testament Book of 2 Timothy, warn of a falling away in the latter days and a shaking of the church that can lead either to devastation or revival, depending on how the people respond. This nation was founded on Christian principles, and we were led for generations by men and women of exceptional character and moral integrity. But in light of the falling away and the infighting among the faithful, we have to wonder if the church can still make a difference in people’s lives. Or is the faith of our fathers so fractured that our moral heritage is becoming irrelevant?

I’ve made the case that Donald Trump won the evangelical vote by the largest margin in history because Christians believed he alone had the leadership skills and persistence to reverse the death spiral the nation is in. He is not a theologian or even an Evangelical, but whenever he has expressed concern about the moral decline in America, he has been lampooned by the media as a hypocrite and a bigot. Meanwhile, men and women on the left are marching in the streets for abortion on demand and celebrating the right to take the life of an unborn child up to the moment of birth. They’re glad same-sex marriage was validated by the Supreme Court and that marijuana is being legalized in state after state. And when it comes to old-fashioned morality, the mantra of the secular culture is simply “anything goes.”¹ This too is a sign of biblical judgment.

But most Americans recognize the problems. You don’t need to be religious to perceive that something is wrong with the way the country has been going. Two years into his presidency, many on both sides are still shocked that Trump won the election, but they’re impressed by what he has managed to accomplish in such a short time—not only with the economy but in the courts, the culture, foreign policy, and the overall sense of well-being. While disappointed Democrats are still raging about the election and doing their best to disrupt his agenda, for many Americans it feels as if we’ve been given a reprieve.

Considering the magnitude of the shock wave that struck the nation in the 2016 election, millions today feel as if Donald Trump’s inauguration was actually a turning point in history. The political world was turned upside down; the agenda of the Left was disrupted, perhaps permanently. Suddenly, rather than a president who defended third-world nations against America and declared on June 28, 2006, that “we are no longer a Christian nation,”² we have a president who has promised to restore our national heritage and take a strong stand for religious freedom. People of faith are happy to know he has our backs and that he will be using his bully pulpit and the authority of his office to defend religious liberty. But we are wise enough to know the struggle has only just begun.

Donald Trump’s commitment to America’s heritage of faith was immediately visible on his Inauguration Day, when the president and First Lady attended a service at St. John’s Episcopal Church. Every sitting US president since James Madison has attended a service at St. John’s at least once. A crowd of fifty or sixty people gathered at the corner of Sixteenth and I Streets hoping to catch a glimpse of President Trump and Melania as they arrived. The first couple was greeted with shouts of “Trump! Trump! Trump!” as the entourage and a small group of religious leaders and guests made their way into the church. Farther away small groups of millennials and protesters cluttered the streets and security gates to “make a statement,” carrying signs that said “Not My President.” But inside the sanctuary it was a different story.

The sermon the president heard on that occasion was given by Dr. Robert Jeffress of Dallas’ First Baptist Church, who had supported the president throughout the campaign. Jeffress said in part:

Drawing on the Old Testament story of Nehemiah, who was called by God to rebuild the broken-down walls of Jerusalem, Jeffress counseled the president to remain strong, like Nehemiah, in the face of resistance and seemingly insurmountable obstacles. At one point Nehemiah’s adversaries called out to him, “You need to stop the project and come down from the wall and have a meeting with us.” But, Jeffress said, “Nehemiah’s response was classic: ‘I’m doing a great work … why should I stop the work and come down to you?’”⁴

Then Jeffress continued, “President-elect Trump, you, Vice President-elect Pence, and your team have been called by God and elected by the people to do a great work. It is a work far too important to stop and answer your critics.” Drawing to a close, he said:

Pastor Jeffress went on to say that the same God who empowered Nehemiah nearly twenty-five hundred years ago is available today to all who are willing to humble themselves and ask the Lord for His help. He added, “When President Ronald Reagan addressed the Republican National Convention in my city of Dallas in 1984, he said, ‘America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are “one nation under God,” then we will be a nation gone under.’”⁶

The day after the inauguration, the presidential entourage made the short drive to Washington National Cathedral for a ceremonial interfaith prayer service, which has been a tradition for new presidents ever since the inauguration of George Washington in 1789. Trump did not speak at the service but sat quietly in the front pew, with his children and grandchildren seated behind him, and followed along with the program, closing his eyes in prayer and meditation for lengthy periods of time as each of the religious leaders offered a prayer or a reading.

Some parishioners of the mostly liberal northwest DC congregation had expressed their disapproval of hosting a prayer service for Trump and Pence, but the president nevertheless greeted those in attendance warmly and listened respectfully as more than twenty-five faith leaders from many religious traditions offered prayers and brief readings in honor of the occasion. Among the speakers, my friend Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland, who serves with the president’s Faith Leaders Initiative, prayed that God would grant the new president and his administration “wisdom and grace in the exercise of their duties.” And he prayed that President Trump would be able to “serve all people of this nation and promote the dignity and freedom of every person.”⁷

Throughout the campaign Trump said he was committed to supporting religious liberty and defending the rights of Christians who are being persecuted around the world. During a Fox & Friends interview on January 21, 2018, Rev. Franklin Graham was asked for his reaction to the president after his first year in office, to which Graham responded, “He defends the Christian faith more than any president in my lifetime.” The son of the late Rev. Billy Graham expressed admiration for President Trump and said, “I’m just grateful to the president. I find him to be an honest person.”⁸

Concerning the president’s support for issues of faith, Graham said, “I find him to be a person who is concerned about the religious freedoms of Americans, but not just us here in this country. But he’s concerned about the religious freedom of people in other countries.” He went on to say, “I applaud what he has done this first year, even though he has been attacked since day one. The Left is trying to destroy this man. It’s almost like we’re in the middle of a digital coup. And that’s what it is, it’s a digital coup d’état. They are wanting to force him out of office. They want to take control of our government. We need to pray for this man…. If [President Trump] succeeds, we all succeed.” He added, “If he fails, we all fail.”⁹

A legislative measure brought to the president’s attention early in his campaign was the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), which was written to defend the rights of religious believers to practice their faith without undue restraint. It was sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee, with 37 cosponsors in the Senate, and Rep. Raul Labrador, with 171 cosponsors in the House.

The media and LGBT community reacted with alarm, but when asked if he would support the bill, Trump said, “If I am elected president and Congress passes the FADA, I will sign it to protect the deeply held religious beliefs of Catholics and the beliefs of Americans of all faiths.”¹⁰ It remains to be seen whether the FADA legislation will survive in Congress, with partisans on both sides currently lined up to debate the issues. The arguments pro and con are predictable, but regardless of how the legislation fares in the Senate, this is an issue that isn’t going away anytime soon. The problem is simply too big to ignore.

But Trump’s promise of support couldn’t change the minds of his die-hard critics, including many outspoken opponents within the faith community. Ever since he announced his candidacy in 2015, religious leaders of all persuasions had been taking potshots at Trump, calling him everything but a gentleman. The liberal Huffington Post published a list of Evangelicals who were “firmly against Trump” at the time, including the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Russell Moore; former president Jimmy Carter; former George W. Bush speechwriter Peter Wehner; Sojourners founder Jim Wallis; the celebrated author and evangelical pastor Max Lucado, and a couple of others.¹¹

During an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), Moore could hardly disguise his animosity for the president. He said Donald Trump is “changing the moral character of people” and claimed Trump’s supporters “had to excuse things that they’ve never had to excuse before.” Too many Christians have been “scared silent,” he said, and don’t speak up.¹² On another occasion, Moore said that anyone who supports Donald Trump is guilty of serious error. “The religious Right,” he added, “turns out to be the people the religious Right warned us about.”¹³ Not everyone in his denomination agreed with Moore or appreciated his remarks, but the liberal media couldn’t get enough of the apparent split among evangelical leaders.

Wehner, a senior fellow at Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, excoriated Trump in several columns in the New York Times, even comparing him to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who influenced Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Trump’s philosophy, Wehner said, prioritizes strength and power over concern for the poor and powerless. He added that his bullying of adversaries and his lack of compassion represent a worldview that is “incompatible with Christianity.” And he said that “in rallying around Mr. Trump, evangelicals have walked into the trap.”¹⁴

These were the sorts of attacks that would bring joy to embittered Democratic voters, seeing the faithful turning against their own kind. Wehner criticized Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, who heaped praise on Trump during the campaign and said on one occasion that he believes “Donald Trump is God’s man to lead our nation.” At the same time, Wehner said, Eric Metaxas, the Christian author of popular biographies of William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “rhapsodized about Mr. Trump and argued that Christians ‘must’ vote for him because he is ‘the last best hope of keeping America from sliding into oblivion.’” He also decried Pastor Robert Jeffress for saying that “any Christian who would sit at home and not vote for the Republican nominee” is “motivated by pride rather than principle.”¹⁵

For Max Lucado, the issue of concern was apparently that Trump doesn’t sound like a Christian. “I’m a pastor,” he said in a blog, a version of which was published in the Washington Post. “I don’t endorse candidates or place bumper stickers on my car. But I am protective of the Christian faith,” he said. “If a public personality calls on Christ one day and calls someone a ‘bimbo’ the next, is something not awry? And to do so, not once, but repeatedly, unrepentantly and unapologetically? Can we not expect a tone that would set a good example for our children?

“We stand against bullying in schools,” Lucado said. “Shouldn’t we do the same in presidential politics?” He added, “When it comes to language, Mr. Trump inhabits a league of his own. Some of my friends tell me that his language is a virtue. But I respectfully part company with my Christian colleagues who chalk up his abrasive nature to candor.”¹⁶ This was just the kind of feedback the Never Trumpers and the liberal media were dying to hear.

During an interview by Scott Ross on CBN’s 700 Club on June 21, 2018, Anne Graham Lotz, Billy Graham’s daughter and Franklin Graham’s sister, agreed that Trump’s choice of words isn’t always what she and other Christians would prefer to hear. “I know we have issues with the way he expresses himself,” she said. “But his policies have been stunningly supportive of biblical values. Right now he has my applause and my prayers … because I think he’s in a very dangerous place, you can feel the enemy trying to tear him to shreds, including his policies that have taken a stand on biblical values.”¹⁷

Speaking about the drift away from the Christian faith in many parts of the nation today, Ross asked, “Have we lost our fear of God?” Lotz responded, “Yes, yes. We have, within the church and outside the church. It’s stunning. You know, we live our lives as though He’s not holy, as though He’s not almighty, as though He’s not pure…. And fear of God is just that. It’s being afraid of God in a healthy sense. So that keeps us from sin, it keeps us right before Him.

“Just like my father,” she said. “I was, in a sense as a girl growing up, afraid of my father. I wouldn’t have done anything to displease him.” Then she said, “I wouldn’t have wanted to hurt him or disappoint him or make him cross. And so a fear of God is rooted in love for God. But you don’t want to hurt Him. You don’t want to displease Him. And then there’s a reverence. You know, God is God and we are we. And that’s a big difference.”¹⁸

Addressing the apparent lack of faith in the younger generation, Lotz said she felt that part of the problem is that “Christian parents have not passed on the truth that leads to faith to their children. Maybe we left it up to the churches or to the professionals and we didn’t do it ourselves,” she said. “But something is disconnected because instead of the nation getting better, we’ve gotten worse. We’ve gotten farther away from God’s Word. And it could be that, in response to what my father did, talking about spiritual warfare, [the devil has] just come in like a flood to try to undo any impact from my father’s ministry or other people’s ministries or the church. But we know in the end that we’ll be triumphant.”¹⁹

I remember watching Billy Graham’s funeral on television and the moving eulogies each of his children gave. I especially remember the powerful words Lotz spoke that day, emphasizing that she felt the date her father died was strategic from heaven’s point of view. She said, “February 21, 2018 is the day when Jews focused on scripture reading that focuses on the death of Moses. Moses was the great liberator. He brought people, millions of people, out of bondage to slavery, got them to the edge of the Promised Land, and God took him to heaven, and then God brought Joshua to lead them into the Promised Land to take them home.”²⁰

She went on to explain, “My father also is a great liberator. He brought millions of people out of bondage to sin, and he gets us to the edge of heaven, the edge of the promised land, and then God has called him home.” She then challenged those listening: “Could it be that God is going to bring Joshua to lead us into the promised land to lead us to heaven, and do you know what the New Testament name is for Joshua? It’s Jesus, and I believe this is a shot across the bow from heaven. And I believe God is saying, ‘Wake up, church! Wake up, world! Wake up, Anne! Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming.’”²¹

In the CBN interview Ross followed up on the discussion of Lotz’s famous father, asking, “Was he disappointed about the way things have been going in America or in the world?” She said she has seen the impact of her father’s preaching all over the world. Lives have been changed, millions came to faith, and many of those people are in ministry today. Their lives are better, she added, “but the impact on our nation, you know, something’s missing, isn’t it?”²²

Coming from the world of business and real estate development, Donald Trump was not familiar with the language and customs of the evangelical community when he came to the White House. Although he had been a close friend and supporter of the late Dr. Norman Vincent Peale in New York and attended services at Marble Collegiate Church, he was suddenly being exposed to a different perspective and a different kind of religious experience. But through his friendship with evangelical leaders such as Paula White Cain, James Robison, Robert Jeffress, and a few others, he was gaining a deeper appreciation for the concerns of the millions of evangelical voters who gave him the critical margin of victory.

Very early in his administration the president began assembling an advisory board of faith leaders with whom he could meet from time to time and who would be available by telephone to offer insight on issues of concern to the churches. Then, in mid-July 2017, he invited a group of two dozen evangelical leaders to meet with him in the Oval Office for a few minutes before a daylong listening session with the Office of Public Liaison (OPL). As reported by CBN, the group discussed a wide variety of issues with the OPL, focusing especially on religious liberty, criminal justice reform, and America’s support for the nation of Israel.²³

Among the leaders in attendance were Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council; Paula White Cain of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida; former congresswoman Michele Bachmann; Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition; Gary Bauer of American Values; Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas; Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas; Jim Garlow of Skyline Church in La Mesa, California; Rodney Howard-Browne of the River at Tampa Bay Church; Mike Evans, founder of Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem; and Richard Land of the Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte.

The meeting had been arranged by a special assistant to the president and included a prayer time, to which, as several members of the group reported, the president was exceptionally receptive. Afterward Perkins told friends and supporters of his organization that the Trump administration was “genuinely interested and responsive to the concerns of the evangelical community.” After fourteen years in Washington, he said, “I am more optimistic that we can change the course of this country.”²⁴

Tony Suarez, executive vice president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said he had been concerned about the lack of action from Washington on immigration reform but said, “I don’t blame the White House. I blame Congress.” He added that the meeting with Trump was relaxed and unhurried, “like friends getting together.”²⁵ It’s true, the president has been a friend to the Christian community. My friend, former congressman Bob McEwen, who serves as executive director of the Council for National Policy, told a group of politically active Christians at a meeting I attended in Washington a year into Trump’s first term that if you can’t “see God’s hand on Donald Trump, you are deaf, dumb, and blind.”²⁶ At this point in his presidency a majority of Christians and like-minded conservatives would likely agree.

One of the reasons I wrote the book God and Donald Trump was to take a closer look at the phenomenon that took place in the 2016 election. How was it possible, I wondered, that Donald Trump was able to win such a stunning victory when the media, the polls, and the entire political establishment were against him? As it turns out, it wasn’t because the Russians hacked the election, it wasn’t because James Comey reopened the Clinton email investigation, and it wasn’t because men were telling their wives to vote for Trump, as the Left wanted us to believe. So for me the question became, Was it possible that God, seeing the moral spiral we were in, raised up someone who couldn’t care less about political correctness and political protocol but had the temperament and convictions to make America great again?

I made this point when I was interviewed on CNN and MSNBC. They wanted to know how Evangelicals who believe in morality and righteous living could support Donald Trump after the Stormy Daniels scandal emerged. I said most Christians didn’t hold him accountable for his past indiscretions—that’s God’s business—but the question gave me an opening to talk about the bigger issues and to say that Christians are praying for the president and we believe God answered our prayers by giving us a strong and capable leader who, despite his failings, has a clear vision for the future and is standing strong for the policies and standards we believe in.

Dr. James Dobson has been a popular and highly respected broadcaster for more than forty years, and as an influential Christian psychologist and author, he has helped millions of American families with their questions about the conflict between contemporary culture and issues of faith. During my interview with him for this book, I wanted to hear his thoughts on the seismic shifts brought about by President Trump’s election and how the changes taking place may have affected the institution of the family as well as the evangelical community and nation.

STRANG: Thank you, Dr. Dobson, for taking time to share your thoughts on the changes taking place in the country since Donald Trump’s election. I know you’ve had close personal contact with several US presidents as a counselor and friend. So I would be curious to hear about that, and I would especially like to know how you compare President Trump to the other presidents you’ve known.

DOBSON: Having worked with five United States presidents over the past thirty-eight years, I have had the opportunity to consider the philosophies and priorities of each. The first was Jimmy Carter, who asked me to participate on his White House Conferences on the Families. I then consulted for five years with Ronald Reagan, who began our relationship by asking, “What can my administration do to strengthen the nation’s families?” That was followed by infrequent conversations at the White House with [George] Herbert Walker Bush, and his son George W. Bush. Now I am privileged to serve Donald Trump as one of his faith advisors on numerous matters, from mental illness to drug addictions. This personal history has given me a perspective from which to respond to your question today.

I found each of these presidents to be honorable men who were dedicated to the welfare of the nation and its families. I respected them all in their time. However, the five of them were “flawed vessels,” as has been every human being who ever lived. For the most part, each president worked tirelessly to serve his country in what turned out to be an impossibly complex task. They had to learn to live with constant criticism from those who wanted to humiliate and demoralize them. As Kermit the Frog said on Sesame Street, “It ain’t easy being green.”

STRANG: How do you rate President Trump on issues of concern to Christian conservatives?

DOBSON: To this point in Donald Trump’s first term, I believe he has been more dedicated to the sanctity of human life and the welfare of the family than any of his predecessors. His language is sometimes crude, and his record as a “family man” has been shoddy. However, he appears to understand that “as the family goes, so goes the nation.” If you doubt that, ask his grown children. Each of them praises him enthusiastically as a man and as a father.

Since his inauguration in 2017, President Trump fought for and achieved the largest tax cut in the nation’s history. He nominated a great Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch, who seems committed to the preservation of life and constitutional protections for religious liberty. Trump has moved the majority of Republican members of Congress to double the child tax credit, which will benefit struggling families everywhere. As we talk, the White House is working on parental leave measures and numerous other legislative efforts to assist families.

Indeed, Trump has fulfilled almost every promise he has made to the pro-family and pro-life communities, including a vigorous effort, now underway, to lessen the opioid epidemic and other illicit drug problems. He is the first president in history to hold events on the National Day of Prayer in the Rose Garden, although George W. Bush celebrated the NDOP with services in the White House every year during his eight years in office. I could write a book outlining the other reasons I am supportive of Donald J. Trump. Although less than perfect, I am grateful to have him as our president, despite the incessant hatred that has been thrown at him to this point.

STRANG: The 2016 national election clearly divided the nation into two warring camps, with conservatives and the liberals becoming increasingly hostile to each other. What do you suggest we, as Christians, do to bring Americans together again?

DOBSON: I don’t believe there is a quick solution to the political and social conflict that currently divides us. America hasn’t been this agitated internally since slavery tore the nation to shreds in the years leading up to 1860. The five years that followed produced a tragic civil war that resulted in six hundred thousand deaths on battlefields and in disease-ridden prisons on both sides. What could have pitted brother against brother in this way and made them willing to slaughter and maim each other? The passions unleashed during that time were too great to be settled by compromise or negotiation. The chasm between them was just too great to be bridged. The result was a bloodbath that haunts our national memory today.

I’m not suggesting that America is again marching toward another cruel war. I certainly pray not. I do believe, however, that today’s contrasting belief systems are powerfully ingrained and breathtakingly dangerous. Some commentators suggest that our leaders should just “walk across the aisle” and restore harmony. That is simplistic and foolish. Though compromise on some issues is possible, the core principles that are tearing us apart are too ingrained to be “talked out.”

Take the matter of abortion, for example, and the cultural war that led to it. It has raged for more than forty-six years. Abortion must be outlawed; it cannot be reconciled. We must not forget the brutal murders of sixty million babies, with no end in sight. Can we accept the redefinition of marriage imposed on us by the Supreme Court? Marriage began with a pronouncement by the Creator in the Garden of Eden. He said, as recorded in Genesis 2:24, “For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.” After at least five thousand years as the norm, we have abandoned His plan for the family. Have we forgotten that marriage between a man and woman is a metaphor for the relationship between Christ and His church? Can we throw that teaching on the ash heap of history?

STRANG: As you say, these are fundamental issues, and everyone in the country will be affected in some way by how the culture, and Christians in particular, responds to the ongoing threats to religious liberty. So I would like to ask, What’s your prescription for people of faith who recognize the risks and want to stand up for their rights as Christians and as citizens of this great country?

DOBSON: Looking forward, are we willing to abandon principles of religious liberty as guaranteed to us by the Constitution? Shall we acquiesce when public schools brazenly indoctrinate our children with libertine sexual enticements and other beliefs that contradict biblical teachings being taught at home? Can we forget the efforts of a former president to “fundamentally change” the God-inspired principles that were handed down to us by our Founding Fathers? And finally, will we turn our backs on our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose very name generates outrage and hatred from advocates of the Far Left? Remember that He said, “I came not to bring peace, but a sword.”

Which of these core values are we willing to sacrifice in a vain search of unity and utopia? I pray there is none. If we Christians feel strongly about things that matter most to us, you can be sure those on the other side are equally impassioned by their own worldview. They are fighting for their beliefs. But we must do the same if future generations are to understand and follow biblical teachings. Thus, adherents to each point of view, Left and Right, are at loggerheads over differing beliefs that aren’t likely to be harmonized anytime soon.

STRANG: What then is the solution to the cultural war that’s raging all around us?

DOBSON: I submit that, at its base, the conflict we face today is spiritual in nature. Most of the contentious issues that divide us are rooted in Scripture and theology. Those of us on the conservative side aren’t dealing with mere differences of opinion. We are trying to live by standards that are eternal and “God breathed.” Those principles are not negotiable. We must, however, defend them within the context of love for our fellow human beings. That is a given for followers of Jesus Christ. Our task is to defend our beliefs without insulting or wounding those with whom we disagree.

To summarize my perspective, peace and harmony as a people will only be achieved by another Great Awakening that would sweep the nation in a spirit of repentance and commitment. Will this occur in the light of waning churches and a generation of millennials who seem less interested in matters of faith than their grandparents and forebearers? I don’t know. It has happened twice before in earlier times. This should be our prayer for America and the world.

Dr. Michael L. Brown, who is one of the most articulate thinkers in the Charismatic world, agrees with Dobson about the good things the president is doing. “Sometimes we look through spiritual eyes that are too pristine, meaning that we have a hard time recognizing how God could use someone with so many flaws…. While we hold standards high for church leaders and things like that, you have to recognize that in life-and-death national crises, God may use people [who are] very unlikely.” Then he said Donald Trump is, as others have said, “a divine wrecking ball, or God’s chaos candidate, [because] he’s one of these guys that really doesn’t care about the political gamble.”

Half an hour after Trump was declared the winner of the election, Frank Amedia, pastor of Touch Heaven Church in Ohio, felt the Lord telling him to create a protective shield around the new president. As I mentioned briefly in a previous chapter, he called it POTUS Shield, reflecting not only a commitment to pray for the president, but Frank says the acronym stands for the Prophetic Order of the United States. As he explained it, “To be a prophetic, humble, and powerful force of skilled intercessors … to place a shield of prayer, prophecy, unity, and faith around our president, vice president, and to be a spearhead of spiritual force for transformation of our federal court system and our nation. No geographic boundaries, no political boundaries, no limitations other than to be grounded in the Word of God and to give Him glory.”

Frank told me he believes the president has what he calls a “breaker anointing” that attracts challenges like a magnet. This gives him the ability to ferret out the source of his enemies and to fearlessly wear them down and withstand their barrages without flinching. It’s no secret now that Trump feeds off adversity. He loves taking on a challenge. “It makes him stronger, bolder, more determined,” Frank told me, “and acts to prove his causes to himself, from which he grows even more persistent. He has the resolve of a seasoned warrior and the tenacity of a fierce competitor.”

I’ve known Frank since we met at the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 2007. We both attended the Christian celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, which the Jews call Sukkot. The last day is Simchat Torah and is a celebration of the end of one year of reading the Torah and starting over at Genesis 1 again. There were at least ten thousand at the Western Wall that day—mostly Orthodox Jews. It was amazing to see them dancing, carrying the Torah scrolls above their heads. In that massive crowd Frank and I had mutual friends who introduced us, and over the years, we’ve stayed in touch due to our mutual love for Israel.

When the media, the polls, and everyone else was saying Donald Trump could never win the presidency, Frank told me he knew Trump would win. He not only prophesied this but was very involved in the campaign. As I reported in my previous book God and Donald Trump, Frank had access to Trump’s advisors and persuaded Corey Lewandowski to hand a written prophecy to candidate Trump as he was boarding his plane to return to Mar-a-Lago from Ohio. The prophecy said basically, “If you will humble yourself before Me (meaning the Lord), you will be the next president of the United States.” We can only speculate, but I believe Trump read the prophecy and humbled himself as well as he knew how. And since that time the president has been a defender of traditional values and an advocate for the freedom of men and women around the world to worship according to their own beliefs and traditions.

The president made it clear even before he entered the presidential sweepstakes that he would use the power and influence of the United States to defend the interests of men and women in the faith community. Since that time he has taken an interest in the plight of Christians suffering from persecution around the world. According to David Curry, the president and CEO of Open Doors USA, which works on behalf of persecuted Christians, religious liberty will be one of the most critical issues facing the Trump administration over the next several years. It is, he said, “the central issue that they’re going to have to deal with, whether you’re looking at it through the lens of immigration, whether you’re looking at it through the lens of terrorism.”²⁷

As Open Doors and like-minded relief agencies have pointed out, Islamic extremism is now the greatest threat to Christians in other nations. Curry said that “2016 was the worst year of persecution of Christians on record, with a shocking 215 million Christians experiencing high levels of persecution for their faith.” Governments such as North Korea, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sudan are actively engaged in the repression and persecution of believers. He added that “nearly one in every twelve Christians in the world today lives in an area or in a culture in which Christianity is illegal, forbidden or punished. And yet today the world is largely silent on the shocking wave of religious intolerance.”²⁸

Evidence that the president has taken the challenge seriously was the appointment of former US senator and former Kansas governor Sam Brownback on July 26, 2017, as ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom. While Democrats criticized Brownback’s traditional Christian values, especially as it relates to the LGBT community, Evangelicals cheered his record on religious freedom. It would take a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Pence, who serves as president of the Senate, to secure the confirmation, but the appointment received high praise in the faith community.

“Confirmation of Sam Brownback as the Ambassador-at-Large sends a message to the world,” said Oklahoma senator James Lankford, “that religious freedom is a priority of the United States government.”²⁹ And it signaled that the president would be an advocate for religious freedom around the world. Many in the faith community had been hoping to see more evidence of support for religious freedom from the State Department. A few days before Brownback was confirmed, the White House issued a statement from the president saying, “Faith breathes life and hope into our world. We must diligently guard, preserve, and cherish this unalienable right.”³⁰

In January 2018 the Trump administration placed Pakistan on its Special Watch List because of its severe violations of religious freedom. In doing so, the administration took a stand for religious freedom around the world. It also designated ten more “countries of particular concern.” Then, in May 2018, the State Department Office of International Religious Freedom released the annual report for 2017. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who had been confirmed to his post just a month earlier, called a press conference to announce release of the new report. Subsequently Ambassador Brownback provided a special briefing on the report, which covered two hundred countries and territories.

“This report is a testament to the United States’ historic role in preserving and advocating for religious freedom around the world,” said Secretary Pompeo.³¹ The International Religious Freedom Act, which became law in 1998, guaranteed that religious freedom would be an issue of concern in US foreign policy. In his remarks Secretary Pompeo assured those in attendance that President Trump and Vice President Pence will stand “with those who yearn for religious liberty.” After announcing that the State Department would hold the first ever “Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom” and that it would be about “action,” not just a discussion group, the Secretary said:

As the administration was preparing for its first ever global summit on religious liberty in July 2018, Pew Research Center reported that 28 percent of all countries in 2016 had “high” or “very high” levels of government restrictions on religion, up from 25 percent the prior year. Among all nations, “China had the highest levels of government restrictions on religion, while India had the highest levels of social hostilities involving religion. Both countries had the highest levels of restrictions in these respective categories, not only among the 25 most populous countries but also in the world at large.”³³

As a group, Middle Eastern and Northern African governments were the worst violators of religious liberty on a regional level, Pew found, followed by the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Americas.³⁴ In his remarks at the release of the State Department’s 2017 International Religious Freedom Report, Secretary Pompeo called religious freedom “a right belonging to every individual on the globe,” and he added that “religious freedom was vital to America’s beginning. Defending it is critical to our future.”³⁵

President Trump and Vice President Pence have made a priority of maintaining an open dialogue with America’s churches and church leaders, and the vice president reaffirmed that commitment in his remarks to the more than eleven thousand members of the Southern Baptist Convention who attended the annual meeting in Dallas on June 13, 2018. He spoke first about the progress the administration has made, protecting life, preserving religious liberty, helping the persecuted church, and standing with Israel. But those gains, he said, cannot be sustained without engaged churchgoing Americans.

During his remarks he said, “I believe that your voice, your compassion, your values, and your ministries are more needed than ever before…. But you should also know that we recognize that the most important work in America doesn’t happen in the White House or anywhere in Washington, DC, for that matter.” Then he said:

For a president whose administration began with a monumental shock wave and whose words and deeds continue to set off aftershocks around the globe, it may come as a shock of even greater magnitude that his administration has become such a strong defender of religious liberty. But for people of faith, it’s really no surprise. One of the most famous events in Bible history is a story about the risks and rewards of standing for religious freedom—it’s the story of Queen Esther, who risked her life to approach the throne of King Ahasuerus to explain that General Haman was lying to the king in order to destroy the Hebrew slaves living in Persia.

When Esther’s cousin asked her to approach the king with the truth, he made one of the most striking declarations in biblical literature, saying, “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” After hearing the challenge, Esther said, “I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:14–16, NASB). Providentially the king listened to Esther, her people were spared, and Haman became the victim of his own conspiracy.

The story of Queen Esther is a moving tribute to the power of loyalty and selfless courage that has been celebrated by Jewish families for countless generations. But as Gen. Jerry Boykin told me in a previous chapter, “I am absolutely convinced that he was raised up for such a time as this.” The analogy is a good one because the consequences of failure in both cases are so great.

As I bring this chapter to a close, I can offer no better statement of what I believe the Trump aftershock is really all about. Who knows whether Donald Trump has been lifted up to help this nation avert or at least delay impending disaster. He is not a perfect man, and we are not perfect people, but for many in the household of faith, President Trump has been chosen for such a time as this. The only question now is, How will America respond?