What would you say if you had the opportunity to meet Donald Trump face to face?
It might seem an entirely hypothetical question, but you never know... Only two weeks ago I unexpectedly bumped into former Prime Minister David Cameron on a footpath in Cornwall. I had sight of him in enough time to consider what I wanted to say to him from a Christian perspective – and then did. And last week my wife by chance encountered Labour MP and social justice campaigner Frank Field in a supermarket. Again, she was able to speak with him from a faith-based point of view.
It does seem unlikely most of us will ever meet President Trump, who was elected a year ago this week (or at least he won a majority in the electoral college, albeit with 3 million fewer votes than Hilary Clinton). But even if we never see him fact to face, we can go one better, of course, because as Christians we can pray for him. After all, the New Testament encourages us all to pray for 'all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness,' (1 Timothy 2:2).
And yet, if I am honest, I struggle to pray along those lines for him. In fact, to be candid, I routinely pray that he will be removed – peacefully – from office. Here's why:
1. He has brought shame on the United States of America. Most people around the world are no doubt bright enough to realise that Donald Trump is not typical of all Americans, nor is he a personification of the nation. But there is no doubt that in the eyes of much of the rest of the world he is an embarrassment to the USA. Here in the UK we have envied some of America's past presidents (Obama, Kennedy), while others have puzzled us (Reagan) or exasperated us (George W Bush). But I don't think any have generated quite the sense of revulsion, frankly, that Donald Trump has managed to produce. And that's not great for global perceptions of the United States.
2. He has brought shame on the office of president. He's not the first, of course. One might think of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton among his recent predecessors, for example. But at least they were (for better or worse) trying to give the appearance of being presidential. Trump either doesn't care about that or is manifestly unable to do so.
Christian leader John Piper had it about right when he wrote that Trump's 'immoral behaviour in the past, and his ongoing unwillingness to renounce it as evil, show that he is morally unfit to lead'. And Christian author Randy Alcorn has said: 'My main problem is not that Donald Trump says what he thinks. ...My problem is with what he actually thinks: especially his obsession with outward appearance, sexiness, superficiality, wealth, his own status and accomplishments, and his quickness to berate and insult people and seek revenge on his critics.' That's even before we consider his views in relation to the scientific consensus on global warming and the Paris climate change deal.
3. He has brought shame on the gospel. The writer Josiah Hesse, who heart-breakingly describes himself as a 'a recovering "Christaholic", 12 years sober from God,' has attempted to analyse why many American evangelicals have attached themselves to Trump despite his egregious flaws. In the London-based Guardian newspaper, Hesse suggested that many do not believe Trump is a real Christian, but nonetheless like his policies. More than that, however, he wrote that at heart 'evangelicals recognise a fellow outsider in Trump, someone not only unafraid to shake things up and offend people, but who actively goes out of his way to do it'.
Well, if that's the case it is a tragedy for the gospel and a searing indictment of contemporary American evangelicalism. Can it really be marked by a joy in provocatively offending others? I hope Hesse is wrong. But either way, if for any reason at all many Americans come to associate such a manifestly inappropriate president with the Christian faith, that's tragic.
So I pray on, perhaps misguidedly, in the way I do. After all, Christians prayed in a very committed way for the fall of East European communism and South African apartheid, and we have seen what happened in both those contexts. I have previously prayed for a UK prime minister to fall, and the answer then was 'yes'.
John Piper would argue there is much more to be said about praying for Donald Trump. And without doubt John Piper is more godly than I am. But as for me, for now, I will continue to 'pray as I can, not as I can't' – while as I do, asking for God's will to be over-rule. And if you can pray in a better way for this disturbing and alarming president, then please, let me encourage you to do so.
David Baker is a former daily newspaper journalist now working as an Anglican minister in Sussex, England. Find him on Twitter @Baker_David_A
