Last night Randy and I had dinner at our neighbors. We’ve cultivated a relationship over 10 years, and it hasn’t been easy. They were initially leery of us because we are Christian. Now, we’re good friends. During the meal, my friend turned to me and said, “You’re a Christian. How come 70% of Christians voted for Trump? I didn’t think Jesus was like that. Why would they vote for someone like him?” We had a good conversation, but alas, a lot of people are looking at us and asking this same question.

Randy has a friend whose young adult son plays the drums for a large church in the Portland area. After the election results, this young man texted this to his dad:

“71% of white Protestant Christians voted for Trump. 62% of all Protestant Christians voted for Trump. Explain to me why I should go to church at all. What’s the point of communion if the majority of Christians think Trump was the more Christlike choice? Are we even worshipping the same God? How do I justify my participation in a form of Christianity that votes against their own neighbors?”

*Editorial Note: This exit poll is sourced from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls. Please remember that Exit Polls reflect an ‘imperfect snapshot mood’ of voters, and are used for analysis of a diverse electorate. ~CK

When the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election results began to roll in, and my international friends were texting their shock and lament to me, I was sad. My sadness was not so much about another party’s platform prevailing as much as the shock that for many Christians, character is irrelevant when it comes to considering the substance of what makes America flourish.

I know party platforms switch around over the decades. But never have we knowingly elected a criminal who constantly lies and distorts the truth, who tried to overcome our election processes, and who uses racist and sexist rhetoric on a consistent basis. Does character matter in a president and if so, what happened on election day? If we are to lead and live like Christ, does it matter whether we support an authoritarian, self-absorbed president with our vote?

Ethical leadership can be a rare choice. Leaders inside and outside the church can be too intoxicated with success, with status and money, and with the pursuit of power to believe that it matters very much whether they make honorable choices or not.

Leadership in its best form is about improving the lives of others. Leaders in their best selves are deeply formed to be compassionate, wise, and sturdy individuals. Christian leaders have the added benefit of millennium of spiritual writings, teachings, saints, inspirational leaders, and practices to help us to be and lead like Christ. What has happened to us?

People lead out of who they are – Their inside and outside are congruent. One does not automatically become selfless by taking on a different role. What motivates a person internally and what values a person demonstrates by their actions will always dictate one’s approach to work and life. Good people care about how their actions impact others. Good people care that their words bring life and not destruction.

My sadness was not so much about another party's platform prevailing as much as the shock that for many Christians, character is irrelevant when it comes to considering the substance of what makes America flourish. Share on X

The office of the President works the same way except on a global scale. The choice to be a righteous person will impact how our President sees and leads others. The choice not to care will no doubt impact those who have no voice. How is it that we think so little of our highest office that we believe it is merely a transactional business position where character doesn’t matter? Do we actually think that a disordered life will bring order and goodness to our lives and communities?

Lots of people smarter than I are wrestling about these sorts of questions in the aftermath of November 5th. I wonder if it’s partly a formation question for us believers. Are we formed so that we respond well in difficult times? Spiritual formation is the process of conforming to the image of Christ for the glory of God and the sake of others. Spiritual formation is a wholistic, organic and life-long process involving the mind, heart and hand (thinking, feeling and behaving processes) in community. An unformed, self-absorbed person is not able to glorify God nor serve others. Our work, our highest calling as Christ followers, is to become like Christ and to encourage each other to be so. We are the lights on a hill. We need lights on all hills to draw people to the goodness of God, not to the retributive hatefulness of any one individual.

I wonder if one reason that we have elected such a leader is because we have neglected to help Christians think better. I wonder if we have prioritized theology and belief over critical thinking and personal agency. I wonder if run-away fears and anger have supplanted the steady thinking that leads to love and goodness.

I had a conversation with some ministry leaders concerning their thoughts about why good Christian people would choose such a leader. Here are some of their reflections:

• Proclamation Mindset rather than Transformation Mindset: A pastor of a large church in the farming community of Turlock, California, believes one of the problems is an unintended outcome of the Reformation. He commented:

“The combination of the Reformation followed by the Enlightenment led to the intellectualization of many things,  including faith. That led to a belief-oriented faith that could be proclaimed rather than a faith that was meant to be embodied: a proclamation faith rather than a transformation faith.”

With a Proclamation Faith rather than a Transformation Faith, people can say they are Christian with no real expectation that they act like one. Donald Trump says he’s a Christian, and people accept it without question, even though there is no evidence in his character, words, or actions. St. Basil the Great, the Bishop of Caesarea from 370-378 AD, taught his monks that “generosity was the chief and visible social sign of Christian conversion, [and thus ] life and perfection would be economic in form, not just spiritual.”¹Greenman and Kalantzis, eds., Life in the Spirit: Spiritual Formation in Theological Perspective, 80. Fear is a response to scarcity, not generosity (John 3:16).

• Unexamined Fear: A therapist and expert in Internal Family Systems in Bend, Oregon, suggested that people don’t recognize that their strong emotions, especially fear, have taken over their thought processes. She commented:

“Emotions are vital for clear thinking; they provide information that orients us to our environment. However, clarity of thought requires gleaning the wisdom of our emotions by reflecting on them and allowing them to inform our actions. Moving directly from emotion to action – from fear to hostility, violence, or drawing rigid lines to separate insiders from outsiders – blocks love. Approaching emotions with curiosity calms us and restores our best thinking.”

People can learn how to recognize and think rationally about strong emotions. Believers can use centering prayer, journaling, and spiritual friends and guides to examine with the Holy Spirit the root of one’s run away emotions (1 John 4:18).²Thompson, Kurt, Anatomy of the Soul (Tyndale House Publishers, 2010).

Leadership in its best form is about improving the lives of others. Leaders in their best selves are deeply formed to be compassionate, wise, and sturdy individuals. (1/4) Share on X

Christian leaders have the added benefit of millennium of spiritual writings, teachings, saints, inspirational leaders, and practices to help us to be and lead like Christ. What has happened to us? (2/4) Share on X

People lead out of who they are – Their inside and outside are congruent. What motivates a person internally and what values a person demonstrates by their actions will always dictate one’s approach to work and life. (3/4) Share on X

Good people care about how their actions impact others. Good people care that their words bring life and not destruction. (4/4) Share on X

• Impact of Social Media and cable news networks like Fox News: A Missional Discipleship Minister of a church in Nashville, Tennessee, brought up the dangers of social media. She noted that social media is programmed to use algorithms that highlight the emotion of fear and the desire for connection to constantly insist on your attention. People begin to live in a monochromatic bubble where only disruptive information is consistently fed to them for the purpose of enriching the owners of these networks. Over time, they begin to believe in conspiracy theories and cultish voices that are shaping them. Having a spiritual discipline which limits one’s social media use, and which encourages reading news from various perspectives helps alleviate falling into a black hole of someone else’s making.³Song, Felicia Wu, Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age (InterVarsity Press 2021).  The New Republic recently published a convincing analysis of the impact of right-wing media on the election.

• Need to Listen to Diverse Stories: A Black chaplain and pastor in Niagara Falls, New York, believes that we do not listen enough to each other, so we are unable to cultivate love and understanding. Storytelling to an attentive, respectful audience is an art few churches practice apart from the proclamation pulpit. We become fearful and reactive when we have not connected to the humanity in those who seem different from us. The rural farmer, the single urban dad, the assembly line worker, the gay couple, the artist, the waitress, the undocumented immigrant, the banker, and the university student are each first and foremost a unique individual with value. We are all created in the Image of God. We all matter and have value to God. When we tell stories, we see our human similarities, and we begin to establish common touchpoints. We also see how our differences might have become unconscious biases in us. When we hear each other’s stories, we can think more clearly. Spiritually, we develop humility and spaciousness to consider the needs of others before our own.

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We deserve elected officials who are persons of character, who are motivated by the desire to improve the lives of all Americans. We need leaders who instill in us hope and not fear. We are becoming a nation motivated by fear with a disregard for the freedom of all her citizens. If we continue down this path, we will lose our soul. We will become more and more reactive, rather than becoming communities for cooperation and innovation to address our very real challenges.

So, this begs the obvious question: What do we do now? Margaret Wheatley in Who Do We Choose to Be? and James D. Hunter in To Change the World suggest that we create communities of shalom. They suggest we become people of faithful presence in the midst of the storms. Jesus, in his closing arguments before his sham trial, instructed his disciples in something remarkably similar: “This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

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When we tell stories, we see our human similarities, and we begin to establish common touchpoints. We can think more clearly. Spiritually, we develop humility and spaciousness to consider the needs of others before our own. Share on X