Two days after the election A discouraged friend asked me: “Who do you blame for this election disaster, and what can be done about it?”

As I pondered his first question, a long list of possible answers came to mind. For example, I blame GOP leaders who knew Donald Trump was corrupt, incompetent, and dangerous, but bowed to him anyway for the sake of political expediency.

I fault the Supreme Court for allowing Trump to defer responsibility for his criminal actions until after the election and then granting him nearly unlimited immunity.

Martin Thielen

I accuse billionaires like Elon Musk of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to influence the election to their own advantage. .

I blame the right-wing media for shoveling out massive amounts of disinformation and lies, like immigrants eating pets.

And I blame Joe Biden for not withdrawing That leaves Democrats without a primary election that could give them a stronger candidate.

The list goes on, including major missteps by the Democratic Party. There’s a lot of blame to go around.

But eventually I said to my friend, “I mostly blame white church-going Christians.”

From where? Because white people who go to church regularly are the voters who gave us Donald Trump. Agnostics, atheists, “nones,” Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Black Christians did not elect Trump. White Christians who went to church regularly did this. Twice.

And I’m not just talking about evangelicals. Yes, more than 80 percent support Trump. But this goes far beyond evangelicals. Pew Research found that 71% of whites (Evangelical, Catholic, and Mainline) who attend church services regularly (once a month or more) voted for Trump in 2020. Given the numbers in the 2024 election, that percentage has likely increased.

So who is most responsible for Trump’s election? White, church-going Americans.

Even though Trump violates everything Jesus stood for, including love, mercy, kindness, honesty, marital fidelity, mercy, character, gentleness, justice, humility, care for the sick, welcoming the stranger, and the list goes on. and so on.

High inflation, mostly caused by a worldwide pandemic, is not a valid excuse for Christians to abandon these values.

It is not an exaggeration to say this He said Donald Trump is the most anti-Christ president in US history. His narcissism, lies, disagreement, anger, divisiveness, hatred, revenge, racism, sexism, criminality, violence, cruelty, and wanton depravity (including sexual assault) have earned him this ugly privilege.

“White Christians’ support for Donald Trump will go down in history as one of the greatest failures in American church history.”

Given this reality, I have no doubt that white Christians’ support for Donald Trump will go down as one of the greatest failures in American church history. Unfortunately this is the latest failure in a long list of repeated failures. These include support for Native American genocide, defense of slavery, participation in Jim Crow segregation, resistance to the Civil Rights Movement, pedophile priest crisis and cover-up, ugly Mainline divisions over human sexuality, anti-immigrant sentiments, promotion of hatred towards the LGBTQ community. and much more.

All of this is why, several years into my retirement, I am still “salaried” by institutional religion. And after watching white churchgoers overwhelmingly support Donald Trump in three elections, I’m starting to think my sabbatical will never end.

Even though I’m not involved right now In a traditional congregation (I am part of a retired clergy group that serves as a house church of sorts), I am still trying to follow Jesus. And I know that he calls his followers to forgive. I’ve been trying to do this my whole life.

For example, I forgave my father for being a terrible parent. I even forgave a man who went to prison for committing a crime against me. But I’m not sure I can ever forgive the white American church for pushing Jesus aside for the likes of Donald Trump. This may be an unforgivable sin for me. But I will try.

While it’s understandable to play the election blame game, the real question is, “What should followers of Jesus do now?” As my friend asked in his second question, “What can be done?”

There’s no easy answer to this important question. But in these depressing days after the election, I was thinking about an old story about Jimmy Carter, whom I voted for in my first presidential election at age 18. I voted for Carter because I believed (then and now) that he was doing his best to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.

“There is no easy answer to this important question.”

Years ago, when Carter was working as a peanut farmer, all the white businessmen in his community—except Carter—were members of the White Citizens’ Council (which was basically the KKK without the white pages). One day, several leaders of the Council visited Carter. They told him he was the only white business owner in town who wasn’t a member of their organization. They pressured him to pay $20 for membership dues or “there would be repercussions.” Carter pulled a $20 bill from his wallet and said: “I’m going to flush this down the toilet before I give it to the White Citizens Council.”

I believe the spirit of resistance is the best response for followers of Jesus right now. We must resist Donald Trump’s anti-Christ agenda (in a Christian way), no matter the consequences.

And before you accuse me of partisanshipThis statement has nothing to do with partisan politics and everything to do with honoring and following Jesus. So I will try to do this. But I don’t expect much help from the white church.

From where? Because this is the institution that got Trump into the White House not once, but twice. These are the people who say, “Forget Jesus, we’re going with Trump.”

This makes me sick; my heart, mind, body and soul.

Jesus cries once again.

Martin Thielen, A retired minister (SBC and UMC), former megachurch pastor, and bestselling author, he is the creator and author of: www.DoubtersParish.com.

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