My Biblical Journey Towards Kamala Harris
A Christian-Republican response to Professor Robert Gagnon and Trumpism
DISCLAIMER: Usually I write about music and rarely about anything else. Today I’m going very political and into a lot of Bible quotes. If that isn’t your cup of tea, it’s OK to skip it. I understand. JJB
Recently a dear Christian friend sent me an article by Professor Robert Gagnon, an accomplished author, scholar, and theologian. https://afn.net/church/2024/10/29/seminary-prof-pleads-with-evangelicals-trump-is-no-saint-but-alternative-is-evil/ After reading Gagnon’s work, I only became more resolute in my support for the Harris/Walz presidency—the opposite of what Gagnon intended. My friend sent the Gagnon piece to me as a follow-up to a meme I posted on my Facebook page:
This references the account of Jesus driving corrupt merchants out of The Holy Temple (John 2:13-17, Mark 11:15-18, Matthew 21:12-13). This section of the temple was reserved for gentiles, immigrants, and travelers. It also fulfilled a prophecy (Jeremiah 7:11). Jesus rarely got angry, but when He did it was directed against religious chicanery that harmed those seeking God’s heart. Donald Trump’s $60 “God Bless America” Bible is being sold to finance his political campaign, not to spread the gospel. It’s being sold in houses of worship that are supposed to give Bibles freely through missions in countries where persecuted Christians share single pages of scripture and worship in secret. The Trump/Vance campaign has incited division within the American Church (Romans 16:17-18, Jude 1:16-19, Galatians 5:15), as well as violence and falsehood against Christians—namely the Haitians in Springfield OH who are largely Christian converts brought here legally by Christian missions. They came here to work, not eat pets. Exodus 23:1-3 says not to “spread a false report, nor join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness, nor fall in with them to do evil...so as to pervert justice...” Trump/Vance spread lies with impunity, even after their falsehoods were debunked by authorities and fellow Republicans.
Before I circle back to Prof. Gagnon’s anti-Harris/Walz statement, I must frame my response with a deeply personal disclosure.
Professionally and spiritually, I bottomed out in 2011. My Christian witness was a sham. In hindsight I see threads of my hypocrisy reaching back for years. Somehow, I made it work and put on a public display of church attendance and emblems of being Christian. My unchecked hypocrisy and chronic dishonesty ruined my marriage, tainted my relationships, and led to me getting excommunicated from the Presbyterian Church. I committed major sins, and I was “that close” to becoming a chemically dependent alcoholic.
Two years later, a chain of positive turnarounds led me to repent and enter 12-Step Recovery in May 2014. I’ve been solidly walking on the Recovery Road since. In 12-Step we take inventory of our character defects (I have 15 defects I pray &/or journal about every day), make amends to people I have harmed, and share my experience with others. Most importantly, I learned true surrender to God (James 4:7) and it put me in a constant growth trajectory of prayer, reading, and Bible study (Joshua 1:8). My Pastor Jeff Garner (author of the book “Real Happy”) says we study the Bible not so we have “all the answers,” but so we can ask better questions.
One of my biggest problems was not being able to tell the truth. I was a serial liar and manipulator (not to mention withholding and exaggeration), and I resented it when other people tried such tricks on me, but in Recovery they say, “If you spot it you got it.” Out of that I had to enter a giant galaxy-shifting reconnection with the very soul of truth (Ps. 51:6), to where I took 3 polygraphs and into rigorous therapy, countless Step Meetings and readings, accountability to a sponsor and program friends, and (most of all) total surrender to God. My job was to prove myself trustworthy to all people, let alone the ones I’d disappointed. Now at 10 years of sobriety, words can’t express how important and valuable it is to me to be trustworthy and to able to discern truth with razor sharp clarity. 2 Tim. 2:15 urges us to study to show ourselves approved unto God, rightly dividing the word of truth. Anything else is crazy-making (Prov. 29:22).
Today I have a very intense, almost obsessional, practice of truth-telling and truth-seeking. Being trustworthy and being able to discern truth is a precious gift from God that I cherish with a passion, and this “truth muscle” has vastly improved my critical thinking skills (Ro. 12:2). I have every reason and right to vote for someone who, at the very least, shows some affinity for these principles.
Every day I ask God to help me make decisions and take actions based on trusting Him and His word. I have no Godly guidance or power without a Biblical citation or affirmation (1 Pet. 2:2). On that count, why is there not one Biblical reference in Prof. Gagnon’s argument? Why does a noted New Testament theologian from Houston Baptist University shirk the credibility that comes with the Word of God?
Instead of scripture, Gagnon fearfully speculated on negative “what ifs” a Harris/Walz platform could do to Christians. Then I recalled that, since the 1990s, a stream of name-brand evangelists claimed that another liberal Democrat administration will lead us to $10 a gallon gas, enforced limits on interstate travel, rationing, Christian schools closing or taken over by gays, the destruction of Israel and more. None of this has happened, and as I read Gagnon’s “dire predictions,” it felt more informed by Chicken Little than the sovereign truth of Christ: “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, also see Exodus 14:14).
At the article’s end Gagnon says Christians should act against any legislation that deters the Great Commission, which I agree with, but is the Commission to be fear-driven by man-made “dire predictions” and ignore God’s Word when Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18, also Jude 1:20-21)? Instead, Gagnon implies that God is helpless unless we have certain laws and leaders in place, even bad ones.
It’s common for academics to at least acknowledge the achievements, education, and resume of other collegiates. Harris would be eligible for such respect. Instead, Gagnon took inventory of her sex life from 1990-94, omitting her academic profile and career achievements while parroting the pejorative that she slept her way to the top (Ecclesiastes 10:12, 1 Peter 3:10). Instead, Gagnon says we should vote for Trump, an adjudicated rapist and brazen adulterer with a lifelong history of sexual assault and misogyny. Declaring that Trump is “less evil” than Harris is a reversal of Matthew 7:2-5 when you count that she was a career prosecutor of sex criminals and child molesters.
When Harris was asked what her favorite Bible passages are, she quickly replied: 2 Cor. 5:7 and the parable of The Good Samaritan. By contrast, Trump was asked the same and refused to answer. Why? As for religious branding, Harris appears to be a nominal Baptist. By contrast, Trump (prior to 2016) showed no religion and (after 2016) openly uses The Bible and Christians as props, saying publicly that he doesn’t think he needs God’s forgiveness (citation available). Off mic, he dissed on charismatic Christians who laid hands on him in prayer (“How can anyone believe that stuff?”) King David was chief among sinners, but he repented and had an amazing heart for God. Trump has gone out of his way to prove himself to be as un-Godly as humanly possible, leaving no doubt he has no interest in God’s heart.
So, I’m flummoxed as to how Gagnon, a highly educated believer, can make such a counter-Biblical recommendation? (Re: Is. 30:12, Jer. 6:10, many others). The answer may lie, once again, in my own experience (more personal disclosure).
Sometime in the mid-90s, I became a big fan of conservative media and talk radio. I enjoyed the analysis and avidly listened to Rush Limbaugh and all the spin-offs. Later I’d discuss it with like-minded friends—mostly Christians. This was the tail end of the Reagan-era alignment of evangelical Christians with conservative government, and I bought into the broad-brushed equation that “liberal was bad and stupid” and “conservative was good and smart” (my thorough Biblical deconstruction of this phase is for another day). I lost sight that God’s truth transcends these man-made political camps: “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8). Yet I was so entrenched in this conservative silo, when I encountered Christians who identified as Democrat or liberal, I was leery of them, even when they clearly showed the heart of Christ in word and deed and upheld the same Bible I did.
In 2016 (2 years into my Recovery), I simply couldn’t stomach this conservative vs. liberal dichotomy anymore. I had to stop listening to Rush, Hannity, Savage, and the screaming self-proclaimed “constitutional scholar” Mark Levin as they ranted, insulted, and created spurious controversies in the name of “conservative values.” My now laser-like truth-seeking mind could no longer take them making excuses for corrupt leaders and defending indefensible behaviors (again, the antithesis to Mt. 7:2-5). In essence, they set the stage for Donald Trump to attack the very mechanism of how human beings determine and discern hard, absolute truth, whether you believe in God or not.
“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (James 3:14-18).
Waves of peace and liberation came over me when I turned off these radio rascals (currently I take my news from aggregate news sites). Concurrently, Donald Trump became President, and I honestly wanted him to do well. “Drain the swamp” sounded good, but he effectively shredded whatever honor came with being conservative. I agreed with Trump about reversing the appeasement of China, and he signed a prison reform bill and sped up the COVID vaccine, but on my watch as a still-registered Republican, he has hijacked the GOP, mutating it into a pseudo-Republican form of Baalism (2 Kings 18). The Ghost of Roy Cohn (Trump’s mentor) and Trump’s power base are making us relive what the prophet Ezekiel said to His Chosen, warning about replacing God’s law and love with violent political solutions and unrighteous leaders. The Book of Isaiah has a similar thread—if you frame it with the January 6th riots, Trump’s countless lawsuits, and his fondness for “weaving” during his long speeches, it’s chilling to read Isaiah 59:3-7 (italics mine):
“For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adders’ eggs; they weave the spider’s web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works of iniquity and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood...”
I’ve learned to not rely on media to ascertain facts, but to listen to the actual source, raw and unfiltered. With that, Trump’s own words and example speed my decision to get him out. I’m joined by many Republican leaders, Trump family members, and 80+ ex-Trump surrogates (some of whom identify as very far right).
Professor Gagnon has deliberately used an dishonest measure (Proverbs 20:10-12) against Harris, adding gossip to cast her as a worse evil than Trump, whose shown an uncanny ability to swoon even the smartest people to worship the Orange Calf. It’s up to Gagnon to account for why he’s forsaken his reputation for Holy Biblical knowledge and has given himself to overt political evil.
Recall another season in history, when we heard this from a leader who also used Christianity as a prop:
“The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press—in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess...”
That was said by Adolph Hitler in one of his early political rallies. How familiar this sounds in 2024?
Scripture has a good selection of verses to describe good and Godly leadership, and I’m open to hearing about scriptures that support a Trump presidency. Till then, I’m following what The Bible and God’s precious truth has revealed to me, voting with inner peace for Harris/Walz and for a saner nation.
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14.
#donaldtrump #kamalaharris #harriswalz #robertgagnon #bible #theology #politics