In Depth:  Trump

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Donald Trump: lessons in leadership?

Donald Trump: lessons in leadership?

John Brand
John Brand

Over the years, I have become more and more convinced that, from a human perspective at least, the most important factor in determining the growth and fruitfulness of the local church is leadership.

I have studied and analysed a large number of churches that have split, closed or gone into maintenance mode, and almost without exception the problem can be traced back to a leadership issue – either a lack of leadership, the wrong people in leadership, the wrong exercising of leadership or the wrong attitude towards leaders on the part of the congregation as a whole.

‘I can’t avoid writing about Donald Trump...’
letter from America

‘I can’t avoid writing about Donald Trump...’

David Burrowes
David Burrowes

I know it’s tempting, but I can’t avoid writing about Donald Trump. Having been at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C., the impact of Donald Trump and how Christians should respond looms large.

So to the US Capitol, where just a week after President Trump’s inauguration the talk of the town was of the first set of executive orders being fired off, calling a national emergency on the southern border to stop illegal migration and USAID freezing all aid programmes.

Trump, Putin, Ukraine: what's going on?

Trump, Putin, Ukraine: what's going on?

Martyn Whittock
Martyn Whittock

As Christians, we know that “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9).

And yet we also know that what is required is more than the absence of conflict, as important as that is. For justice, wholeness and restoration are also values that are deeply embedded in scripture. The Greek-speaking writers of the New Testament used the Greek word eirene to translate Hebrew shalom and communicate its values, derived as they are from a root denoting ‘wholeness,’ ‘completeness.’ This reminds us that, as Christians, we need to look at the content of peace and what it brings. Which brings us to the recent conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump and future challenges for Christians

Donald Trump and future challenges for Christians

Joel Knight
Joel Knight

Much of the response to Donald Trump’s presidency from Christians in the UK has centred on ethical assessment. Christians rightly recognise that character matters and have a concern for the disadvantaged and disenfranchised.

Moral clarity is indeed a gift Christians can offer society. And yet, discussions like this risk reducing conversations to comments from one group saying, "We need to morally condemn this thing Trump’s done," whilst others respond, "This thing he's done is good."

John  Piper addresses Trump and Musk online

John Piper addresses Trump and Musk online

en staff

Well-known preacher John Piper has name-checked Donald Trump and Elon Musk in a social media post.

The internationally-acclaimed author and speaker addressed them on X – formerly Twitter – with reference to Luke 18:7 in which Jesus speaks about entering the Kingdom of God like a child.

Reflecting on betrayal: Ukrainians mark three years of war

Reflecting on betrayal: Ukrainians mark three years of war

Ryan Burton King
Ryan Burton King

On 24 February 2025, thousands of Ukrainians and their families and friends crowded into London’s Trafalgar Square for an evening of prayers and protest, speeches and music, marking three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Particular excitement was caused by the appearance of the 'Iron General', the popular former commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhnyi, who took up a new post as ambassador to the United Kingdom last year. But the mood was inescapably sober, and reflected a new sentiment absent from previous gatherings: betrayal.

Trump, Putin, Ukraine - and Bible truth

Trump, Putin, Ukraine - and Bible truth

Tim Farron
Tim Farron

We have just marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Foreign leaders gathered in Kyiv to commemorate the invasion and pledge continued support to Ukraine.

President Zelensky has estimated that 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, 380,000 wounded, and 35,000 are missing in action, likely dead.

Letter

Donald and the fig leaf

Ben Tannett
Date posted: 26 Feb 2025

Dear Editor

I hesitate to write anything about Donald Trump as it may quickly become out of date - he is proceeding at a frenzied pace. So I’ll remind readers of three assertions which were made about him long before the 2024 election. These are just examples, there are many others.

Firstly, Trump lies on an industrial scale (his false claim to have won in 2020 caused an insurrection). Secondly, his sexual immorality has long been public knowledge. Thirdly, it was asserted that he regularly cheated the contractors who worked on his properties (see James 5:4).

Donald Trump unleashed

Donald Trump unleashed

Martyn Whittock
Martyn Whittock

Well, we are roughly a month into the Trump presidency and the character of the new White House is becoming very clear.

Although I have a track record of sounding the alarm regarding Donald J. Trump, in the New Year of 2025 I was trying to be quite balanced on a number of occasions. In one column I pondered whether we would get ‘Trump unleashed’ or ‘Trump lite’? That I even suggested the latter was a sign that I thought it might be possible: lots of aggressive noise but not the political meltdown that many (myself at times) feared. A few weeks in, I would like to amend that brave optimism on my part. It is ‘Trump unleashed.’

Trump 2.0: Understanding why people support him

Trump 2.0: Understanding why people support him

Jonathon Macdonald
Jonathon Macdonald

Many British Christians are terrified of any association with Trump-supporting American Evangelicals.

I remember reading an article recently which mentioned an English congregation who had gone as far as removing the word ‘evangelical’ from their name to avoid giving the impression the church was too closely related to those west of the Atlantic. There are even some for whom this fear of association descends into an antipathy bordering on disgust.

Trump 2.0: A concerned evangelical view

Trump 2.0: A concerned evangelical view

Martyn Whittock
Martyn Whittock

The return of Donald Trump to the White House should be a matter of concern; not panic, but concern.

It should, at this point, be stated clearly that my contention is not based on an expectation that US electors (including evangelical Christians) should become Democrats. Nor that there is something inherently wrong with the historic Republican Party. My case is that the matter is rather simpler: there is something inherently wrong with Donald Trump and the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement (which has, in effect, become the Republican Party). I would also argue that there is something significantly wrong with the US section of the international evangelical movement; and this is shown in its deep commitment to Trump and to MAGA.

Donald  Trump's second term: Christians in key roles

Donald Trump's second term: Christians in key roles

Luke Randall
Luke Randall

Donald Trump bas become President of the United States for the second time, and while he naturally takes the limelight, he has appointed several Christian influences in key positions around him.

Vice President J.D. Vance’s Catholic background is well-documented, but others with a more evangelical worldview include House Speaker Mike Johnson, Israel Ambassador Mike Huckabee, and Secretary of Defence nominee Pete Hegseth.

Is the UK church ready for Trump 2.0?

Is the UK church ready for Trump 2.0?

Ben Chang
Ben Chang

Today sees the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States.

Over on this side of the pond, polling consistently confirms that most of the British public have a pretty dim view of Trump. At best, he is seen as a ridiculous clown who cannot string a sentence together. At worst, he is viewed as a wannabe autocrat who idolises Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. However, he won a resounding victory in the Presidential election and his party gained control of both the House and Senate.

Social media apologetics after Trump
defending our faith

Social media apologetics after Trump

Chris Sinkinson
Chris Sinkinson

There is no doubt that social media and online platforms have provided opportunities for public witness and evangelism like never before.

In February 2004 Mark Zuckerburg launched Facebook, originally as a way of keeping in touch with friends; it quickly became a tool for sharing news, information and ideas.

Letter

In defence of Trump

Date posted: 3 Dec 2024

Dear Editor,

I fully accept that all sides of an opinion have the right to be heard, but I myself am very dismayed by the way Timothy Reynolds (in his letter in the November issue of en) slighted Donald Trump.

Trump win: gospel triumph or tragedy?

Trump win: gospel triumph or tragedy?

Luke Randall & Emily Pollok

Evangelicals across the United States and beyond are reacting to Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in the US presidential election, with some believing he will protect religious freedoms. Others fear he will promote radical nationalism.

Trump has always portrayed himself as the candidate who would best protect Christians, and according to an NBC News exit poll, evangelicals in America played a crucial role in Trump’s victory; about 80% of white evangelicals voted for him, along with 67% of Latino evangelicals and 14% of black evangelicals.

Trump 2.0: evangelicals react

Trump 2.0: evangelicals react

en staff

Evangelicals and other Christians are digesting the news that Donald Trump is heading back to the White House for a second term.

Writing on social media platform x.com, Graham Nicholls, director of evangelical umbrella organisation Affinity in the UK, wrote today: 'Praying for the USA and the world as we transition to a new duly elected returning President of one of the most powerful nations in the world. Whoever you wanted to win, there's only ever one winner and He already won.'

Why has Donald Trump triumphed?

Why has Donald Trump triumphed?

Martyn Whittock
Martyn Whittock

Donald Trump has become the only person – other than Grover Cleveland (president 1885–89 and 1893–97) – to serve non-consecutive presidential terms in the USA.

This has occurred less than four years since the apparent collapse of his political fortunes in the aftermath of January 6th, when it looked like the Republican Party might turn its back on the Trump years and reinstate a more familiar kind of conservative politics. But the reliance on the Make America Great Again (MAGA) base (whose support for Trump remained strong) proved too valuable to risk alienating. So, they were reconciled to Trump.

Letter

Trump dismay

Date posted: 4 Nov 2024

Dear Editor,

What a helpful set of articles you gave us for the UK general election earlier this year – thank you!

If you’re a Bible-believing evangelical  Christian, you will vote for Trump

If you’re a Bible-believing evangelical Christian, you will vote for Trump

Richard Morgan
Richard Morgan

I had once assumed that while ‘evangelicals’ overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, the word ‘evangelical’ was loose. I assumed a cultural sense to the word ‘evangelical’.

Surely, if you were serious about your faith, your Trump-mania would be dialed down? Surely, it would be the racist, xenophobic ‘evangelicals in name only’ – who rarely attend church, and have a cultural and not a personal faith – that were behind the rise and presidency of Donald J. Trump.

Harris, Walz, Trump and Vance: are we being truthful?

Harris, Walz, Trump and Vance: are we being truthful?

Russell Moore
Russell Moore

When Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate this week, some people took to social media to contrast him with his Republican counterpart, J. D. Vance.

Lots of those contrasts were fair game - that of a former high school coach versus a Yale venture capitalist, for instance. Some people framed the contrast this way, though - Walz is a normal guy, while Vance is a weirdo who has sex with couches.

The past several years have required sentences I never imagined I would write. Here’s another: J. D. Vance did not have sex with a couch. I believe the proposition I just wrote to be true, and my opinion of the politics or personality of the Republican vice-presidential nominee has nothing whatsoever to do with that belief.

Some might stop me at this point to note that everybody knows that J. D. Vance didn’t have sex with a couch. It’s a joke; a social media meme, started when someone posted a parody, allegedly from Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy. These people know, however, that most people don’t follow the genealogy of memes back to their origins. Many people just start to think, 'J. D. Vance is sort of a freak; people say he did something with a couch one time.'

The Vance couch meme-posters can have it both ways. They can kind of do what the Bible describes as deceiving one’s neighbor and then say, 'I was only joking!' (Prov. 26:19). Beyond that, they can say, 'Well, of course, Vance did not literally have sex with a couch. The point is that Vance is kind of weird; the couch just makes the point.'

If this were just this momentary meme, it could be passed over and forgotten. But it happens all the time. Sarah Palin never actually said, 'I can see Russia from my house.' Barack Obama never advocated for death panels for grandma. That’s what happens in politics, especially in a social media era. And, after all, most people don’t really believe the Vance couch memes; it just helps with morale. It won’t actually hurt Vance.

The problem for those who belong to Christ, though, is when the fallenness of a fallen world starts to feel normal. The problem is when you start to think your lies can serve the truth as long as the vibes feel right and the outcome is what you want.

In her new book Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, Anne Applebaum discusses the tactics employed by authoritarian regimes such as that of the Chinese Communist Party. These regimes have learned, Applebaum argues, the power of pro-freedom dissidents of the past, such as Václav Havel, who refused to symbolically lie (think of his famous example of the greengrocer who refuses to put the 'Workers of the world, unite!' sign up in his store). To undermine such truth-telling, they employ social media 'to spread false rumours and conspiracy theories' so as to 'turn the language of human rights, freedom and democracy into evidence of treason and betrayal.'

Applebaum cites Freedom House’s description of this kind of propaganda pressure as 'civil death,' meant to sever those who do not lie the way the party commands from their communities, to inundate them with lies so that even their friends and families start to think, 'Well, there must be something to some of this, since these controversies are always there.'

This does not just have to happen in matters of big life-and-death political dissent and repression. I’ve seen it happen to countless pastors - especially those who dare to preach what the Bible has to say about racial hatred. It doesn’t matter that 'He’s a Marxist' or 'He’s a liberal' are absurd charges. The game is just to say them long enough that the people who know they are lies get tired of the truth - so that they will, if not embrace the lie, at least fear the liars enough to get quiet.

On the geo-political level, the metaphor of 'civil death' is appropriate - even when it doesn’t work - because the Bible ties lying so closely to murder. Of the devil, Jesus said: 'He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.' (John 8:44).

Donald Trump – victim and martyr?

Donald Trump – victim and martyr?

Gerald Bray
Gerald Bray

It is not every day that one gets to be an eye-witness of an assassination attempt, but that is what happened to me and to thousands of Americans on 13 July as we sat watching the evening news.

Donald Trump was holding a political rally that the networks were covering, when suddenly shots rang out and blood started flowing from his right ear. It soon became clear that one man was killed, two others were injured and that Donald Trump himself had come within inches of losing his life. What motivated the shooter will probably never be known, since he was soon dispatched by security forces - but his action changed the American political landscape almost instantly.