Yes, The Trump Government Should Wield The Sword Against Progressivism
I’ve written far more on political theology in the last couple of years than I ever thought I would (see here, here, and here, for example). I suppose that desperate times call for decisive measures.
To put the matter bluntly, a lot of evangelical Christians—including pastors—have discovered that their grasp of the intersection between theology and politics is insufficient to navigate the waters we now swim in. For while it may have been true a few decades ago that Christians could make reasonable arguments for supporting one political party or the other, the Democratic Party’s snowballing departure from sanity and reality has made that case increasingly difficult to make.
Not that some haven’t tried to do so. The “New Evangelicals” and the “Evangelicals for Harris” are two such groups. (Like Gandalf, who would not utter the language of Mordor in decent places, I refuse to post a link to their pages here.) These are professing evangelicals who did everything in their power to push their heterodox theology and progressive politics in the confessing church.
We should praise God that they failed. But as one of those groups said after Harris’s defeat, “Just to be clear, we won’t be going away.” It’s my contention that those who have the authority and ability to help them go away should do so posthaste. As God himself has said, “A wise king winnows the wicked and drives the wheel over them” (Prov. 20:26).
To be sure, President Trump is no king, and there are many days when we might wonder what is the extent of his wisdom. But this much is sure: the Lord instituted civil authorities to be “God’s servant [minister!] for your good” one who “does not bear the sword in vain” (Rom. 13:4), as authority “sent by [God] to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Pet. 2:14).
Let me hasten to add, before any Karen starts clutching her pearls, that Christians have long understood “the sword” to mean coercive power, including the passing of laws that punish wrongdoing harmful to individuals or societies. As Martin Luther wrote, “And indeed, if there were a well-ordered government in the land, such wantonness might soon be checked and prevented, as was the custom in ancient times among the Romans, where such characters were promptly seized by the pate in a way that others took warning.”
Happily, this is something that Trump seems to understand, as he recently announced a plan to immediately stop “the chemical, physical and emotional mutilation of our youth” by revoking Joe Biden’s “cruel policies on so-called gender affirming care.” He plans to sign an executive order that will stop all government programs that promote the concept of sex transitioning at any age. Additionally, he plans to ask Congress to pass a law that prohibits taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for these surgeries and allowing victims to sue the doctors who butchered them. And while Christians may wish that Trump would change his mind and do something similar regarding marriage, we can still be thankful for this measure. This is what it looks like to use the coercive power of the sword to stop evil.
Sadly, I suspect some Christians will object to such a move. Isn’t the proper domain of governing authorities the promotion and punishment of civil, not theological, acts of righteousness and wickedness? That claim is actually a matter of some debate in the Reformed tradition, but even if we grant the premise that governing authorities should only concern themselves with public actions, this does not let progressives off the hook. For, isn’t the mutilation of children in the name of transgenderism both theological and civil wickedness? The same goes for vile DEI policies that denigrate the image of God by suggesting—in Orwellian fashion—that some skin colors are more equal than others. And, as the preacher said, time would fail me to mention the dangers of censored speech, the harm of runaway inflation, the destruction of illegal immigration, and the evil of celebrating abortion.
The appointed rulers of America may not be able to do much about the errant theological basis undergirding such policies, but they can certainly do something about the public practice of them. And they should do so with all their might. For righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne (Ps. 89:14), and we are not loving our neighbors—nor the God who made them—when we permit wicked policies to trample the masses (Matt. 22:37–39; cf. Prov. 29:2).
Again, I am under no delusions that the power of the sword is sufficient to stop evil ideas from growing in darkened hearts (Eph. 4:18–19). But it can slow the spread of social contagion as the church carries on her evangelistic work (Matt. 28:18–20).
Yes, the gospel can be preached in any place (Acts 16:25ff), for the word of God is never fully bound (2 Tim. 2:9). Yet Paul also spoke of Satan “hindering” him from bringing the gospel to certain people (1 Thess. 2:18). And history shows that the blood of the martyrs is not always the seed of the church. (Just ask the people of Japan.)
What, then, should God’s people do in such a time as this? First, we ought to praise God with joyful hearts. It is good and right to celebrate the defeat of progressivism at the ballot box. As God once said to the wicked Assyrians, “All who hear the news about you will clap their hands because of you, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?” (Nahum 3:19). Second, Christians must keep putting their hands to the plow (Luke 9:62). For though the forces of darkness have suffered a political setback, we cannot forget that, like the Evangelicals For Harris, they won’t being going away unless and until they are winnowed or won to Christ, who is the Lord of all.