An Open Letter To Evangelical Trump Supporters

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I don’t have high hopes that many conservative white evangelicals will take the time to read this, partly because 80% of them haven’t listened to any criticism of their support for Trump over the last 8 years, but also because I grew up a conservative white evangelical and I know how insulated and effective the evangelical bubble can be, particularly when paired with the belief that any and all criticism is actually persecution and therefore a sign that you’re doing something right. 

But I want say what I have to say anyway because I need to get it off my chest. Maybe it’s just my own way of expressing the grief and anger that’s been building for 8 years only to erupt into a new nightmare this week, but I know I also speak for many others who feel the same but may be hurting too much right not to put their grief into words. (If that’s you, please feel free to share this.)

The long and short of it is this: I don’t think the conservative white evangelicals who have thrown their support behind Trump comprehend or even care about the irreparable damage they have done both to the Church and the relationships in their own lives with people who are not MAGA. 

Their belief that their faith alone has saved them and set them apart from the world creates a sense of self-righteousness that inoculates them from self-reflection, from even conceiving of the possibility that they would ever be complicit, let alone actively engaged in evil. And, to be fair, few if any of us - Christian or otherwise - seek to do evil or harm others. But evangelicals have spent generations demanding others search their hearts for sin, yet now refuse to do the same themselves. 

Free from the burden of shame and self-reflection they support a man who is anti-Christ in every conceivable way while celebrating the white supremacist agenda he’s promised to enact, deflecting criticism of those facts as the hyperbole and partisan overreaction of sore losers. Which makes a certain kind of sense. As straight, white, conservative evangelicals they have nothing to fear because very little Trump has promised to do will have any negative impact on their lives whatsoever. So they can write off criticism as merely a difference of opinion never stopping to consider or even care about the harm they have caused and will continue to cause to their neighbors, friends, and family for the foreseeable future.

In their steadfast refusal to accept any responsibility, they claim it is those of us who call out racism, bigotry, and injustice that are the ones sowing division, not the people who support it. Seeing themselves as above the fray of politics they shame anyone who speaks out and attack them for their supposed inability to just agree to disagree. 

But we don’t have a difference of opinion. 

We have an irreconcilable difference of morality, faith, and what it means to be a decent human being. 

Which is why things can never going to back to normal, not in the Church or in our relationships. You have made it clear over, over, and over again who you are and what you support. The world outside the Church has seen how you sanctify racism, bigotry, and oppression and they want nothing to do with you or your faith. Neither do those of us who call the Church home. It has become clear that while we may speak the same theological language, we have a fundamental and irreconcilable understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We still love Jesus. It’s your apostasy and cruelty we reject. 

If you’re still reading this, I’m sure this isn’t breaking news. Over the last 8 years you’ve probably noticed people disappear from your life. Maybe you care, maybe you don’t. Either way you’ll soon find many more people in your life who until now have found ways to hold onto relationships despite your devotion to Trump, but can no longer do so. The wounds you’ve caused are deep and the sense of betrayal to the faith we claim to share is strong, but ultimately we must part ways because we cannot be a part of, we cannot condone, we cannot normalize the racism, bigotry, and hate you have chosen to embrace.

It’s important that you know this is not because we’re simply disappointed in the election. This is much bigger than Harris or Trump. We’re disappointed in you and disgusted by the racism, bigotry, and hate you’ve chosen to embrace in the name of Jesus. We’re shaking the dust off of our sandals and moving on (if we haven’t already).

It’s not a decision we take or took lightly. Whether you believe it our not, the broken relationships in our lives hurt us greatly and have for almost a decade now. But we love the women in our lives, our LGBTQ friends, non-white friends, and immigrant neighbors too much to stand by, stay silent, and pretend that all is well. 

To be clear, this is not an invitation to debate. It’s just an explanation of where things stand for a lot of us right now. The time for debate has long since passed. Thinking that it has not, further proves the inability of conservative white evangelicals to comprehend the damage they have done. 

I hope one day things will change. I hope one day you will be able to see the pain you’ve caused and choose follow Jesus once more. 

I really do. 

But we won’t be waiting around any longer for that to happen.