A Retired Prophetpastor – John M. Miller
From polls taken in 2016, 2020, and 2024, the percentage of American Evangelicals who voted for Donald Trump as president was averaged 85%. In light of what happened in Mr. Trump’s first term, and especially what has already transpired in his second term, it is obvious that in the social aspects of Christianity, they have completely ignored biblical precepts.
There are instances throughout the Bible in which wealthy people are exalted, but there are far more where wealth is perceived to be a detriment to a healthy spirituality. The Bible seems to imply that the rich can take care of themselves; it is the poor who need the assistance of the larger community. In the modern world, that includes national governments.
Christians of good intent might and do differ on what constitutes the words “rich” and “poor,” and what sort of assistance should be given to the poor, but I do not intend to address that in this short essay. I will say this, however: Usually we can tell who is rich and who is poor by merely looking at the homes they live in or the cars they do (or don’t) drive, with everybody else in between. To deny that there are poor people is to evade a major biblical thrust.
In being the primary force in the Trump political base, Evangelicals have clearly indicated that it is Trump’s political decisions they support, and they totally overlook his social decisions. Particularly in the scores of executive orders that he has made without asking for any collaboration from Congress, and also with the backing of the court system, the Supreme Court being the most glaring example, the president has heavily undercut what the federal government has traditionally done for generations to help the poor. It was bad enough under President 45; it is horrendous under President 47.
The Big Beautiful Bill has eliminated much or all of the benefits the USA contributed to its poorest citizens for many decades. His America First attitude is an obvious affront to legal and illegal immigrants, and many of his other executive orders deliberately punish people in poverty simply for having the temerity to be poor. By virtually gutting the United States Agency for International Development, Trump has also single-handedly negated most of our assistance to poor people in other nations.
Why has there been no significant disavowal of the president among Evangelicals? It is because they believe in his conservative politics, completely ignoring altogether their own conservative views on what has long been known as the Social Gospel.
No one in holy writ was more concerned for the poor than Jesus. Perhaps it was because he was one of them, although that can never be historically authenticated. In any case, in chapter and verse Jesus elevates the poor and excoriates the rich. Consider the following, among many other passages: “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Luke 6:24); the parable of the rich fool (Lk. 12:13-21); the story of the rich young ruler (Mt. 19:16-30); “When you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed; for they cannot repay you” (Lk.13).
In the past, it was the “Frozen Chosen” who were the rich American Christians: the Episcopalians and Presbyterians; increasingly, they are the Evangelicals. And in the past, the Evangelicals were among the lowest levels of American Christians in income; could it be that the Evangelicals also are wanting a large piece of the American pie, now that they too are much larger?
Jesus warned all of us about the corruptive influence of wealth. Does the voting pattern of Evangelicals indicate they have been corrupted? As Robert Welch said to Sen. Joseph McCarthy long ago in the Army-McCarthy Hearings, “Have you no shame?”
It is easy to understand why some neo-conservative Republicans would vote for Donald Trump. But Evangelicals? Why do they continue to show unceasing support for a man who is evangelically unsupportable? – July 22, 2025
John Miller is a retired minister who lives on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org, and he may reached personally at jmmiller2407hhi@gmail.com