by W.D. Ehrhart
I recently had lunch with a man who’d grown up in my home town. I don’t know him well, but I’ve known him for 70 of my 77 years. He is a good and decent man, a husband, father, and grandfather fully engaged in the life of his community.
Before we ate lunch, he bowed his head and folded his hands in prayer. And when we parted, he whispered in my ear, “Remember the empty tomb,” a reminder that Christ Is Risen and alive in this world.
But this man also voted for Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and has no regrets about having done so. And I simply cannot understand why anyone who professes to be a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ can possibly explain or justify supporting a person who openly mocks the disabled; sexually abuses women; hates and seeks to punish anyone who opposes him; is intolerant of diversity, anyone who’s not “white,” the LGBTQ community, and immigrants both illegal and legal; cozies up to murderers like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Mohammed bin Salman; spends billions of dollars to build himself a ballroom while screwing millions of Americans out of the money they need merely to feed themselves and their families; enriches himself, his family, and his friends at the expense of absolutely everyone else; and… well, I could go on, but you get the point.
I happen to know a fair amount about the Bible and what it tells us about the kind of man Jesus of Nazareth was. My father was a Protestant minister. I went to Sunday school and church every week for the first 15 & ½ years of my life. In my pre-teens, I even had to go to vacation Bible school for two weeks every summer. And throughout my entire life, I have had all sorts of occasions to return to the Bible.
The man I find in my Bible—the guy Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us about—used to hang around with a lot of working-class folks. Of his closest friends, the disciples, at least four were fishermen, and maybe several others as well; one was a tax collector (not a respectable profession in those days), another perhaps a carpenter like Jesus himself, and another possibly associated with the radically anti-Roman Zealots.
Jesus certainly didn’t hang around with the Pharisees and Sadducees, or with King Herod and his courtiers, let alone any of the Roman rulers of Judea. He didn’t actually think very well of rich people, saying that it was easier for a camel to go through “the eye of the needle” than for a rich man to get into heaven. And when the rich and dishonest tax collector Zacchaeus tells Jesus he will give half of his wealth to the poor and pay back four-fold all those he has cheated, Jesus replies, “Today salvation has come to this house.”
Consider the only time he ever got visibly angry and resorted to violence. That was all about rich people: the money-changers and merchants in the temple. He overturns their tables, scatters their coins, and even uses a whip to drive them away. Not exactly a big fan of capitalism or the profit motive.
Speaking of which, throughout the Gospels, there are at least 23 instances of Jesus healing the sick and ministering to the lame—the most famous incidents are bringing Lazarus back from the dead, healing a leper, and restoring the ear of the high priest’s servant that got hacked off by one of the disciples on the night of Jesus’s arrest. And it’s even better than single-payer health insurance, because he does it all for free. Doesn’t ask for one shekel.
Moreover, he doesn’t want anyone to go hungry either. That’s what the story of the five loaves and two fishes is all about. He feeds thousands of hungry people. And again, he does it all for free. Doesn’t even have any kind of need-based criteria.
And as for tolerance, love and compassion for those in need, Jesus tells about the man who was beaten and left for dead by the side of the road. Several “respectable” people passed by, but none of them stopped to help the injured man. However, a Samaritan, a member of an outcast group other Jews looked down on, stopped and helped the man, saving his life and financially providing for his further recovery.
Consider the famous Sermon on the Mount with its eight beatitudes. I think in particular of these: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth; blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy; blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God; blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Children of God.
How many of these can we ascribe to the 47th president of the United States? Or to his administration: the Stephen Millers, Pam Bondis, Kash Patels, Kristi Noems, Pete Hegseths, and their ilk?
So I’d like to ask all you Christians who are reading this: would Jesus of Nazareth, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, the Light of the World, have voted for Donald J. Trump even once, let alone three times?
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W.D. Ehrhart is a retired Master Teacher of History & English, and author of a Vietnam War memoir trilogy also published by McFarland.