The initial “prayers” lead to a deeper reflection on polarisation in the public space, hatred, and the need for a biblical vision to change the direction of the country.
Front page of the newspaper USA Today, on 14 July 2024. / Photo: [link]USA Today[/link].
The assassination attempt on Donald Trump, former United States president and candidate to lead the country again, has created a worldwide stir, taking centre stage in the global media this weekend.
“I’m supposed to be dead, I’m not supposed to be here”, the Republican candidate told the media the day after the attack (which happened on 13 July), adding that he had been saved “by luck or God”.
A man attending the political rally in Pennsylvania was killed by one of eight bullets shot by the attacker, a 20-year-old man. Two other people were seriously injured.
Representatives from across the country, including president Joe Bien, who is expected to be Trump's rival in the November election, expressed their “prayers” and solidarity. Pastors, churches and Christian organisations also expressed their rejection and concern about the political violence.
Some evangelicals with a recognised voice in matters of public life and gospel shared more elaborate reflections on the state of the nation the following day.
Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today magazine, published on Sunday 14 July an article addressing the “twisted quest for human glory of Trump’s would-be assassin”.
“Psychologists tell us that people who engage in terrorism of any sort are often well aware of how lasting this kind of notoriety can be”. “‘You desire and do not have, so you murder’, the apostle James wrote. ‘You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel’ (4:2). What is desired in a murderous rage? Often, it is the created but twisted longing for recognition—for notoriety—and meaning”, Moore continues.
The column on CT ends with a call to Christians. “We need to proclaim a different sort of significance, a different sort of meaning, a different sort of belonging”, writes Moore. “We can remind ourselves that we need not clamor for our own glory, whether in heroic acts of goodness or in notorious acts of violence. We can find it by humbling ourselves before the future glory that is hidden now in Christ”.
In another influential Christian magazine in the US, World Magazine, theologian R. Albert Mohler writes: “Just the slightest deviation in the path of that ammunition round would have changed a bleeding ear into a dead former president, even as Trump is just days from his official nomination as the Republican candidate in the coming election”.
One of the lessons to remember, says Mohler, is that the “fragility of life is essential to our understanding of the gift of life. In a world of sin and evil, assassins and pathogens, every breath we take is a gift”.
Mohler goes on to say that that “Donald Trump (and the watching world as well) must surely know in his heart that something far greater than luck preserved his life”.
For the author, “the 2024 election looms large as we consider the future of our nation. Those who see no higher plane than politics are increasingly desperate. Christians cannot share that kind of desperation”.
The same day, in an opinion column on The Christian Post titled “Please, please, please, we must all tone things down”, radio host Michael Brown underlines that “all of us are responsible for the words we speak, for the posts we share, for the memes we create, for the environments we shape”.
“And all of us would do well to look in the mirror and ask ourselves some honest questions: Am I fostering godly conviction or breeding vile hatred? Am I helping to produce courage and fortitude or do my words lead to hostility and disdain?”
Brown says Christians should “be disseminators of light not darkness, agents of God rather than servants of Satan, calling for courage and conviction around righteous causes but with civility toward our political and ideological adversaries. Otherwise, all of us lose”.
“While it will be easy to use this moment as an opportunity to dig in our heels, I urge Americans to pause, lament this violence, and realize how far we have strayed from our nation’s ideals”, said Brent Leatherwood of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (the largest evangelical denomination in the US).
“Let’s commit to praying for our leaders, those who are willing to serve in public office”, he added, “and appeal to our Lord that His reconciling work would be poured out on this nation to overcome the hatred that is so prevalent in our culture”.
Political violence is completely unacceptable & an egregious threat to the democracy we hold dear. We thank God that former President Trump was not seriously hurt. We pray for his recovery & continued protection. We pray for those impacted at the rally. We pray for our country.
— National Association of Evangelicals (@NAEvangelicals) July 14, 2024
Meanwhile, the National Association of Evangelicals (the body representing US evangelicals in the World Evangelical Alliance), said: “Political violence is completely unacceptable & an egregious threat to the democracy we hold dear”.
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