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Not Saved by God [1]

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Date: 2025-01-21

Donald Trump is likely the most irreligious president ever elected. He has consistently displayed a troubling relationship with faith and religion. He has no favorite book from the Bible, once famously referred to a book as “Two Corinthians,” and admitted that he has never asked God to forgive him. His attempt to project a sense of religious devotion included taking a Bible to Lafayette Square but holding it upside down. He has no identifiable hometown church and has publicly promoted “God Bless the U.S.A.” Bible, aka the “Trump Bible,” selling it for $59.99. Trump’s difficulties in discussing his faith candidly during interviews only further highlight his distance from genuine religious understanding. And yesterday, as Trump took the Oath of Office, he did not place his hand on the two Bibles that Melania was holding—one was the Lincoln Bible, the other a bible he received from his mother in 1955. While a bible isn’t required, why have them if you aren’t going to use them? In 2017, he did place his hand on the same two Bibles. So now, is this like making a promise with one hand behind your back with your fingers crossed, which means you do not have to keep the promise? Since he didn’t keep his oath in his first term, there should not be any expectation of him doing so this time around.

Yet, in his January 20, 2025, inaugural address, Trump declared, “I was saved by God,” in reference to the assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. These words, made on Martin Luther King Jr. Day—a day dedicated to service and reflection on civil rights—was more about self-aggrandizement than faith. Trump’s statement represents not a deep religious conviction but rather hubris wrapped in narcissism. It plays to his base, particularly White Nationalists, who see in him a leader capable of restoring an imagined, racially homogenous “great America.” Trump’s use of religious language, while invoking a sense of divine intervention, suggests a disturbing appeal to a religious-nationalist agenda rather than any true devotion.

Several evangelical pastors have elevated Trump, viewing him through a lens of divine purpose. Hank Kunneman described Trump’s election as a “battle between good and evil,” while Jack Hibbs called the Butler assassination attempt divine protection, claiming it was a sign of God’s favor. Jentezen Franklin suggested that Trump’s life had been spared for a greater purpose, reinforcing the idea that Trump is on a divinely ordained mission. Rodney Howard-Browne, in particular, has gone so far as to refer to Trump as a “savior” sent by God to lead the nation. This remark strikes at the heart of the theological distortions some have embraced in their political fervor.

However, Trump’s full statement— “I was saved by God to make America great again” —raises this question: Why was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most important and influential religious leaders in American history, not spared in the same way? King, who James Earl Ray assassinated on April 4, 1968, dedicated his life to the service of justice, yet he was not “saved” by God. If Trump claims that God saved him, he must address this glaring contradiction, or else his argument reveals a profound ignorance of both theology and history.

In reality, Trump’s survival was a matter of luck, not divine intervention. As he acknowledged, “If I hadn’t pointed at that chart and turned my head to look at it, that bullet would have hit me right in the head.” Luck—not divine will—saved him. The absurdity of Trump’s claim of divine favor is laid bare in his own words, when he credited his survival to a simple moment of extraordinary luck, nothing more.

Trump’s appeal to White Nationalists and Evangelical Christians is steeped in irony. Many Evangelicals have sacrificed their faith on the altar of his political agenda, elevating him to a false god. Their Christianity has become a mockery, distorted into a political-religious cult that would be unrecognizable to Jesus, whose message emphasized love, humility, and justice—not nationalism or exclusion. In this warped vision of faith, Trump is not a servant of God but a self-appointed instrument of human will—his own.

Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute and an expert on white supremacy in American Christianity, has noted that the slogan “Make America Great Again” echoes an “ethno-religious vision of a white Christian America, just barely underneath the surface.” This understanding of the slogan exposes the deeply troubling intersection of faith and politics that has taken root within parts of the evangelical community.

The embrace of Trump by many Evangelical Christians represents a tragic compromise of faith for political power. Trump’s relationship with religion has been one of convenience and opportunism, with his rhetoric more concerned with self-glorification than genuine spiritual conviction. This unholy alliance between politics and faith—rooted in nationalism, exclusion, and personal gain—undermines the core teachings of Christianity and distorts the very essence of the religious message that Evangelicals claim to uphold—not faith but heresy.

Time left to January 20, 2029: 1,460 days

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