Trump Defies Constitution and Christ

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted September 15, 2025

Since his inauguration President Trump has issued Executive Orders which, in his view, eliminate perceived anti-Christian bias in government regulations and support Christian values. Most recently he reversed the long-standing IRS rule which penalized religious institutions that make political endorsements. These orders, along with his other actions, are both a direct defiance of our Constitution, and a complete contradiction of the values taught by Jesus Christ.

The First Amendment to our Constitution clearly protects us from government imposition of any religion. The lie that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation is easily refuted by Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1797. It begins “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion …” To claim otherwise is to misrepresent actual history.

Equally troubling is the display of gross ignorance of the teachings of Jesus. For example, true Christians know that the first laws are “love God and love your neighbor.” Sending masked, armed operatives to disappear neighbors and terrorize neighborhoods is not love.

Christ preached that one cannot serve both God and wealth. Plastering every visible surface with gold, dealing fraudulently with banks, and privileging billionaires in business and political transactions demonstrate clearly where Trump’s loyalty lies.

Jesus taught “feed the hungry; heal the sick; comfort the afflicted” – administration actions are doing just the opposite. Anti-Christian bias is rampant in the White House. If the president sincerely wants to change that, he needs first to look in the mirror.

First Amendment Challenge

During the months leading up to this year’s general elections, one of the races that I followed with particular interest was the one for governor of Hawaii.  The Republican nominee, Lieutenant Governor James “Duke” Aiona, is closely identified with the International Transformation Network (ITN), an extremely conservative Charismatic Evangelical Christian organization which is aligned with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement.  A win for Aiona could have set the stage for a serious challenge to the First Amendment rights of the citizens of our western-most state, fewer than half of whom are Christian.

The ITN and NAR advocate a brand of Christianity which falls under the general term “Dominionist.”  That is, they seek to place their adherents in positions of power in all areas of society, including business, education, culture, and government.  The ultimate goal is to transform a multi-cultural, democratic society where minorities enjoy constitutional protection and religious freedom into a theocracy in which divergent beliefs are marginalized or eliminated.

Questions about a Tragedy

During the days following the massacre in Arizona, I spent hours at my computer, searching a number of websites for news, commentary, analysis; trying to make some sense of this most recent national tragedy.  While it is still too soon to know all the details of the accused shooter’s mental state and motivation – and indeed, perhaps we never will – several larger questions about the kind of society we have created for ourselves have clearly emerged.  In this column I propose to explore what Scripture can teach us about several of those questions.