Dear friend,
I want to be honest with you before I say anything else tonight.
What I am about to write will cost me subscribers. I know that. Some of you will read this and decide that Father Thomas has gone too far. That he has crossed a line from faith into politics. That this is not what you signed up for.
I understand. And I am saying it anyway.
Because I am an old man with a limited number of days left. And I have run out of reasons to stay quiet about something I have been watching for years and have been too careful to name directly.
So tonight I am naming it.
Here is what I believe.
Most of the Christians who oppose Donald Trump are not following their conscience.
They are following their social circle.
I want to be careful about how I say this because I mean it precisely and I do not want it to be misunderstood. I am not saying that every Christian who has concerns about this man is wrong or faithless or compromised. Faithful people can look at the same man and arrive at different conclusions about his character and his fitness for office.
What I am saying is something more specific than that.
I am saying that the majority of Christians who actively oppose him — who speak against him in their churches and their family gatherings and their social media accounts — are not doing so because they have prayed carefully and studied Scripture and arrived at a conviction that costs them something to hold.
They are doing so because the people around them do.
Because opposition to this man is the socially acceptable position in the circles they move in. Because supporting him would cost them something — a friendship, a reputation, an invitation, a seat at a table they value. Because the path of least resistance in their particular social world runs directly through opposition to him. And they have dressed that path of least resistance in the language of conscience and faith and called it discernment.
It is not discernment. It is social pressure with a theological costume on.
I want to show you where Scripture addresses this directly. Because this is not a new problem. And the Bible does not treat it gently.
In John chapter 12 verse 42 and 43 there is a passage I have returned to more times than almost any other in fifty years with the Church.
Many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.
They loved human praise more than the praise of God.
Not — they carefully examined the evidence and arrived at a different conclusion. Not — they prayed and felt led in a different direction. They loved the approval of the people around them more than the approval of God. And so they took the position that kept them in the room. That kept the invitations coming. That kept the relationships intact and the reputation undamaged.
And John records it as a failure of faith. Not a difference of opinion. A failure of faith.
I want to ask you something directly.
Think of the Christians in your life who oppose this man most loudly. The ones who post about it. Who bring it up at family gatherings. Who have made their opposition a visible and consistent part of how they present themselves to the world.
Now ask yourself this question honestly.
If their social circle held the opposite view — if the people they respected and wanted to impress supported this man rather than opposed him — do you believe their position would be the same?
I have been asking myself that question about person after person for years. And the honest answer, in most cases, is no.
The position follows the social circle. The theology is constructed afterward to justify it.
That is not faith. That is what the Bible calls the fear of man. And Proverbs chapter 29 verse 25 is very clear about what the fear of man produces.
Fear of man will prove to be a snare. But whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.
A snare. Not a difference of opinion. A snare. A trap. Something that catches you and holds you and prevents you from moving in the direction God is calling you.
Now I want to say something to the people reading this who recognize themselves in what I just described.
Not with condemnation. With understanding.
I know what it costs to hold an unpopular position inside a social circle that has decided the matter. I know what it feels like to be the one at the table who will not agree. To watch the eyes change when you say the wrong thing. To feel the temperature drop and know that something has shifted and that getting it back will require you to soften what you just said.
I have felt that in fifty years with the Church more times than I can count. The pressure to be agreeable. To find the middle ground. To say something that costs nothing and offends no one and means nothing when examined carefully.
And I want to tell you what I have learned about that pressure across five decades of feeling it.
It never goes away. It only gets louder the longer you listen to it. And the people who eventually say what they believe at the cost of something real are never the ones who waited until it felt safe to say it. Because it never feels safe. You just decide that what you believe is worth more than the safety.
That is exactly the decision I made when I wrote They Tried To Stop Him: What The Bible Says About Donald Trump.
Not because I was certain it would be received well. Not because I was comfortable saying it. Because I looked at what Scripture says about this man and this moment and decided that staying quiet about it was the same thing I just described in the people I was criticizing.
Social pressure dressed as caution. Fear of man dressed as wisdom.
I wrote it because I believe it is true. And I believe the people who read it will find in it something they have been looking for without knowing exactly what they were looking for — the Biblical case made plainly and without apology for what they already sense is happening.
You can find it by clicking on the image below:
Alternatively, you may find it here: https://fatherthomasletters.com/products/they-tried-to-stop-him-what-the-bible-says-about-donald-trump
I want to close with one more thing.
In First Kings chapter 18 Elijah stood before all of Israel on Mount Carmel and asked them a question that has echoed across three thousand years.
How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God follow him. But if Baal is God follow him.
And the people said nothing.
That silence is the thing I keep coming back to. Not active opposition. Not careful theological reasoning that led them to a different conclusion. Silence. The silence of people who had not decided. Who were waiting to see which way things went before they committed to a position. Who were managing both options until one became obviously safer than the other.
Elijah called it wavering between two opinions. The Bible calls it a failure of faith.
You do not have to waver tonight, friend. You already know what you believe. You have known for a long time. The question has never been what you believe. The question has been whether you are willing to believe it out loud, in front of the people for whom it will cost you something.
That is the question Elijah asked on Mount Carmel. It is the same question tonight.
God bless you. Say what you believe.
With you in prayer always,
Father Thomas
This week I want you to do three things:
One. Read First Kings chapter 18 verses 17 through 40 this week. The whole account of Mount Carmel. Pay attention to the silence of the people when Elijah asks his question. Pay attention to what it took to break that silence. Let it ask you the same question it asked them.
Two. Think of one person in your life who you believe is holding a position because of their social circle rather than their conscience. Do not confront them. Pray for them specifically by name this week. Ask God to give them the courage to say what they actually believe rather than what keeps them in the room.
Three. Read They Tried To Stop Him this week: https://fatherthomasletters.com/products/they-tried-to-stop-him-what-the-bible-says-about-donald-trump
I wrote it as an act of saying what I believe out loud at the cost of something. Read it as someone who is deciding whether to do the same.