Why We Should Pray for President Trump

Even if we don't like him.

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

Do you consider yourself a critic of Donald Trump? Would you pray for President-elect Trump? Will you pray for him once he becomes President? If you’re a pastor, will you pray for him by name during worship?

As a pastor who has criticized Trump since he came down that golden escalator nearly a decade ago, this is a personal question for me. Do you pray for the well-being of someone who has denounced immigrants that they govern well?

I think you do, even if it is hard to do. And it is hard to do.

In the aftermath of Trump’s first win in 2016, the then-Episcopal bishop of Chicago, Jeff Lee, wrote to his diocese to pray for the newly elected president. That didn’t sit well with one person, who responded by telling the bishop to stop admiring Trump. This was not the intent of Bishop Lee’s letter, but it did give him a sign of how intense some people’s responses to Trump are.

In a 2017 Episcopal News Service article some Episcopalians responded by saying they refrained from mentioning Trump’s name because of the trauma he might bring up because of his comments considered racist or misogynistic. But the then Presiding Bishop Michael Curry also said that praying for Trump was a challenge to the faithfulness to the gospel. As he said in the article, “This is when religion gets real.”

Over the years, it’s been easy for me to see Donald Trump like so many who are critical of him: as a nativist, a racist, a threat to democracy. But one thing I didn’t do is see him in the way God might see him: as a child a God. A craptacular child of God, but one of God’s children nevertheless that needs my prayer.

In the run-up to the election in November, I prayed for both presidential candidates by name. It was never easy to name Trump, but I still did it. I want to pray that President Trump will be a leader who leads with justice and humility toward the flourishing of society.

No, I’m not smoking anything, and I haven’t become a Trump supporter. I know who Donald Trump is and wouldn’t be surprised if the second Trump term is as shambolic as the first. But if I want to see change in our society, maybe I need to get down on my knees instead of always raising a fist.

And that’s why I think praying is so important this time around. For the last few years, Christians who opposed Trump tended to focus on politics and the law alone to counter the former and future President. For a lot of reasons (some of which were self-inflicted by anti-Trumpers) that approach failed. A lot of Christians still think this is the correct approach. While that tactic has its plusses, it also has its minuses as well. It was a narrative that was too self-congratulatory and certain. There is a place for this view and I’m not saying it should be retired. But I think part of the problem is that we tend to think that this whole politics thing is all on us. Too often we reduce God to a cheerleader for our side of the political argument. But God is a living, breathing God. When we read Scripture we are introduced to a God that affects change in our world. Read the Hebrew Scripture or Old Testament where God calls leaders to rule Israel. God is not on the sidelines but is in the thick of it.

When we pray, we pray that the incoming President will govern with justice. That doesn’t mean God valorizes our political agenda, but God’s justice shines through.

There is another reason to pray for Donald Trump: grace. As Christians, we understand that God has shown grace to us. As my favorite verse in the Bible says, “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us,” (Romans 5:8). Trump doesn’t deserve our prayers, but we pray anyway because we didn’t get what we deserve from God.

So, it’s time for religion to get real. I don’t know if I will pray for Donald Trump every Sunday, but I am going to pray as much as possible for his benefit and mine.