Rarely have I seen such a sorry sight as the rows of obsequious, evangelical sycophants lined up on either side of president Trump in the Rose Garden 
last Thursday. Basking in the bogus allure of Oval Office access, partisan grins stretched from cheek to cheek, they all had deceived themselves into believed they were actually doing something for the kingdom of God.
Such is the delusion of the American, conservative church today.
Trump’s 2018 Proclamation for the National Day of Prayer is a typically bland pronouncement of nationalistic, idolatrous platitudes. It is a tasteless
porridge perfectly pronouncing the half-baked ideologies of American exceptionalism, nationalism, patriotism and civil religion that erects a spiritual wall of partition, separating so many from the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The gospel of American greatness is a false gospel. Its monuments are pagan altars where U.S. soldiers are sacrificed to the American Baal. Watching the mindless smiles of these evangelical “leaders,” betraying their gospel responsibilities, fawning shamelessly over the man we call “president” reminded me of the apostate people described in Daniel 11:32:
“With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.”
How much more corrupted can people like Paula White, Pat Robertson, Robert Jeffress, Johnnie Moore and James Dobson become as they continue to violate the new covenant morality of God’s kingdom exemplified by the Lord Jesus?
When did Jesus ever loosen his grip on his Father’s scruples in exchange for political privilege? Recall that Jesus faced this very offer as a demonic temptation. Yet, Jesus scorned the Oval Office, saying,
“Away from me Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
For too much of the world “making America great again” translates into “keeping them oppressed again,” oppressed by right wing dictatorships propped up by U.S. dollars; oppressed by American-made bombs killing poor, innocent civilians living in poor, desolate countries; oppressed by resource exploitation and environmental pollution at the hands of insatiable American corporations; and oppressed by heartless, economic manipulation as entire nations wriggle under the thumb of more World Bank “austerity measures.”
America has become the Whore of Babylon to much of the world and should
be seen this way by all right-thinking disciples. We are the
“…woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. This title was written on her forehead:
MYSTERY
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
(Revelation 17:3-5)