Remember back when now-Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was White House Press Secretary during Trump 1.0? Holly Meyer reported at the start of the first Trump Administration:
Did God really want Donald Trump to be president?That simplistic kind of religious take doesn’t hold up well to serious secular or religious scrutiny.
That's what White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders thinks, according to an interview she gave Wednesday for the Christian Broadcasting Network's news program.
"I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president," Sanders said, according to CBN News. "That's why he's there and I think he has done a tremendous job in supporting a lot of the things that people of faith really care about." (1)
This was really just a way of her saying that God is on Trump’s side which happened to also be her side. And it essentially takes political democracy as a hollow, meaningless shell. If God is making the choice of rulers, does it matter what the political institutions are?
In fact, the Christian Right fundamentalist religious segment actually puts a high emphasis on personal choice, blaming individuals for their own sin and making the individual’s choice on religious beliefs and affiliation the critical difference between going to Heaven or burning for eternity in Hell.
James Hudnut-Beumler, a Vanderbilt professor of religious history, gives a good, concise explanation of how a very selective use of Christian Scripture can be used to say that only leaders they support were put there by God.It strikes me that a more responsible Christian view than the Huckabee- Sanders one would be to see the US as a democracy in which citizens have a responsibility to choose between less-than-godlike candidates. And that God expects Christians to try seriously to make responsible choices.
It is rooted in an interpretation of Romans 13 that claims Christians need to obey leaders because God put them in positions of power for a purpose, Hudnut-Beumler said. In that section of the Bible, the Apostle Paul is explaining how to handle an oppressive, external authority, he said.
"Contemporary evangelicals, because they are so biblically driven, when they find a leader they particularly like, they love to go to Romans 13 in thinking about why people should obey or why God has perhaps raised up this leader in this time and what providential role this leader, in this case President Trump, should have," Hudnut-Beumler said. [my emphasis]
Given the shortage of divine qualities among both voters and candidates, presumably God isn‘t entirely thrilled with either the elected officials or the very human voters who choose them.
Hudnut-Beumler there is politely observing that even Christians who are sincerely trying to apply their religious beliefs to contemporary political choices are attracted to a God-is-on-our-side view. It’s a way of dismissing personal and collective political responsibility without seriously thinking through the implications of the actions of governments being controlled by a Divine Being. While at the same moment ignoring the also-very-Christian notion of free will.
It also leads to such confused foolishness as that of one of the best known American Christian Zionists, John Hagee, leader of the Christians United For Israel (CUFI) group.
The staunchly pro-Israel, Evangelical pastor is the leader of America’s most prominent Christian Zionist organization, Christians United for Israel, and has used that influence to lobby the US government on a variety of issues—including Trump’s controversial choice to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (something foreign policy experts recommended against). But beyond his controversial Evangelical lobbying, Hagee has wielded his beliefs to rally against gay marriage and adoption, women, and even Jewish people.Notice that his qualification there is classic non-apology apology, with a touch of superficial humility. His Hurricane Katrina comment, of course, was an obvious endorsement of the ideas that God wants to kill people who are gay or tolerant of gays.
“God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land,” the pastor claimed in a 1999 sermon. (He apologized almost a decade later, saying that “I grappled with the vexing question of why a loving God would allow the evil of the Holocaust to occur…I regret if my Jewish friends felt any pain as a result.”)
After Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 2,000 people, Hagee blamed it on gay people. “There was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” (He later semi-apologized, saying, “Neither I nor any other person can know the mind of God concerning Hurricane Katrina. I should not have suggested otherwise.”) [my emphasis] (2)
Here is a new interview with religious studies professor Anthea Butler on Christian nationalism and Christian Zionism: (3)
Notes:
(1) Meyer, Holly (2019): Sarah Huckabee Sanders says God wanted Trump to be president. She's not the only one who believes that. The Tennessean 01/31/2019. <https://eu.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2019/01/31/sarah-huckabee-sanders-says-god-wanted-donald-trump-president/2734206002/> (Accessed: 2025-31-05).
(2) Carnell, Henry & Van Pykeren, Sam (2023): He Claimed God Sent Hitler to Create Israel. Now He’s Speaking at the Pro-Israel Rally. What? Mother Jones 11/14/2023. <https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/john-hagee-hitler-israel-rally-christian-zionist/> (Accessed: 2025-31-05).
(3) The growing influence of Christian Nationalism and Christian Zionism in the United States – UpFront. Al Jazeera English YouTube channel 05/30/2025. <https://youtu.be/nM8bXD2FpQ4?si=6T-czPMrvwuNqiXL> (Accessed: 2025-31-05).
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