Donald Trump Is 'Morally Unqualified' but Christians Don't Need Qualified Gov't, John Piper Says
As America gets ready for the presidency of New York billionaire Donald Trump, John Piper, founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary called the president-elect a "morally unqualified" leader but said Christians have never required a morally qualified leader to thrive.
"I regard Donald Trump as not qualified for the presidency. But today he will become president," Piper wrote in a Desiring God post on Friday.
"Donald Trump's immoral behavior in the past, and his ongoing unwillingness to renounce it as evil, show that he is morally unfit to lead our nation," Piper explained before noting: "So was Hillary Clinton because she approves of killing unborn children."
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Piper then proceeded to highlight examples of Trump's immoral past including his shady business dealings and track record with women.
"As I understand the role of leadership in high public office, these impenitent and boasted acts of immorality disqualify a person from office," he said.
Piper elaborated on five qualities he believes a leader should possess and Trump was lacking.
A leader he said: should lead; be dependable, trustworthy, reliable; be a good example for our young people in matters of character and moral uprightness and civility; should not model the success of immoral behavior, and should be known for the virtues that make a republican form of government possible.
"To invest someone with leadership is a trust. But Donald Trump treats language — the medium of truth — as a wax nose to be bent and molded to create a desired outcome, whether it corresponds to the truth or not. But where truth is treated with such indifference or contempt, the foundations of justice are crumbling. There is no recourse for the poor, if the powerful say that truth is what they say it is," Piper warned.
"Virtually all the founding fathers agreed that without a virtuous people, the rule of law and of representative self-government will not survive. Donald Trump's character is not what they had in mind by 'virtue.' It is, in significant ways, the opposite, and therefore his example contributes to the undermining of the republic," he added.
Despite the challenges posed by Trump's character however, Piper explained that Christians, many of whom voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016, have hope.
"The Christian faith was born, and has flourished, under regimes less qualified to lead than Donald Trump. The murderous Herod (Matthew 2:16) and the Christian-killing Nero (Tacitus, Annals XV.44) did not thwart the spread of a faith whose King and power and charter are not from this world (John 18:36). The movement that Jesus Christ unleashed in the world, when he died and rose again, does not depend on qualified human government for its existence or power," he wrote.
"Followers of Christ are not Americans first. Our first allegiance is to Jesus, and then to the God-inspired word of Scripture, the Bible. This is our charter, not the U.S. Constitution," he said.
Piper then ended: "Let us not exhaust ourselves bemoaning a Trump presidency. There are peoples whose privileges of prosperity and possibility are vastly inferior to ours. Having been so loved by God to receive the gospel, we are debtors to them (Romans 1:14). Do not think of the molehill of moral and social disadvantages of a Trump presidency. Think of the Himalayan mountain range of blessings we have in Christ. Let this put fire in our bones for what matters most: the salvation of the world."
Piper made a similar argument before the election, saying on Twitter mid-October that both Clinton and Trump should quit the race because they are both unqualified. Before the election he argued that Christians are under no moral obligation to vote.
