Alf McCreary: No group or individual is as dangerous as those who think God is on their side

However many people will believe that Trump is one of the luckiest former presidents in American history including Abraham Lincoln himself, who was not so fortunate in escaping the assassin’s bullet.

Only an inch saved Trump’s life as the bullet which would have changed American history whizzed by his head in full view of the world’s media.

Whether lucky or not, Donald J Trump and his Republican supporters firmly believe that it was an act of Divine intervention that saved his life, and that this has opened the door for this controversial and flawed man to walk into the White House again for four more years of all of us wondering that “only God knows what”.

The Republican faithful, and many undecided voters, will now conclude that it is their duty to vote for this “man of God,” despite considerable evidence which shows that Trump has lived a life which reflects few traditional Christian principles.

By contrast President Biden, despite his flaws, has been a great and principled public servant who has not received the appreciation he deserves for his achievements in the White House, and it is sad to witness what is happening to him now.

Nevertheless we must give Trump some benefits of the doubt. Anyone who has narrowly survived death may well feel the need to follow a new and better path, and in his early years Trump attended Marble Collegiate Church in New York where the minister was the remarkable Norman Vincent Peale.

He was a gifted preacher and author, whom I once interviewed in that vibrant city and he impressed me greatly.

Donald J Trump is not the first person nor the last to believe sincerely that God is on his side.

Some weeks ago I read that President Putin claimed he is on a Christian mission to combat the corruption and secular paganism of the West.

He has the full support of the Russian Orthodox Church and its leader Patriarch Kirill who himself, like Putin, is a former KGB agent.

There is no individual or organisation which is so dangerous as those who believe that God is on their side.

History is littered with examples of this, ranging from the Crusades to the Inquisition, and to the many places where terrible deeds were done in God’s name.

Back home, the assumed intervention of God in our social and political affairs has been self-evident for many decades.

Take for example the late Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party’ slogan ‘For God and Ulster’.

This claimed a direct connection between God, the Free Presbyterian Church and a large group of very conservative Protestants whose mantra was to support and save the link with Britain.

Many people outside the party would suggest that the DUP has done more to weaken that link than armed and political republicanism combined, and they might also ask if God is in any sense guiding the muddled DUP which has made some of the worst decisions in Northern Ireland’s history.

This connection is not one-sided.

During the worst of the Troubles there were many death notices in local papers for Provisional IRA members, with the words ‘Mary, mother of God pray for him’.

This suggested that even the most violent paramilitaries deserve some kind of Divine pardon.

The baleful interworking of religion and politics has affected our major churches for far too long.

As I pointed out in my new book ‘Keeping the Faith’, the Protestant churches allowed themselves to become entwined with unionism, and the Catholic Church has long been identified with nationalism.

All of this seems a long way from the example of Christ who refused to take political sides, but exhorted his followers – and Christians down the ages – to rise above bitterness and divisions, and to seek out those things which we have in common.

Visionaries like Jack Sayers, the former editor the Belfast Telegraph, the Reverend Dr Ray Davey, the founder of Corrymeela, and the underestimated and all but forgotten unionist leader Captain Terence O’Neill tried to map out the need for reconciliation and dialogue.

Sadly they were shouted down by the likes of Ian Paisley, and overtaken by paramilitarism from both sides, with tragic consequences.

It could be argued also that their influence was not lost and still carried the seeds of the Good Friday Agreement, and that we need to take heed of the principles they espoused so long ago if we are ever to have a permanent peace on this province and island which has been so tortured throughout history.

The lessons of Christianity have not been learned globally to the point where they bring peace and stability to individuals and nations.

As the late GK Chesterton noted “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”

Unfortunately it is a very human trait for individuals to claim that God is on their side, but to do so either from a deep sense of personal faith or more cynically to attract people to their cause.

However those who wish to enlist God on their side need to think carefully about what they are claiming.

All the great theologians and thinkers would claim that God does not take sides in territorial or political disputes.

They believe that He does take the side of the poor, the downtrodden, the hopeless, the oppressed, and the human casualties of the own mistakes and their downfall.

This is a far cry from Orange and Green, or waving the US Stars and Stripes, or the assumed power and glory of temporary success, or commanding the headlines which fade with time.

Given such a background, it will be interesting to see if Donald J Trump will live out the real challenges and burdens of his claims of the support from God, or not, in the days that lie ahead.

Alf McCreary has long written about religious matters. His book Keeping the Faith is published by Messenger at £12.95 and is available in local bookshops or on Amazon