Well I reckon Stewart Rhodes must be a ‘very happy chappy’ at the moment. Rhodes is founder and president of ‘The Oath Keepers,’ a group of former service personnel who have sworn to protect the American constitution. And they’re not just a few hair-brained crackpots either. The group claims to have some 300,000 members nationwide and is but one of a network of similar ‘patriot groups’ whose preferred candidate was Donald Trump

I learned of Rhodes, a former Yale Law School graduate and Airborne Division veteran in a disturbing article in the Sunday Times a few days before last week’s presidential election. The headline said it all: “Patriot militias ‘gun up’ for apocalypse of Clinton victory.”

“Their biggest fear,” wrote John Glacy, “is that after stealing the election Clinton will lay waste to the constitution most notably the second amendment: they believe she is coming for their guns.” Well, they can now rest easy given Trump’s incredibly unexpected victory. Their guns are safe in his hands -unless he begins to qualify that pre-election promise too. These are interesting days indeed!

Interesting, but not unexpected - at least not for some. Take Christian Pastor Saeed Abedini. Abedini told the Huffington Post that he would be backing Trump because he’d had a vision that Trump would become president four years ago when he was incarcerated in an Iranian prison. And lest you think Abedini was speaking with hindsight, it’s worth noting that I read his story several days before America went to the polls, at a time when Hilary was planning her victory party.

Lots of American Christians, especially white evangelical Christians, have supported Trump even if they thought he was best of two bad options. And I think I can understand why, even though I would have found it difficult, if not impossible to do the same. For whatever reason, Trump is standing his ground on appointing pro life justices and he has obviously persuaded them that he is aware of their concerns about religious liberty.

We are aware of those pressures here in the UK too. In fact we have now reached the surreal stage where social services can reject a Christian couple’s offer to adopt because they have expressed their concern about same-sex parenting. As the charity Christian Concern observed: “Despite very positive reports about their fostering record, they were told that the views they expressed were ‘concerning,’ and prevented them from being assessed as prospective adopters because they ‘could be detrimental to the long-term needs of the children.’ It seems that you can’t even say children need a mum and a dad these days without causing concern. I sometimes wonder if we have joined Alice in Wonderland.

But while I can understand their support of Trump, I think my American friends would do well to remember that Christians make a mistake when they think they need to court political support. God expects us to be good citizens of course, and we have been told to pray for those in authority whatever their limitations and flaws. But when it comes down to it, He expects us to follow the example of someone who ‘ministered as a homeless itinerant preacher’ and was executed for what He said and did.

American Baptist Bruce Ashford summed it up brilliantly when he wrote last week: “We must be willing to serve our nation from a position of weakness rather than power, and in the face of disapproval instead of applause.” And like Ashford, I believe we can do that confidently because, when all is said and done, there can be only one winner, and His name is Jesus.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]