I’ve been thinking and writing about how political power corrupts the message of Jesus since at least 2019.

In 2025, I’m thinking about it a lot more.

Since 2016, I’ve been mourning how quickly the tradition that raised me has seemed to throw out the words of Christ in defense of a man who embodies the opposite of Jesus most of the time.

“Means justify the ends. He’s helping us become a Christian nation again. Christians will no longer be persecuted under Trump. He may be rough around the edges, but he’s looking out for us!”

These are the refrains I hear from the very people who told me to trust God above all else. Suddenly it’s felt like the message morphed to “Trust God and Trump.” And I have type a lot of words onto the internet about not trusting the government to do God’s work as a result.

But here’s a disturbing realization I have noticed in myself…

When I hit publish on my last article about outrage, I knew there would be more to say here. Mostly because the deep truth is that anger isn’t inherently evil or even altogether bad for you.

Anger is simply an emotion on the emotions chart. It’s one that we feel deep in our bellies, running hot across our foreheads, sending tremors through our fingers.

Anger is not the problem at all. In fact, anger - when properly synthesized - can become a great motivator for change in life, and history has proven this to be true more than once.

Fear, anger, and anxiety are powerful motivators for behavioral change and tend to see some of the highest returns on investment. Advertisers and marketers have known this for years. And since political campaigns are essentially one ginormous marketing effort, exploiting the fears of the American people can become quite lucrative both in cash money and votes.

Here’s a question - do you really want your exploited fear to be what decides your vote? Because the chances are, it will be.