By John D. Pierce
It’s a big “What if?” for sure. Huge, in fact.
But just imagine the mouth-gaping, head-spinning, outrageous response if the president actually had an honest-to-God spiritual conversion.
What if he humbly conveyed to the nation and world one day that he had been born again — not a Paula White-induced affirmation of the prosperity gospel (which is not the Gospel) or even some mechanical exercise of “accepting Jesus,” but a soul-baring, divine encounter that changed his whole heart.
What if he finally came around to the idea of asking God for forgiveness, and suddenly the dam broke?
What if he openly confessed his sins of abusive authority, racial insensitivity, unethical finances, unconcern for the poor, hostility toward immigrants and constant lying? And then turned his life in the opposite direction as preachers have long defined repentance.
What if he started believing and talking like Jesus? Crazy stuff like setting the oppressed free, caring for the least of these, being merciful and not thinking more highly of oneself than of others.
What if he felt the convicting power of the God’s Spirit and suddenly told the truth? All the time.
How would Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham and Jerry Junior explain it to their followers if the president had a life-changing encounter with Christ that completely reshaped his priorities and politics?
How will lesser-known American evangelicals respond to just what raising this question might reveal about them? Defensiveness, deflection, disillusionment?
What if we ALL had such heart-changing, priority-shifting spiritual experiences? Who and what would that shake up?
Just pondering some questions that came to mind.
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Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.
