Donald Trump is the candidate of the failed American church that is, frankly, partly the legacy of some of those who will be meeting with Trump. They, through their politics and policies, put their faith in a political party and a political cause instead of in Christ. Some of them went so far as to claim God had a special place in the plan of salvation for the United States, despite there being no biblical evidence. As the nation’s morality now collapses, the people in these failed American churches have turned not to Jesus, but to anger, and they seek a political savior, not an eternal savior. This is an outcome of the politicization of Christianity and some of those who will meet with Trump seek even now to distance themselves from that legacy, but just cannot help themselves.

The Evangelical leaders who meet with Trump are going to be put to a test that will determine who their first master is, God or mammon. To endorse Trump as a Christian brother, despite the demands of 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, will speak volumes about the commitment these people have to their faith and the flock. “[N]ow I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.”

I cannot really fault any of them for coming out of a meeting with Donald Trump and concluding that he is better than Hillary and therefore they might vote for him. That is a personal opinion and each person is entitled to make up his own mind. But if these evangelical leaders come out of a meeting with Donald Trump and give tacit or explicit approval of the man as one of their own, they will be selling out the causes that they have long defended.