A RACE, NOT A RELIGION:

[O]ne thing I know for sure is that we are instructed to love God and to love our neighbour - and that means that someone who separates children from their mothers, bans Muslims from entering his country, and countenances torture, is worthy of rebuke.

So not only is it wrong to support Trump on this basis, it is also dangerous. Dangerous because it contributes to the tribal politicisation of evangelical Christians.

The right is often found decrying identity politics, but is it possible that they are as guilty of it as anyone else? In 2000 and 2004, the evangelical Christian movement in the US allowed itself to become politicised as never before, as it lined up behind George W Bush. Though Christians' association with Bush was counterproductive, it was, however, understandable. He was a professing evangelical Christian who sought to live in accordance with the Bible's teaching.

But evangelical Christians' political marriage to Trump is much harder to fathom. In his private life the president has demonstrated a flagrant disregard for the dignity of others, an utter contempt for equality, and far more concern for his own rights and reputation than the wellbeing and care of others. His attitude to refugees and migrants demonstrates a lack of compassion and understanding for the vulnerable that at times beggars belief.

The politicisation and tribalism of Christianity is dangerous and, in the case of Trump, stands in direct opposition to the values of the saviour who Christians seek to follow. One who gave up his rights to save others rather than trampling on the rights of others to promote himself. Some Christians may believe they are bringing about God's purposes, but in reality they are causing his name to be associated with the very things he stands against.

Indeed, it is possible that this association with Trump's loveless, graceless amoralism could write Christianity out of the public square even faster than the dominance of secularism might on this side of the Atlantic. Where a Christian worldview is dismissed and derided in the UK, association with Trump means many may actively reject it in the US. In fact, the impact of the politicisation of evangelical Christians is not just damaging to Christianity in the US. Churches in Britain have been taking the word "evangelical" out of their name for fear of the association.

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