To the editor:

This is a letter that I wrote to an Evangelical from a pilgrim along the way.

To my brother or sister in Christ:

I recently learned much to my profound sadness that you voted for Donald Trump to be the leader of this land. In so doing you helped assure that the checks and balances that have sustained this country for so long no longer exist. You have insured that the leadership of this country is in the hands of a person who lost the popular vote by more than 3 million votes.

By voting for Mr. Trump you have given the Evangelical Movement a grievous wound that will take years for it to recover from. One question will never need to be asked again. The question is “Are Christians hypocritical?” By voting the way you did your actions answered the question YES in a way far more profound than mere words ever could do. I continue to be puzzled how an Evangelical or any other Christian would vote for someone who incarnates in his life values that most Evangelicals and other Christians find reprehensible. And I keep asking myself are there any circumstances in which Jesus or the people he speaks of on the Sermon on the Mount would vote for Mr. Trump. Thus far, I have not found any such circumstances. Mr. Trump and the others that have taken power are a minority who are committed to imposing their values on the rest of us. The only way this can be avoided is for all of us to stay vigilant and make sure that our representatives know what we want them to do and make it very clear to them that they will be held accountable for their actions especially as we approach election time once again.

I believe that the Evangelical community has been manipulated by certain elements of the Republican party into taking stands that violate many of the core values of the Evangelical community. These same people have demonstrated time and again that they are not friends of the Gospel or the Constitution of the United States. These people are actively attacking our freedoms and the rules that protect us. I am puzzled how anyone could decide that a man who is a billionaire and who has never expressed concern for the poor before would do so now. And can you imagine anyone like Mr. Trump taking the beatitudes seriously and then acting on them. If they did there would be no more tax breaks for billionaires. If someone took the beatitudes seriously then that person would use all their strength to ensure that everyone had access to affordable health care and affordable education. If someone took the beatitudes seriously they would do all they could to stop environmental destruction that impacts the poor and dispossessed first and most directly.

One question in my heart relates to forgiveness. If the Evangelical community has forgiven Donald Trump for his transgressions then why haven’t they done the same for Secretary Clinton? Perhaps she has committed transgressions so profound that they would vote for a man who is a tax evader, an adulterer and has not demonstrated concern for the people Jesus speaks of in the Beatitudes. In the Evangelical community I have seen a vindictiveness, an animosity and a lack of civility directed toward Secretary Clinton that I find difficult to comprehend. I wish I did. We live in such dangerous times and I am so perplexed. I remain your brother in Christ.

REVEREND STEPHEN EKHOLM

Bainbridge Island