We may be heading for the fall of the West, former British foreign secretary William Hague recently warned. He was referring to November’s unexpected election of Donald Trump to the US presidency and to the surge of populist nationalism around the globe. Hague’s dismay is shared by many across the political spectrum. Even social conservatives who supported the Republican candidate for fear of a Democratic administration are bracing for turbulent years. Christian progressives lament a vote that both reflected and fueled an ugly turn in American politics – a defeat made bitterer by the knowledge that it was meted out by clear majorities of evangelicals, Protestants, and Catholics. Meanwhile, many of the working-class white voters who handed our next president the election feel that their security and identity are under threat.

It’s a moment of anxiety when fear is understandable, even justified. But it is not Christian. The exhortation “Fear not” has served as the predictable springboard for a thousand Christmas sermons. It is also the gospel. As surely as a first-century Jew named Jesus is lord of the universe, God will have the last word on humankind’s affairs. Who is in the White House should be as secondary a question to us as the rise of a new Roman emperor was to Peter and Paul.