The
odious appeal of Donald Trump
Until
just a few minutes ago, I was quite puzzled about how the Evangelical and
Pentecostal movements in America and further afield seemed to embrace Donald
Trump as the person and symbol to centre Christianity in the political
discourse of the nation.
Fundamentally,
I saw no principle or example that made Donald Trump likeable or amenable to
the idea that this would help the promotion of Christian values. In fact, what
I saw was a corruption of the purpose of Jesus Christ for the gain of earthly
and political power without helping anyone see the mercy, the grace, the glory,
or the power of God in their lives.
Christian
nationalism with all its culture war paraphernalia and the accoutrements of
wedge issues on women’s, reproductive, identity, or another other kind of right
that suggests justice, fairness, respect, and dare I say the love of one’s
neighbour, the grist of right-wing political
doctrine seemed to replace the gospel and the message that Jesus Christ
represented.
The quest
for temporal power in determining who sits on the Supreme Court, what is taught
in the schools, who has access to critical reproductive health options, and
now, whether the net can be widened to give opportunity to those who are not
like us had become the unquenchable thirst of religious purpose.
Discernment
and discrimination
Even with
my more active Anglican adherence, I am quite engaged and involved in the
Evangelical and Pentecostal doctrines. A good deal of the underpinning of my
faith comes from inspiration borne of charismatic expression and from listening
to the anointed teachings of many leaders of that persuasion.
In
listening, I have to be discerning and alert, following two basic credos from
another preacher who has long departed to be with the Lord. In the first
instance, he said, “Have as much sense as an old cow, eat the hay and leave the
baling wire.” By that, I understand that not everything someone says is
ingestible, I need to know what the hay is of the beneficial and the baling
wire which is the packaging that is not edible and harmful.
I do not
because I disagree with some things a person says then discount everything
they have to say. I think there is a function of intelligence in being able to
select the gems from the dirt or the rough. Nature is already a demonstration
of that thinking.
We have
always been human
Secondly,
and I would paraphrase, “Do not follow anyone so close that you cannot cut away
when they are falling into a ditch.” I guess someone else might say, “Keep a
healthy distance and the door wide open.” Another variant of that would be
something I read about a conversation between a mother and her daughter. “You
have every reason to fall in love but get up and walk into your marriage.”
Do not
yoke yourself to the untenable, make the allowances for the protection of your
heart and your mind. Be smart and sensible, trusting just enough and verifying
everything against the principled sources. In this case, when it comes to
Christianity, that is the Word of God, the Bible.
I guess
what always surprises me is how humanity in its fundamental nature has hardly
changed. We can be persuaded in different ways to follow our basest instincts
through charisma, sophistry, or just some force that through expediency we
cannot resist.
Threatened
powers fighting back
This
brings us to the court of Pontius
Pilate on the day that Jesus Christ was brought to trial before him, for he
was the only political official who could sentence Jesus to death for the
crimes that the chief priests had accused him of.
By the
time Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, the priests were afraid that they
would lose their religious influence on the Jews to Jesus Christ and their
semi-autonomous political power to the Romans. They determined through Caiaphas
the chief priest that Jesus should be put to death.
48 If we let
Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and
take away both our place and nation.”
49 And one
of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing
at all,
50 nor do
you consider that it is expedient for [a]us that one man should die for the people,
and not that the whole nation should perish.” [Bible Gateway John
11:48-50 (NKJV)]
From then on, a plan
was hatched to put Jesus to death. Still, the other relevant things alluded to
in the YouTube video are what happened on Palm Sunday and the symbolism of
riding on a colt of an ass, Hosanna which in Judaism is a cry for help and not the
Christian shout of praise, the laying down of palm branches has its
significance in the apocryphal book of the Maccabees. They lay down their
garments for him to walk on, as if for a king. [Nashville
Catholic: Why Palms? The Significance of Palm Branches on Palm Sunday]
[Jehu is king! Bible Gateway 2
Kings 9:13 (NKJV)]
We want
Barabbas
Even as
Pontius Pilate had determined that Jesus Christ was innocent and had done no
wrong, the priests prevailed on the crowd to demand the head of Jesus. Pontius
Pilate could have exercised his prerogative of power there and then, but
instead, he presented the people with the choice between Barabbas and Jesus Christ.
Every
inclination would suggest the people would choose the man who brought the
gospel, healed the sick, and raised the dead. Still, they chose Barabbas and
the priests for that moment seemed to secure their political advantage.
At that, the crowd went wild:
“Kill him! Give us Barabbas!” [Bible.com Luke 23:18-25]
Still, at
the point where Jesus gave up the ghost on the cross, the inner sanctum of
their political and religious power that only the High Priest could enter was
exposed as the curtain was rent to two.
The birth
of Christianity came on the day of resurrection as the priests had
inadvertently dispossessed themselves of what they sought to keep. More
pertinently, in contemporary times, we have situations that present us with a
Barabbas or a Jesus Christ and what obtains in the quest for political
influence and power by religious entities is selecting Barabbas over Jesus
Christ, the expedient over the necessary, the temporal over the eternal, the
human over the godly.
Essentially,
the religious folk are just like you and I, we might have high expectations of
their choices, but we would be disappointed if we trust more in humans than we
do in the divine. In the biblical and today’s context, I now understand why
Donald Trump appeals to the evangelicals as they choose the political over the
gospel and find ways to justify their indefensible stance.
