I think that most people, religiously-minded or not, can appreciate that the values that Jesus taught and then commissioned Christians to spread around the world boil down to: love, forgiveness, truth, reconciliation, inclusion, love of neighbors, and love of God. I also think that most people, politically-minded or not, realize that the values Donald Trump lives by are the polar opposite: hate, condemnation, deceit, retribution, exclusion, love of himself, and love of money.
The remarkable thing about this is that many people who profess to be Christians, and so presumably are guided by the fundamental Christian values that I just listed, or should be if they’re going to call themselves Christians, whole-heartedly support Donald Trump, who is the antithesis of those true Christian values. It’s been my experience that most people, Trump supporters or not, are reasonably smart. So, anyone who pays even a little attention to anything other than the hardest-right media must at least at some level understand that Donald Trump is a significant incarnation of evil. Even his own running mate, J.D. Vance, compared him to Adolf Hitler (before Vance puckered up and started kissing Trump’s ass, anyway). The question is, why this contradiction?
For some people, with all due respect to them, it may simply be a matter of gullibility. If Trump is nothing else, and he basically is nothing else, he’s a seasoned snake oil salesman. Like all good snake oil salesmen, he has a keen eye for what balms and elixirs people most crave and promises to serve them up in abundance. The problem is that, also like all good snake oil salesman, what he delivers is vacuous, empty, of no value. A look at his first term will show you that the only people Trump really helped, really delivered for, were himself, corporations, and the wealthy. If you’re one of those people, kudos. If you’re not, please don’t fall for the empty words of Donald Trump. Don’t be a sucker anymore.
Gullibility may be one reason. But there’s a bigger reason, a more troubling reason, that’s related to another remarkable thing that’s been happening over the past few decades. When many people talk about Christian values these days, they don’t talk about love, forgiveness, truth, reconciliation, inclusion, love of neighbors, and love of God. They talk about what a sin some people think homosexuality is. Or they talk about how some people who claim to be “pro-life” may be “saving” fetuses that they misguidedly believe have reached the stage of human life. Or they talk about how some people believe that prayer should be allowed, even required, in public schools and taxpayer money should fund religious schools. Or they talk about how some people believe that Christianity should be the one and only religion in the U.S. None of these are Christian values. They are all conservative values.
How did these conservative values and others like them usurp true Christian values in the minds of much of the public? There are three reasons, I think: As more progressive people have left the churches for various reasons, Christianity has been becoming more conservative in general. Conservatives tend to be the most boisterous – some might say obnoxious – when promoting their agenda. And the media plays into these boisterous tactics by giving conservative Christians the most press and by letting them define what values are what. This article, “Alito’s ‘Godliness’ Comment Echoes a Broader Christian Movement,” (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/11/us/samuel-alito-christianity-law-democracy.html), is one of many examples.
In the pursuit of their values, conservative Christians have latched onto Donald Trump, who says he supports them (although, keep in mind the snake oil salesman depiction made above). They believe, I think, that their ends justify their means. They’re willing to forgive Trump his extreme brokenness, his evilness, as long as they get what they want in the end. This, to me, is a textbook example of making a deal with the devil.
Having lived in solid Trump country, I know many conservative Christians. So, I know that they are generally solid, good-hearted people, trying to do the right thing. As I’ve alluded to above, in my opinion their “right thing” is often very wrong. But that’s a lesser point, here. The greater point is that these people are putting themselves in extreme jeopardy. Although it’s hard to tell from their actions, data shows that a majority of conservative Christians believe in physical Hell. I, personally, have a more metaphorical view of hell. But either way, there are consequences for our actions in life, there are no doubts about that; if not directly for us then for our children. By supporting such a reprehensible man as Trump, for whatever reason, people are setting themselves up for very negative consequences.
In closing, I tell you truly, sisters and brothers, that getting into bed with the devil, who goes by the name this time of Donald John Trump, is an assured one-way ticket to Hell, be it real or metaphorical. It’s not too late. Please save yourselves. Please reject Donald John Trump.
Leave a Reply