DOES JESUS HATE DEMOCRACY?January 19, 2024
For many Donald Trump supporters, Monday’s Republican primary win was all about Jesus.
Before the caucuses, CNN interviewed a Trump supporter—a white, middle-aged woman and evangelical Christian. “God puts leaders over us,” she said. The reporter failed to seek clarification: “Did God put Joe Biden over us?”
The woman might have mustered one of several answers. Yes, God put Biden over us to punish America. Or, no, God didn’t; the election was stolen. Or, the Devil gave Biden the White House.
More questions: Did Jesus put Trump in the Oval Office in 2016 as many evangelicals believed then and do now? Did he put Barack Obama in the White House for two terms? George W. Bush? Bill Clinton before Dubya? George H.W. Bush? Ronald Reagan?
If Jesus manipulates ballot boxes and mail-in ballots, our democratic process is a fraud. Why should we waste obscene sums of money on a nearly four-year-long presidential electoral process when the outcome is predetermined?
Giving the Iowa woman her due, the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament to Christians) portrays God (not Jesus) as using flawed characters for His purposes. Moses killed an Egyptian. Samson was a violent psychopath. David was a brigand and lecher. But I, as a student of Torah for thirty years, take the biblical text more figuratively than literally while acknowledging human imperfection.
Trumpian evangelicals look past Trump’s terrible wrongdoings, seeing Jesus’ hand in everything. These supporters include many who neither read the Christian Bible nor go to church.
Thomas Edsall explores this phenomenon in his New York Times essay of January 17, “The Deification of Donald Trump Poses Some interesting Questions.” Here are three disheartening examples.
A video, “God Made Trump,” recently was posted on Trump’s Truth Social platform. The video begins with a voiceover: “On June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said: ‘I need a caretaker.’ So God gave us Trump.” The video also claims to quote God: “I will need someone who will be strong and courageous. Who will not be afraid or terrified of wolves when they attack. A man who cares for the flock.”
Edsall quotes Robert P. Jones, founder and chief executive of P.R.R.I. (formerly the Public Religion Research Institute): “Trump has given us adequate evidence that he has little religious sensibility or theological acuity. He has scant knowledge of the Bible, he has said that he has never sought forgiveness for his sins, and he has no substantive connection to a church or denomination.” Yet “many of his most loyal Christian followers, white evangelical Protestants, have indeed come to see him as a kind of metaphorical savior figure.”
According to Jim Guth, a political scientist at Furman University, “White evangelicals are invariably the most populist: more likely to favor strong leadership (even when that means breaking the rules), to distrust government, to see the country on the wrong track and to think that the majority should always rule (and minorities adapt).”
Evangelicals are entitled to their theology. But when someone tells me that Jesus will decide the Republican primary and the 2024 presidential election, I’m more than skeptical. When they believe that I, a Jew, should adapt to second-class citizenship, I’m more than alarmed.
Antisemitism in the name of Jesus is not new.
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I wonder if pre WWII Nazi Germany felt like this? I’m scared. I’m seriously investigating living abroad. I don’t want to wake up to a Kristallnacht, then it’s too late.
The violence on January 6th to both people and our long held ideology and constitution, was terrifying enough. Then to have people say it was only a peaceful demonstration allowing freedom of speech. Truth and facts are considered lies. Lies are accepted as facts. Conservative Republican, Liz Cheney is hung out to dry?
Then to believe Trump would only be a dictator for a day, is even more incredulous. Even moderate Republicans are saying, well he’s okay on this issue I care about, so I’ll dismiss everything else. Really?
Sadly, Sandy, there are echoes. We have to keep our eyes open—and hope that enough Americans do so, as well.
The Christian nationalists who believe America is or ought to be a Christian nation should read Washington’s letter to the Truro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0135. America’s first president assures the elders of America’s first synagogue that this will be a nation of tolerance for all, regardless of religion. It’s an eloquent and prescient refutation of the Christian nationalist movement.
Extra credit question for the Christian right: which Christians? Evangelicals, Catholics, Episcopalians and their acceptance of LGBTQ priests? Inquiring minds want to know.
Washington’s letter, David, displays the real meaning of America. Thanks.