Trump and Christianity - why it matters

Trump and Christianity – Why it matters

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours in the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled
Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh …….
But woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation
Woe to you who are full now for you will be hungry
Wow to you who are laughing now for you will mourn and weep

From the Sermon on the Plain - Luke 6: 20 – 25
Gospel for Epiphany 6   16 February

Trump has created what he calls a ‘Faith Office’ within the White House and appointed a Pentecostal pastor from Florida, Paula White, to lead it. Ms White, widely described in mainstream Christianity as a heretic, teaches a transactional faith.  In other words, faith is demonstrated in prosperity.  This matters because action is an external manifestation of what is internally held to be true. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks -Luke 6: 45). In Paula White, Trump has found a spiritual foundation to support, justify and expand his transactional view of leadership, deal making and wealth.  That this view is anathema to Christian faith (see text) does not bother Trump, he believes he has the right to name everything in his own image, including faith - not simply the Gulf of America.  American Christianity, at least that which emanates from the White House has now been officially named a prosperity gospel.

The sermon on the plain in Luke’s gospel is not as well-known as the sermon on the mount in Matthew. It is much more succinct and packs a powerful punch. Unlike Mathew who puts the words in the third person, Luke positions them in the second person, pointing them directly at the rich who have no compassion for the poor and probably bear responsibility for their poverty. In contrast, the recitation of blessings and woes makes clear a divine partiality towards the poor and needy. To Trump and Paula White human poverty has the opposite connotation, it is a sign of divine disfavour.

A former foreign minister once confronted me at a public gathering with the question: “and can’t the rich be saved”.  Dumb stuck, I opened my mouth, but no words came out! Had I had my wits about me I might well have asked: “do they want to be”?  The US of Trump and the Russia of Putin are very similar, no wonder their leaders are bosom buddies, they are both run by oligarchs for whom material wealth is all consuming. Trump has made it abundantly clear that making the US ‘great again’ has only one measuring stick – material wealth.  The measuring stick is clearly not character, or values, or diversity, or equality, or loyalty, or truthfulness, or generosity, or even taking responsibility; casting blame is the preferred discourse.

The poor in the US are beginning to count the cost the Trump presidency is imposing upon them. To compensate for the Trump promised lower taxes, relief that will not measurably affect the poor, he is wishing to recoup lost revenue through tariffs which will raise the cost of products upon which all are dependent, none more dependent than the poor.

There are no people on earth poorer than Gazans.  Their wealth resides in loyalty to family, their culture and the land which has always been Palestinian.  Because the land is now desolate it is no less Palestinian.  It is not Israel’s to give away nor is it America’s to seize.  Asked by a journalist by what authority or law would Trump take the land, he replied by the authority of American law!!  Asked how much he will pay for it, he replied it is desolate, it is worth nothing.

The terrifying behaviour of Al Queda, ISIS, and Islamic State was justified on false, or grossly exaggerated Islamic teaching.  For several years the Islamic threat was so terrifying that many peoples and nations were held hostage. Even here in Australia, security laws have permanently reduced some freedoms we had previously taken for granted.

Because of Trump, previously assumed commitments to global responsibility and treaties, international law, respect for boundaries, loyalty to partners, separation of powers, are being thrown into chaos out of priority afforded to expanding US and personal wealth. The justification is false Christian teaching, with no basis in bible, tradition, or historical Christian practice, let alone common human decency.

Islamic leaders and especially their religious teachers had an obligation to name the apostacy of terrorist leaders and their teaching.  This was not done with the clarity and immediacy that those moments demanded.

In like manner, it is the responsibility of Christian leaders to name the falsity of Trump’s claims to be upholding the Christian faith.  He claims he is protecting Christianity and Christians from persecution. He is doing the reverse.  So far in the US the Bishop of Washington, Bishop Mariann Budde, has been the only one to speak with absolute clarity.
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This matters, both to enable insightful critique of many of Trump’s initiatives, but equally importantly to cherish the Christian faith, free of heresy, a source of grace in a broken world.