Whatever This Is, It's Not Christian.

Hey, friends. Long time no talk. I’ve been having trouble writing this newsletter recently for a lot of reasons. The biggest issue, though, is that I’ve been quite depressed with the state of our politics, and more importantly the state of our culture. I’ve grown used to seeing the parasite that is populism gnaw its way through the heart of modern conservatism. But what I’ve been really struggling with is the impact that has had on the church. So, rather than try to push through it and write about interesting things like I have done to resounding failure over the past few weeks, I’m just going to share what’s on my heart.

When I write about faith and politics, I try to blend the two in a way that is appealing to religious and secular readers alike. I don’t think I can do that today. This is a letter to any Christian who still supports the administration of Donald Trump, and the moral rot that it has created within the church.

There's a moment in the Gospels when Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Satan tempts Him to exercise His godly power on the world, to make the stones turn to bread. Jesus rebukes Satan, saying that “Man shall not live on bread alone.” Satan then tempts Jesus to throw Himself off of the highest point of the temple to test God’s ability to protect Him. Again, Jesus rebukes Satan, saying that “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Finally, Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he would simply bow down and worship him. Christ's response is swift and unequivocal: "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" Then the devil left Jesus.

This passage has always served as a warning to Christians about the seductive appeal of worldly power. The Gospels show us that worldly power is as tempting to us as bread is to a man who has been without food for weeks. This temptation is made manifest in the actions of Judas, the actions of Pilate, and the actions of the angry crowds demanding the freedom of Barabbas.

And it is made manifest in the actions of American evangelicals today.

Trump rode a wave of evangelical support into the White House. Evangelicals remain his staunchest supporters to this day.

In Leviticus, Christians are commanded: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

But evangelicals continue to support the actions of the Trump administration that directly go against this command.

They support not just the deportation of legal immigrants without due process; they support the imprisonment of anyone merely suspected of not having full legal status. And they support this imprisonment being carried out in the Florida Everglades, in an Alligator-infested swamp.

They don’t just tolerate or support this cruelty, either; they cheer it on:

That’s sitting congresswoman and professed Christian Nancy Mace asking for more internment camps to be created. Just years after the Japanese internment camps were rightly ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, we are seeing evangelicals demand their reconstruction.

One other example, Laura Loomer, is not Christian but Jewish. But she recently tweeted out something so heinous, and so deeply supported by pro-Trump evangelicals, that it needs to be mentioned:

It’s worth noting here not just that Loomer is proposing to feed people to alligators, but who she is proposing to feed to alligators. There are not 65 million illegal immigrants in the United States—there are 65 million Latinos. Loomer, a conspiracy theorist and agitator who has found herself a home within the Trump machine, is being cheered on by many Christians after calling for a genocide against Latinos.

But maybe she was just making a joke, right?

What about this?

Much like Loomer, Ann Coulter has made a home for herself in the hateful, vindictive right. This woman, who calls herself “a Christian first and a conservative second” is arguing that there should be more dead Indians. It’s not just un-biblical; it’s Satanic. It’s Hitler-esque.

I know it’s a meme on the right to think that Trump’s critics are calling him “literally Hitler.” I don’t believe he is. But where I once wondered how a society could be come so callous, so indifferent to cruelty to enable the rise of the Nazi, I do not wonder anymore. While I do not believe Trump is like Hitler, I do think that any evangelical who is not made uncomfortable by the image below needs to do some serious reflection and prayer:

What’s worse is that the administration does this under the cover of scripture. They wrap themselves in out of context Bible verses to equate their cruelty to the fighting of a holy war. In the book of Isaiah, chapter 6, Isaiah is given a commission by God—to to a hostile land and preach on behalf of the Lord. He cries out to the Lord “Here am I, send me!” And God tells him to preach a message of healing and redemption to those uninterested.

And what does the administration do with that scripture? It uses those words to justify a militarized police force rounding up, imprisoning, and casting out immigrants and citizens alike without due process:

The Trump administration positions Latino citizens and immigrants alike as enemies of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant world that the President would see built. This dehumanizing language and ideology results in the rise of atrocious behaviors, like rounding up the young children of illegal immigrants, shackling them like violent criminals, and whisking them away in unmarked vans:

It is this callousness that motivates the young social media managers working within this administration to continually harden their hearts and make light of these sad situations with memes:

It is this disregard for human life and dignity that has driven the Republican-led government to slash funding for PEPFAR, a program that has saved almost 30-million lives in the last twenty years. That 3-million people are expected to die as a result of this decision is of no importance to the “pro-life party.”

And it is this cruelty that has led the government to literally light 500 tons of food on fire rather than see it go to needy human beings in the third world, even if incinerating the food actually costs more than giving it away.

I don’t care about your personal politics in this moment. What I care about is that the Trump administration is making true every outlandish warning raised by the left in the election. It is has become caricature of itself, delighting in cruelty for cruelty’s sake.

There is no culture of life being promoted here. There is no law and order being upheld. Even the Christian Nationalists should be upset, as there is no Christ in the White House. They parade their prayer around like a PR tool, they hide behind the cross while relishing in the opportunity to crucify their own enemies.

Whatever this new movement is that’s taken hold in our country, it’s not Christian.

I shouldn’t say what I think these “leaders” deserve. That would be cruel and not Christlike, and I shouldn’t make myself a hypocrite in these rambling paragraphs.

Rather, I’ll quote Matthew 6:5:

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”