Misrepresenting God

One of my worst fears is coming true.

One of my concerns about evangelical Christians supporting President Trump with such fervor despite his lack of respect for even Christian traditions, let alone morality, is that we would end up making ourselves look and sound silly in the process and thus besmirch the Name of Jesus.

A Trump opponent in Asbury Park, N.J.  has taken that ball and run with it.

An entry in the Urban Legends Reference Page, better known as snopes.com, showed a sign being displayed on his lawn saying “God bows to President Donald J[sic] Trump [because] he is perfect.” It dawned on me, however, that he wasn’t just mocking the president.

He was mocking his evangelical supporters even more. And that hurts, because God is being embarrassed.

Now, we may say that that sign went too far and that the president is only being used by God as a tool to implement His divine agenda. But what actually is that agenda? Well, to these people it’s merely ending legal abortion, driving gays back into the closet and lifting up America. But Trump does so without a shred of humility or regret, focusing only on defeating the “enemies of God.”

And doing so doesn’t bless Him in the least, if for no other reason than He’s being misrepresented. Worse, the “world” is catching on.

The right’s real fear of ‘socialism’

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who’s running for president and identifies as a “socialist,” has much of the conservative movement in a tizzy. As a result, it’s trying to hang the rest of the Democratic Party as pushing “socialism” (though more of a “democratic socialism” that prevails in Europe).

But there’s a reason for that. Those folks who say that oppose such are really saying something else — that they alone are entitled to what they have, primarily power, whether political or social, and don’t intend to share that with those they deem “inferior.”

In other words, what they really oppose is justice for the poor. Yes, they do.

And this goes back to the 1940s, with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” which was branded socialist but which FDR understood was needed to stave off a bigger problem — the widespread economic insecurity created by the Great Depression that resulted in Marxism, which he absolutely opposed, in much of Europe. Nevertheless, industry groups, feeling put upon by the administration because of an extremely high tax rate, forged an alliance with conservative religious groups to promote business activity as next to godliness. Have you noticed over the years that the “religious right” has always maintained a pro-business stance? That’s where it comes from.

Anyway, the Word of God mentions justice — and, in its context, it’s always “social justice” because it’s always collective and never merely individual — 150 times. It also mentions empowerment of the poor over 2,000 times, the second-largest theme in the Bible next to the worship of God. But many of those references are found in the Prophets, most notably in Isaiah, Amos and Micah, and the Epistle of James, which many evangelicals simply don’t read, which is why they dispute their presence.

It’s one reason many ignored or opposed the civil-rights movement, which came out of the conservative black church, saying then that God isn’t too concerned about social issues. They also deny the idea of “structural racism,” insisting that if people of color and those of lesser means simply played by the rules they would benefit. Ironically, many supporters of President Donald Trump complain that “the system is rigged,” which is why they voted for him in the first place.

What’s wrong with this picture? You would think that, rather than blaming the poor and powerless, they would seek them as allies and take their complaints to the top. Martin Luther King Jr., during one of his incarcerations, made that point — after hearing from some of his jailers that they felt that the system was screwing them, as well he said, in effect, “You ought to be with us.” And the big shots would fear that kind of alliance, which is why they’ve tried to keep people divided along race and class lines.

And that’s precisely why the fears of “socialism” don't register with me. Depending on who’s ox is being gored, everyone’s a socialist.

Don’t canonize Romney yet

After yesterday’s Senate vote to acquit President Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and now senator from Utah, received considerable praise for being the only Republican to find Trump guilty. Folks believe he was considerate of the evidence and put that over politics.

That is, at best, an exaggeration.

Remember that Romney is (or was — I don’t know if this is current) a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, of course better known as the Mormon Church, to which two-thirds of Utahans belong.

I bring up that fact because, though Mormons tend to be as politically conservative as white evangelical Protestant Christians, 81 percent of which voted for Trump in 2016 — and he did win Utah that year — they vote their values. That is to say, Mormons were as a rule quite disgusted with Trump’s conduct in office as incongruent with their religion, even though they voted for him. On the other hand, such white evangelicals tend to vote their fears, which is why many remain in denial of Trump’s corruption and still support him regardless.

Let’s also remember that impeachment is less a moral mechanism than a political one, and Romney likely heard from his constituents that what Trump did was morally wrong. Romney probably did feel the same way and likely voted his conscience, but his Senate seat would have been in no danger regardless of how he voted.

You can’t say the same for his Republican colleagues, many of which, according to reports, would have pronounced him guilty had there been a secret ballot. But had they done so they would have faced the wrath of Trump supporters and perhaps even Trump himself, whether being “primaried” or verbally abused on social media and/or talk radio.

Basically, Romney’s “guilty” vote may have been every bit as political as his Republican colleagues’, but he was facing a different set of circumstances, so in this context he appears heroic. But it’s still politics, which means that every gesture has a hidden meaning.