The Way of Trump and the Way of Jesus

I recently wrote an article which I then took down, and I issued an apology. I want to be really clear why that was: I had worked to guess at the emotional experience of those really like Donald Trump. My sensemaking did not land with some folks, and they felt very upset. So in this piece I take a different track – I will not be guessing.

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I have personally reached a point where I’m not too thrilled to use the term “Christian” to describe myself. I think that for me, for at least a while, I will use “follower of the way of Jesus.” The term “Christian” originally meant little Christ. Over the years it has been co-opted and used to mean many different things. I’m thinking here of the Roman emperor Constantine becoming Christian and painting crosses on the Roman army’s war equipment. I’m thinking of the Christians who gleefully supported Hitler’s political rise and the movement of Nazism. I’m thinking of the white supremacists who wore white hooded masks on the weekends and a black suit to church on Sunday. Saying “Christian” has meant a lot of different things.

In our current American context, the president claims to be Christian. He says he was “saved by God to make America great again,” and it’s a fact that without Evangelical Christian support, he would not have risen to power. If you had told Christians ten years ago they’d be over the moon for a billionaire convicted felon who brags about how big his penis is, who was impeached twice, and who incited a riot against the Capitol, they may have scoffed. But here we are, and here they are. Trump bragged that he could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody and they wouldn’t abandon him. He was not wrong. There’s a line in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar where Casca says of the crowds who adored Caesar, “If [he] had stabbed (had sex with) their mothers, they would have done no less [against him].” Shakespeare may as well have been talking about Trump who has bragged that he did “try and fuck” (his words) a married woman and also about grabbing women by their genitals. There seems to be no place that Christians will not follow Donald Trump. There is no bridge too far.

If pressed, those who like him tell me well we don’t like the man or what he says – we just like what he does. They like the way of Trump and what it can get them, how great it can make their country, even if it sounds a little crude. They like how it affects change in the nation, and they see their own lives and churches as separate somehow. I am here to argue that the way of Trump and the way of Jesus are incompatible for those who take Jesus seriously. And further, that if you think they are compatible, you are a superhero!

So here a quick note: why Javen, why do you need to write this? Why can’t you just pray in your closet and let people be how they want to be? A few reasons. One: Once Trump is gone and history details how he locked arms with his Christian base to rise to power and inflict the way of Trump on the world, I want my kids and my grandkids (and your kids and your grandkids) to know that I may not have done much, but I didn’t buy into it. Two: I want others who want to choose the way of Jesus over the way of Trump to know they aren’t alone. I am one of the only people I know who writes publicly on a regular basis, and folks often tell me they feel very alone and very sequestered in their churches and communities. They just don’t want to get badmouthed over the Sunday dinner table (neither do I by the way). Three: I have non-Christian friends, and I want them to hear me clearly that this is not what Jesus is about. And if I invite you to church, it is a different way that we aspire to.

I have grown really tired of Christians trying to blend Trump’s promise of America first- crush our enemies – deport the stranger – rise in power with Jesus’ teaching of others first – love our enemies – welcome the stranger – come die with me. In this way, I am a small bit thankful for Donald Trump. For many years, I think it was somewhat easy for many Christians to be aligned politically with a party and claim the way of Jesus. Trump has helped illuminate what a contradiction there is at the heart of this. Trump’s way and the was of Jesus are about as opposite as it gets.

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[the poor] The way of Jesus says: Blessed are you who are poor. The way of Trump says the poor are a “parasite class.”

[foreigners] The way of Jesus says: God loves the foreigner residing among you, and you are to love those who are foreigners. The way of Trump says the sounds of people being chained and separated from their families is ASMR (it gives a pleasurable, tingling sensation when heard).

[strangers] The way of Jesus says: Whatever you do for the stranger you have done it unto me. The way of Trump says you are justified in turning the undocumented stranger away and having them arrested in your church.

[opponents] The way of Jesus says: If someone takes your coat, also give them your shirt. The way of Trump says, whatever they do to us we’re doing it back to them to make them pay.

[enemies] The way of Jesus says: love your enemies and do good to those who curse you. The way of Trump says, anyone who worked against us in the first term, we’re coming after with a vengeance this time.

[greatness] The way of Jesus says: whoever among you is the least will be the greatest, and you must become like a servant. The way of Trump says, I am the greatest and the best, and I deserve everything.

[truth telling] The way of Jesus says: tell the truth, do not bear false witness. The way of Trump says litigate and lie as much as needed because they deserve it.

[others] The way of Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself, and consider others better than yourself. The way of Trump says protect yourself, your party, and your country at all costs.

[purity] The way of Jesus says, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, and blessed are the pure in heart. The way of Trump says “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” (that is a direct quote).

[peacemakers] The way of Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers. The way of Trump says “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

And so I will argue that if you are able to hold the way of Jesus in one hand, and hold the way of Trump in your other hand, you are a superhero. You are Elastagirl whose power is extreme flexibility. Even as these two things are brutally far apart and contradict one another at every single point, you are still gripping onto them both. Your two hands are remarkably far apart as you ultimately say you want the way of Jesus, and you use the way of Trump as a means of getting there.

When Jesus gave the command to give unto Caesar (the government) what is Caesar’s, I don’t think he was talking about your moral decision making ability and what you think is right or wrong. Christians have been going to the mat for Donald Trump for ten years now. Since I have been old enough to vote, Christians have been defending him and making excuses for him no matter what he does and says. He may as well shoot someone on 5th avenue, I am confident he will have the support of Christians come hell or high water. And this is why I’m willing to give up the term, at least for a few years. Am I a Christian? I don’t know. I certainly don’t have the superpower I see around me. I want to be a follower of the way of Jesus.

As a young man, I stood in a really cold river and was taken underwater in my baptism with my church community standing on the banks. I was not signing up for what “Christian” seems to now mean. I was taught that the ends do not justify the means. You do not get to the things of Jesus without the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus I was taught actually involves the commands and teachings of Jesus – hard as they are. I did not sign up for Christianity molded in the way of a politician who seeks to make himself and America great again (again). I did not sign up for biting my tongue when politicians embed their way of doing things into Christian hearts and mouths. I did not anticipate a situation in which the Christians around me would be willing to wordlessly go along with anything their preferred politician decided to do or say.

To close a piece of writing which a few may find compelling, and which some will find very upsetting as it takes aim at their political hero, please hear me say this: If you do not claim to follow the way of Jesus, I have understanding for why you would endorse the way of Trump. Trump’s way is much more financially beneficial. Trump’s way is much better in terms of boarder security and American greatness. It makes a lot of economic sense to many people. The way of Jesus is not good public policy. It is not good for national security. It is not good if you want wealth and military might and to avoid death. The way of Jesus, inasmuch as it follows the footsteps of Jesus, leads to suffering and humiliation and becoming less in this life. I understand why that is not appealing. The way of Jesus is a terribly unpopular way of doing things that will not ever make America great.

If you do claim to follow the way of Jesus, and you have figured a way to support the way of Trump, I find that very perplexing. For me, supporting both of these ways, Trump’s and Jesus’, would require superpowers. And I’m just a regular guy who really wants to be caught up in the way of Jesus.

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