Trump as Anti-Christ: The Obscenity of Christian Support
Trump is not the antichrist. He just acts like one, sowing seeds of division, fear, confusion, mockery and hatred of the “other” — the other being the disabled, immigrants, women, the poor, the socially outcast, the press, or pretty much anyone who disagrees with him. He cruelly and outrageously separates children from their mothers, prides himself on building walls, openly embraces greed — “I’m so greedy” — and calls fallen soldiers “losers and suckers.” By comparison, Jesus Christ sowed seeds of love, peace, and joy, broke down walls, and encouraged his followers to do likewise and embrace society’s outcasts, going so far as to admonish his disciples to “turn the other cheek.” Trump called for the white supremacist group, Proud Boys, to “stand down and stand by,” sending a not-so-subtle message of thinly veiled support for their racist violence.
According to definition, the term “antichrist” is part of a complex of images and figures that represent the activity and power of evil (biblestudytools.com). Christ said, “By their deeds you shall know them.” Where do I start? One outrageous comment and deed more disgusting than the previous follows another. Even when his own words are played back to him via videotape, he claims his own words are “fake news.” Trump’s behaviors, actions and words are anti what Jesus taught and personified, yet Christians persist in their excuses for his behavior, dismissing his lies and Twitter hate-filled diatribes, and describing his detractors as “people who don’t like his personality.” So Christians think it is OK for Trump to tell their sons it is acceptable to “grab ’em by the pussy?” This argument has nothing to do with personality and everything to do with human decency, or lack thereof.
Trump’s business dealings are not befitting a Christian: he invested heavily in casinos, declared bankruptcy multiple times, evicted the poor and widows from their homes, continues to benefit from his hotels during his presidency, refused to release his tax income forms, and defrauded thousands of students with his sham university, then claimed to not be associated with any of it by lying, “they used my name only” (https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2016/11/06/10-reasons-you-cant-be-a-christian-and-vote-for-donald-trump/).
According to David Horsey of the Los Angeles Times, “Donald Trump has proven himself throughout his lifetime to be an adulterous, lecherous, mendacious, self-centered human being who has consistently abused and misused people to aggrandize himself. Of the medieval Seven Deadly Sins, he scores big on lust, greed, wrath, envy and pride — and the laxity in the way he carries out his presidential duties may also put sloth on the list. The only one of the seven sins for which he gets a pass is gluttony, unless one counts his ravenous hunger for high ratings and adoring crowds” (August 30, 2017), and I would add, his love of fast food.
One-issue voters, such as pro-lifers for Trump, live an oxymoron by supporting Trump. Trump was pro-choice until it became politically expedient to change his colors in pursuit of the evangelical vote. Christ claimed that he brought Christians the ability to “have life more abundantly” (John 10:10) and a “more perfect love [that] drives out fear” (I John 4:18). According to Wikipedia, an “abundant life” refers to a life full of joy and strength for the spirit, soul, and body. Living in Trump’s America has brought the opposite of an abundant, fearless life.
First, there is the division, blame, hatred, chaos, lies, and fear mongering propagated by Trump: “If I don’t win, America’s suburbs will be OVERRUN with low income projects, anarchists, agitators, and looters.” Throw in the false accusation of his opponents as “socialists” and Americans really go nuts.
Then there is the anxiety and death caused by Covid-19 and the lack of a coordinated and sane federally coordinated response as Covid-in-Chief routinely practices denial and falsely claims the United States is “rounding the corner” of the pandemic that has killed thousands of Americans (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/11/trumps-lies-about-coronavirus/608647/).
Third, confusion reigns supreme evidenced by the distorted belief system among evangelicals that the truth is impossible to know amidst “alternative truths,” aka lies. I have several relatives — church-goers of congregations that make mask-wearing “optional” — who cast doubt on anything and everything by saying, “I just don’t know what to believe anymore.” So maybe the earth is flat? Maybe Breibart News claims to be a legitimate and reputable news source? Breibart News admittedly advances conspirarcy theories and solicits ideas from neo-Nazis and white supremacists aligned with the alt-right under the management of former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, the same man who recently advocated beheading Trump’s alleged adverseries. On November 5, 2020, Trump’s former campaign strategist and senior counselor, Steve Bannon, said a second term for Donald Trump should start by displaying the severed heads of Dr Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray on pikes at the White House “as a warning” to federal bureaucrats. How can any decent human being support this monster and his master?
Also, perfect love should reunite children with their parents and keep families together, not put children into cages, ban Muslims from entering the United States, or threaten to deport international students. Trump has also betrayed our Kurdish allies, causing the death of thousands of fleeing civilians including mothers and children as they ran from ISIS and Bashar al Assad’s Syrian gangsters. And finally, there is the lack of simple kindness and goodness by someone who personifies crudeness and narcissism and calls opponents “scum” and “parasites.” I don’t think I need to explain how Jesus differed on this note.
Anxiety is at an all-time high over Trump’s dismantling of democracy, vilifying of the press — Hitler, anyone? — berating and name-calling anyone who disagrees with him, aka. Dr Fauci, and countless others. Prior to Biden winning the election, Trump told the the American people that if he lost it was the result of fraud and he questioned if there would be a peaceful transfer of power, a hallmark of American democracy.
Psychologists routinely counseled anxious and depressed clients ahead of the presidential election results who feared another four years of life-destroying tantrums and lies. For example, one Christian psychology client felt so conflicted over her desire to vote for Trump solely on the unlikely possibility of Roe vs Wade being overturned that she sought counseling — although women will still have abortions, just not legally — and she hated herself for supporting a bully and a spoiled brat with no impulse control. She knew Trump and his cronies have supported tax breaks for the rich, deregulation of laws designed to protect the average American and the environment, enabled voter suppression, emboldened white supremacists, and spread fear of lawlessness and socialism in McCarthy-inspired hysteria fashion. She also knows Jesus was a socialist, if that is what defines a person who advocates for the poor, social justice, personal responsibility, peace, love, and equality.
I am not advocating for Jesus as President; besides, Jesus had no interest in politics, only in humanity’s soul and how people lived their lives honestly, peacefully, and with good will towards others. There is a reason our colonial forefathers, however racist and misogynist, advocated for a separation of church and state. Christians should not force their beliefs and values on others through legal prohibitions. There is also a reason why my Mennonite parents and Amish grandparents declined to vote and participate in political affairs, stemming back to the Civil War when a vote for an abolitionist meant a vote to take up the sword for the Civil War, which, make no mistake, was rooted in the Southern cause for a way of life based on slavery. As pacifists, Mennonites and Amish abhorred violence but also hated slavery; these dueling beliefs created a moral dilemma.
My forefathers immigrated to America to escape authoritarian regimes and religious persecution which included being burned at the stake. Now many of those same descendants voted for a dictator who has institutionalized bigotry, made a mockery of our justice system, played the hate card, and discarded our constitution’s checks and balances to advance his authoritarian agenda. That same tyrant obscenely waved a Bible in front of a church while peaceful protestors were tear gassed and sprayed with rubber bullets to make way for his photo op.
Rabbi Jack Moline, the president of Interfaith Alliance, stated, “Seeing President Trump stand in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church while holding a Bible in response to calls for racial justice — right after using military force to clear peaceful protesters out of the area — is one of the most flagrant misuses of religion I have ever seen,” Moline said in a statement. “This only underscores the president’s complete lack of compassion for Black Americans and the lethal consequences of racism” (apnews.com).
I don’t care if my president is Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Baptist, Mennonite, Buddhist, an agnostic, atheist, or Hindu; I just want him or her to act like a decent, mature human being and a person befitting our highest office, not someone who tantrum-tweets all night long. Even my Mennonite mother, who abstained from voting or expressing political opinion, said to me, “When he [Trump] is on [TV], I just turn the channel.” She knew a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Christ’s followers urged him to take his place as King of Jerusalem, but he declined, choosing a path of nonviolence. Trump’s supporters now mob Washington, D.C’s streets advancing lies of voter fraud, led by their Loser-in-Chief, who plays golf while America’s democracy burns. Not surprisingly, but alarmingly, a Trump supporter called Republican Al Schmidt, Philadelphia’s City Commissioner, with a death threat over counting votes, saying, “This is what the Second Amendment is for.” Instead of urging peace and the rule of law, the Orange Menance goads his possee into action with lies and continues to silence his critics and demand loyalty from his Republican cronies who advocate “indulging” the Toddler-in-Chief with his delusions.
America’s “dictator-in-chief” surrounds himself with “yes men” — chief of whom is Mitch McConnell — and simpering lapdogs who refuse to question the man as he systemically dismantles democracy and refuses now to concede that he is America’s biggest loser. It is unconceivable that Trump’s Republican party puts loyalty to a kingpin ahead of democratic ideals. Under Mitch the Grim Reaper’s watch, hundreds of bills have died in his legislative graveyard: bills meant to positively impact everyday citizens’s lives: from healthcare to environmental protections, civil to veteran’s rights, fair pay to family leave, etc.. McConnell has refused to hear legislation to secure elections from foreign interference, to prevent the corrupting influence of gerrymandering and money on elections, and to thwart government corruption — all of which we are seeing at unprecedented levels. Case in point: McConnell refused legislation to create internet affordability and infrastructure; now during this pandemic, hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians don’t have reliable access and children go unschooled. Yet Kentucky still voted for him and for his master.
Trump talks like a bully, admires bullies, supports bullies, and acts like a bully. Are we talking about the leader of the free world? A country that is now the laughingstock of the rest of the world because Americans were naive and hoodwinked enough to vote for him. When someone talks like a bully, a racist, and a xenophobe, it stands to reason that he is one. Trump openly admires and courts some of the world’s most hated dictators, people proven to torture, suppress, and kill political opponents, peaceful protestors, and investigative journalists: Russia’s Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Turkey’s Ergodan, Egypt’s Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a.k.a. “The Pimp,” Philippine’s Duterte, and China’s Xi Jinping, not to mention he and his favorite son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are in bed with the corrupt Saudis who propagated 9/11. But, then again, Jared professes not to care about either the dead Americans from Covid-19 — some 242,000 and counting — or medical science, proclaiming Trump got America back “from the doctors” and surrounded himself with people who “know their place” (Bess Levin, Vanity Fair, October 28, 2020).
Not only is Trump a bully, he is a moron, someone who Mike Murphy, a Republican who voted [reluctantly] for Biden, states “speaks moron very well.” Trump knows two words: “great” and “I”. Every time I see a Trump sign beside a double wide trailer and a car graveyard in the front yard, I wonder, how do the disadvantaged think that someone who got his money from his daddy and cares for no one other than himself think that Trump cares about them? He openly admitted to never wanting to hire a “poor person” for a top post, implying the rich are inherently smarter (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40375970). Yet, Trump can’t open his mouth without speaking like a third-grader. His motto should read, “Keep America Stupid.” Have American Christians been reduced to morons? I trust not, but I fear so. If Trump wanted to be Christ-like, he might do well to remember Jesus’ instructions, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
There is one thing Trump is great at, and that is: a master of deception and greed. Of course, one could call Trump “smart” for tax evasion strategies and paying only $750 in taxes in 2016 and 2017; that is, if your definition of a genius is a president who continues to profit from his holdings and fatten his own wallet at taxpayer expense. Even Christ said, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are Gods.”
There is no Christian case for Trump, unless of course you buy into the false argument of prosperity theology or that somehow Christianity is “under attack” and needs protection by a strongman, aka, Trump, who has encouraged evangelicals to regard themselves with “self pity” and “an interest group in need of protection and preferences.” There is NO such evidence https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/there-no-christian-case-trump/605785/. Even the evangelical magazine Christianity Today declined to support Trump and his bastardization of Christianity.
The antonym of a bully is someone like Christ, who comforted, cheered and encouraged his followers to do the right thing, fostering love, unity, and acts of kindness. I cannot in good conscience and as an American who values life, democracy, peace, compassion, integrity, inclusion, truth, and justice, vote for someone who acts anti to Christ. I would like to live my life abundantly: that is not Trump’s vision for America.
