POLI•RANT: Trump's War on Jesus

It's going to be just like before. But worse.

Policy aside, it’s not much of a surprise that Trump 2.0 is just like Trump 1.0 when it comes to the late-night Truth Social screeds and personal attacks. This is the way Trump always has been and always will be.

It’s what his most loyal followers love — that he hates the people they hate.

And while his followers praise his attack on any number of groups, people, or institutions and think it gives him Big Dick Energy that’s about as true as Stormy’s description of said dick being tiny and like a button mushroom.

What Trump and and his most loyal MAGA minions fail to understand is how weak and pathetic these written or verbal rants seem to those millions of us not under his cult-like spell.

While we all expect this sad performance art from Trump, every once and a while one hits a new or unique low. As was his attack on Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde who gave the sermon at the inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington.

As you likely know, the whole Deplorable 2.0 crew was there as part of his Second Coming — a captive audience. Bishop Budde ended her sermon with a personal plea to Trump:

Let me make one final plea. Mr. President, millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals, they — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara and temples.

I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people, the good of all people in this nation and the world.

This got a ton of news, and rightly so. It was speaking truth to power. But, only in the era of Trump would this be considered a personal attack. Don’t get me wrong, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington is known as progressive, but it’s certainly not outside the mainstream of religious thought. Concern for the least among us is central to the teachings of Jesus Christ. In the Christian Maga-verse asking for mercy is a form of weakness.

So, of course Trump couldn’t let the attack stand and responded with his typical bullshit.

Typical yes, but like I said, new none-the-less.

This is the first time I can remember Trump attacking a member of the clergy — a globally-respected woman who has devoted her life to the teaching of Jesus Christ. Of course she’s now receiving death threats from Trump followers.

Imagine wanting to kill someone because they merely promoted the idea of mercy and compassion. And just imagine if a Democrat did something like this. MAGA media would go simply bat shit crazy.

Trump’s religious attack (yet again) exposes a larger, more disturbing truth about the white evangelical Christians who make up the core of his base. For all his stupidity on so many things, Trump is always savvy in knowing where his base is on almost any given subject. That he would attack a prominent member of clergy means that he knows there will be no repercussions and that it likely plays into their idea of Christianity that’s distorted almost beyond recognition.

The evangelical alignment with Trump is a huge subject on its own. Even if you ignore the fact that Trump lacks any basic morality — let alone religious convictions — it’s hard to understand just how vocal and powerful this brand of evangelical Christians have become, how their spiteful ideology aligns with Trump, and how far it has moved away from the core teachings of Jesus Christ — the one who put the Christ in Christian.

Not long ago I read a story about a white Baptist preacher in the south who more and more of his congregation had issues with him doing readings from the Bible that quoted Jesus. Apparently these folks didn’t like it because this Jesus sounded weak and woke.

Ponder that for a moment.

I was raised Catholic but haven’t practiced since childhood and consider myself fully agnostic. But, that doesn’t mean that I’m not in agreement with the teachings of Jesus Christ. To the contrary, they inform a great deal of my underlying political philosophy. That used to be the same for Christian Republicans. They agreed with the teachings of Jesus but argued that it was a personal and charitable (not governmental) responsibility to feed the hungry, comfort the scared, etc., etc.

Those days seem long gone within the religious branch of MAGA.

That’s why I was heartened this morning when I read that Bishop Budde refused Trumps demand for an apology:

“I don’t hate the president, and I pray for him,” Budde told NPR. “I don’t feel there’s a need to apologize for a request for mercy.

“I regret that it was something that has caused the kind of response that it has, in the sense that it actually confirmed the very thing that I was speaking of earlier, which is our tendency to jump to outrage and not speak to one another with respect. But no, I won’t apologize for what I said.”

Good for her.

There are going to be plenty of serious and tangible things to be fought over with Trump and his MAGA cult. But, that doesn’t mean that we stop fighting over philosophy and ideas.

While I’m not a practicing Christian, I’m not willing to hand over the title to a mob of people who have perverted its meaning. I’m also not willing to hand over our flag and the idea behind what it means to be a patriotic American. Nor will I give up the ideal of what it means to be a man.

The war we’re already in — the one being waged against us — is going to have many fronts and battles of many kinds.

I’m in for any and all of them.

Are you?

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