There is an old trick used by religious leaders to prevent the possibility of questioning what they say: The leader or pastor comes into a meeting declaring they have a word from God.
Then this pastor will state some proposal and if anyone comments negatively or disagrees, that person is said to disagree with God and stand in the way of God’s ultimate plan.
I fear this has taken place as it relates to President Donald Trump.
Nathaniel Manderson
He is not the leader of the church but is a prophet on the level of Moses, or so Franklin Graham said during his invocation at Trump’s inauguration. This presents a much larger problem. Graham implied that standing in the way of Trump is standing in the way of God.
That is more dangerous than anything currently facing our American democracy. If Trump is God’s appointed leader, then America has become a theocracy. World history has proved that is a very bad thing.
It is interesting that Graham has connected Trump to Moses. In the Bible, Moses led the oppressed out of oppression and put forward the law of God. Trump, instead, oppresses anyone he dislikes or who challenges him. Moses demanded Pharaoh free God’s people from the yoke of slavery. Trump seems committed to freeing only oppressed billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and celebrities like Dana White and Joe Rogan.
As Malcolm X said, “If you’re not careful, the newspapers (today think Fox News and the evangelical leadership) will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
So what can be done?
“The church needs to return to the language of the working poor, not the language of the wealthy.”
Trump and his MAGA movement were created in the church and must be stopped by the church. For starters, the church needs to return to the language of the working poor, not the language of the wealthy.
The old pillars of the evangelical church — opposing abortion and same-sex marriage — must be destroyed, and new pillars must be put in place. The new foundation of the Christian church could be built upon the basic teachings of Christ: Healing the sick, fighting for the oppressed, welcoming the foreigner, listening to prisoners, feeding the hungry, serving the poor.
Currently, the Christian church acts as a sword against the oppressed and a shield for the oppressor. We should instead be a shield for the oppressed and a sword against the oppressors.
A few years ago, I led a building team to Haiti for an incredible shoestring organization called Partners In Development. I was working at UMass Dartmouth as a counselor for first-generation students, and I was trying to organize a team. The team eventually comprised three Haitian American students, two born and raised Haitian students, one student from Ethiopia, one from Sierra Leone and one former Lost Boy from Sudan. Plus, the one white kid named Brian O’Brian.
Each person on that team was fighting for the oppressed and fighting against the oppressor. Each member had seen and dealt with difficult situations in their own lives, and each person pushed through to find personal success and then used that success to help the least of these. In time, four members of that team used their education and success to start nonprofit organizations of their own.
“Perhaps we are looking in all the wrong places for genuine people of good faith and conscience.”
Perhaps we are looking in all the wrong places for genuine people of good faith and conscience. The truly good are invisible and do not typically seek attention or gratitude.
When we start looking for the next leaders of the working class, the Christian faith or even the Democratic Party, don’t look to anyone who currently has a voice. Look to those trying to change things on the streets of Chicago, teaching in the inner cities of America, serving the people in Gaza, or anyone healing the sick, trying to provide opportunity to the poor, or speaking out for the oppressed.
Ignore the pastors with book deals, private jets and nice suits. Look to the lowly, the working-class poor whose hands are calloused, whose backs hurt, and people who have held onto their integrity despite the loss and difficulty that have plagued them their entire lives.
And please ignore Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress and Donald Trump. These are the bad guys.
Jesus was a man who was harsh with the powerful and welcoming to the lowly. Those who follow that example are the good ones, and those who do not should be challenged.
Nathaniel Manderson was educated at a conservative seminary, trained as a minister, ordained through the American Baptist Churches in the USA, and guided by liberal ideals. He has been a pastor, a career counselor, an academic adviser, a high school teacher and an advocate for first-generation and low-income students, along with being a paper delivery man, a construction worker, a FedEx package handler, Amazon driver and hospice chaplain. He lives in Massachusetts.
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