I’ll let others describe the economic carnage President Trump’s tariffs already have begun to wreak. I want to describe the damage they will do to the American psyche and the American soul. I want to describe the damage they are doing to the gospel witness of Christians.
Until I heard Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ill-mannered outburst at an English reporter, I hadn’t realized how MAGA really feels about foreigners. She told Martha Kelner of UK broadcaster Sky News, “We don’t give a crap about your opinion,” and urged the reporter to “go back to your country” during an unhinged rant.
Rodney Kennedy
This is “America First” at its worst. And it is not Christian. None of this is Christian or biblical. MAGA plays fast and loose with its alleged Christian faith. It is time for MAGA to be Christian.
Trump is not acting in Christian ways. He is building walls not just on the Mexican border but also between our allies. His slogan, “America First,” is the most anti-democratic, unchristian policy imaginable.
As David Brooks says, “The essence of the Trump agenda might be: We don’t like those damn foreigners.”
“’America First,’ is the most anti-democratic, unchristian policy imaginable.”
The problem, as MAGA Bible believers should know, is that throughout the Bible, God loves foreigners. From Rahab, the Jericho prostitute being the first person ever to confess faith in Israel’s God within the bounds of the Promised Land, to King Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple that it would be a place of blessing to all peoples, to Jonah’s conversion of the city of Nineveh, to Jesus’ sermon at the synagogue in Nazareth where he names Naaman (Syrian leper) and the widow of Zarephath in Sidon, to Jesus submitting himself to be taught a lesson in holiness from the Syrophoenician mother — there’s a long biblical heritage reminding us God loves foreigners.
Before the Age of Trump, America was a place that welcomed foreigners. Lady Liberty extended arms of hospitality as immigrants came to our shores. MAGA Christians know hospitality is a primary Christian virtue. “Hospitality” is another word for holiness. It means making a space in our hearts for God and for others.
The unknown writer of Hebrews says: “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
Stanley Hauerwas says: “The gospel has a form, a political form. It is embodied in a church that is required to be always ready to give hospitality to the stranger.”
MAGA has found ways to ignore God’s love of foreigners by ingesting Trump’s lies about immigrants being rapists and murderers. They have ignored the rule of hospitality by insisting on perceived safety and security.
Instead of welcoming strangers, MAGA supports deporting 11 million immigrants. Instead of offering mutual respect to our allies, MAGA shows signs of snobbery and apathy.
“I don’t recognize anything in the Trump MAGA claim of a ‘Christian worldview’ that is remotely Christian.”
I don’t recognize anything in the Trump MAGA claim of a “Christian worldview” that is remotely Christian. Instead, it is an isolationist, nativist, racist, heteronormative culture of dog-eat-dog. America’s spirit has become the most anti-social ideology in existence.
American historian Robert S. McElvaine points out: “Few if any doctrines have ever been further from being ‘social,’ and the application of a brutal survival-of-the-fittest doctrine to society would more accurately be termed antisocial Darwinism.”
Jesus does not elevate the wealthy. MAGA evangelicals have managed to create a spirit opposite of the Spirit of Jesus. For example, MAGA’s devotion to the wealthy offends the heart of Jesus’ message. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Yet the wealthy are idolized in our culture. MAGA evangelicals have accepted the prosperity gospel.
In the book of James, Christians are severely criticized for thinking they can delay doing God’s will in order to make quick bucks selling dubious products. James eviscerates the wealthy: “Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.”
Jesus calls us to expand the table, not narrow it. Nothing is less Christian than “America First.” Trump is making America more despised in the world with isolationist policies and statements.
Do you know that our response to the horrific earthquake in Myanmar has been slowed by the Trump administration’s attempt to shut down USAID? Do you know China had 400 workers on site within 48 hours and has provided $14 million in relief funds? How can the mind grasp the idea that Communist China shows more compassion and provides more human aid than America — the alleged “Christian” nation.
“MAGA evangelicals are a long way from any notion of America as a servant of God to the nations.”
“Make America great again” is an emotional slogan. It has no saving grace. All it does is increase MAGA pride by allowing them to feel great as a result of Trump’s rhetoric.
MAGA evangelicals are a long way from any notion of America as a servant of God to the nations. The prophet Isaiah envisioned Israel/Judah as God’s servant nation. Long before Christians claimed the four Servant Songs as being about Jesus, the Jews knew the songs were for them, the people of God.
By rejecting the call to be God’s servant nation, MAGA evangelicals reject the gospel. God’s servant nation “will bring forth justice to the nations” and will be “a light to the nations,” Scripture says.
“America First” has nothing to do with service or servants. Jesus, God’s suffering servant, makes clear our role is that of the servant, not the lord and master.
There is nowhere for MAGA to hide from these words of Jesus: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Trump and MAGA are acting like the “Gentiles” — lording it over people and being tyrants. This is not the way of Jesus.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.
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