Throughout most of the 2000s, Americans grew accustomed to an ever-present ad campaign with the tagline, “Can you hear me now?”
Actor-pitchman Paul Marcarelli showed up all over the place, boasting of the reach of Verizon Wireless service where other carriers dropped your call. The campaign became as iconic as “We’ll leave the light on for you” and “Like a good neighbor.”
Of course, the brilliant tagline played on the experiences we’ve all had of not being able to hear well — whether on a cell phone call, in a crowded restaurant or with poorly mixed audio on a TV show.
We know how frustrating it is not to hear. Sometimes, however, the problem is not that we can’t hear but we don’t want to hear. My mother — and maybe yours too — used to call this “selective hearing.”
A large swath of Americans has had selective hearing of Donald Trump. The more outrageous his statements, the less they seem to hear. They make excuses for him: “Oh, he doesn’t really mean that.” Or, “That’s just the way he talks.” Or, “He’ll calm down once he’s in office.”
“He is speaking clearly and more dangerously by the day.”
We now know — beyond the shadow of a doubt — that all these statements are not true. When Trump says he believes something or will do something, he means it. It may sound like hyperbole to us, but he is as serious as a heart attack.
The time for making excuses that we can’t hear him is over. He is speaking clearly and more dangerously by the day.
This weekend, at a rally near Dayton, Ohio, he ratcheted up his anti-immigrant rhetoric by declaring some immigrants are “not people.”
Employing his classic “I don’t know but …” technique, he said: “I don’t know if you call them people. In some cases, they’re not people, in my opinion. But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say.”
This is the same angry man who has called Mexican immigrants rapists, criminals and thugs. The same man who claims other countries are emptying out their prisons to send the worst of the worst to America. The same man who in October said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” — a direct riff on Adolph Hitler.
He also predicted if he loses the 2024 presidential election, there will be a “bloodbath for the country.”
Although he was speaking just before this of his pledge to raise tariffs on foreign-made cars if he’s elected, he engaged in a classic Trump non sequitur by marrying two ideas in the same breath as a means of claiming he didn’t really mean what he obviously said.
“Now we’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across (the) line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys — if I get elected,” he declared. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
Do not misunderstand. The tariffs are not the cause of the predicted bloodbath; the outcome of the election is. This statement was made by the same man who incited the January 6 insurrection and in this same speech called those imprisoned for their part in it “hostages” who need to be pardoned.
Can you hear him now?
It does not take a grand jury or a blue-ribbon committee to indict Trump’s cruelty and vengeance. He indicts himself with his own words. And too many people are not listening or are not taking him seriously.
As we have written here and here and here and other places, Donald Trump is the antithesis of Jesus Christ. To see him as a political savior or a messianic figure is outright blasphemy. What he says, what he stands for, what he incites is the exact opposite of the way of Jesus. He is anti-Christ.
“He epitomizes the very worst of the human condition. He does not speak words of life.”
It’s not that Trump is subhuman — as he claims of others — but that he is all-too human. He epitomizes the very worst of the human condition. He does not speak words of life.
American Christians must stop enabling him and stop listening to him.
Hear the words of Jesus from Luke chapter 6: “The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”
Donald Trump is attempting to take down not only American democracy but the Christian church with it. He believes in neither. He keeps saying it loud and clear.
Can you hear him now?
Much has been written about those who hear Trump but can’t shake their loyalty to him. He has become their brand.
Here’s some good news: Even Paul Marcarelli switched loyalties and became a Sprint customer. “Hey, I’m Paul, and I used to ask if you could ‘hear me now with Verizon?’ Not anymore.”
If an ad pitchman can find a better way to hear more clearly, surely the Christian church in America can as well.
Mark Wingfield
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality.
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