3. How do you deal with the conflicting imagery of Jesus dying for his enemies, with Donald Trump’s constant calls to torture them– and even kill their families?
The two messages can’t be further apart: Jesus says, “love your enemies, and do good to them.” Jesus teaches us to reject an “eye for an eye” systems of justice, but to instead be people who love to show mercy, even when it is totally undeserved and comes at a cost to ourselves.
But Trump? In referring to protestors Trump says, “Knock the crap out of them.” And worse, in regards to real enemies, he continually advocates for illegal torture and even killing innocent family members in retaliation. This stuff is beyond immoral– it’s actually totally illegal. It’s a war crime.
How do you contend with the fact that in order to follow Donald Trump, you first must stop following Jesus? If you want to support torturing people that’s you’re right– but you can’t do that and still pretend to be a Christian.
Remember that hellfire preacher from your childhood who would shout, “Choose this day whom you will serve!”? Well, maybe now is an appropriate time to do that.