In the last few weeks, we’ve seen several high-profile MAGA pundits begin to turn on Trump, and these are not obscure names. We’re talking Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Candace Owens, Joe Rogan, and…(wait for it)…Alex Jones.
That’s an unexpected number of very influential MAGA voices who are now, suddenly, turning on Dear Leader. (For a more complete list of defectors to the MAGA train, go
HERE> )
Some of those who are jumping ship have cited the Epstein Files, or the war in Iran, as the impetus for their sudden change of heart. Others have started to worry that his slurring speech, inability to string coherent thoughts together, and his frequent involuntary bowel movements might be a sign it’s time to remove him from office (and away from the nuclear football).
Regardless of
why these former MAGA soldiers are now doing an about-face and turning on Trump, the question I want to ask is: “How do we respond?”
Honestly, it’s invigorating to see these people wake up and smell the
covfefe after a decade of feeling as if I was taking crazy pills. Finally…finally…they can see what we’ve all been seeing for so long: Trump is a narcissistic con artist who is hell-bent on driving the USA into bankruptcy and perhaps even the brink of Armageddon while he enriches himself along the way.
But, now that these, and other people around us, are just beginning to open their eyes and admit they were duped, how do we react? Do we do the “Na-na-na-naaa-naaaa” dance? Do we scream, “I told you so!” at the top of our lungs? Do we give them the condescending look down our noses and shake our heads as if to say, “Why are you so stupid”?
I know, that’s what we want to do. I know that would make us feel so much better about ourselves. I know it would make it feel as if our side was winning and their side was (finally) losing, but…what would that really accomplish, beyond our own personal feelings of satisfaction?
One thing this sort of “I told you so” response would accomplish is to continually drive the wedge between “Us and Them” even further apart.
Do we really want more division? Is that what’s best for the “United States of America”? To be further divided and forever polarized into Blue and Red sides of everything?
That’s not what I want.
I have family members who drank the Kool-Aid. I have friends who have cut me off over their allegiance to the MAGA cult. If they wake up and realize they were lied to, tricked, and bamboozled by the big orange cult leader, would I want to rub their noses in it? Or would I want to welcome them back into my life with open arms?
I guess it comes down to this: Do you believe in mercy? Do you believe we all make mistakes? Do you believe that everyone deserves forgiveness and grace? Do you believe in reconciliation?
Or, do you believe in retribution? Do you need people to suffer before they are welcomed back into the fold?
Many of us who have deconstructed our Evangelical Christian faith have abandoned the notion that God is vengeful, or retributive. We’ve let go of a theology where God demands a virgin sacrifice before anyone can be forgiven. We’ve embraced the idea that God is love and that everyone deserves mercy.
So…I guess this might be a moment in time for all of us to find out if we really (really) believe in all of that, or not.
Do we extend the hand of mercy? Do we welcome our family and friends back into the fold?
Or, do we revert back to our old patterns of judgment and retribution?
When those prodigal sons and daughters return from the cult of MAGA, will we run out to meet them with forgiveness and grace?
Time will tell.
Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, Coast To Coast with George Noory, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.”
He co-hosts the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
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