Donald & the Brainwashed Reshape Christ

Donald Trump and his American Christian cult followers continue a long and horrid tradition of elites reshaping Jesus and Christianity to suit their goals.

Donald and his enablers may spell the end of the United States and the world as we know it. They, and I do mean they, have brought us to the brink of civil war. The world languishes and watches. China, disgusting in its human rights violations and slave-based economy, claims to be the world’s savior from US, the supreme global villain. Meanwhile Donald Trump orders armed forces to brutalize American citizens for a sacrilegious photo-op.

The Jesus of Donald Trump and his Evangelical and Catholic cult members is a cruel identity theft. Truly, the Jesus of Donald is distant from Jesus of Nazareth, starving Galilean peasant artisan, day laborer, and folk healer. The Jesus of Donald celebrates wealth and privilege while Jesus of Nazareth suffocates in a public degradation ritual at the hands of Empire. The authentic Jesus is so much closer to George Floyd and countless other precious black American martyrs than to the grotesque Jesus of Donald.

The Holy Spirit, always in non-coercive ways, guides the Church in her slow and ever-unfinished business of unpacking Christ. That unpacking is messy business, full of recontextualizations. New insights in the process can be used by those in power for good or ill. For a taste of this, see how “Son of Man” went through so many changes in this video—

Son of Man Recontextualized

The process of seeing and presenting Christ in new ways and in new circumstances did not begin with Donald Trump and his ilk. Examining the history of the expression “Son of man” and its application to Jesus displays its antiquity. “Son of man,” the angelic avenger of 1 Enoch and Daniel 7, originally was someone the prepaschal Jesus anticipated (Mark 8:38; 13:26; 14:62; Luke 9:26; 12:8; Matthew 26:64). The “Son of man” originally was a sky servant of God quite distinct from Jesus.

But things changed in the years and decades following the resurrection. Ongoing visions and interpretations of encounters with the Risen One raised new questions. Some Jesus groups thought that, maybe, the crucified and risen Jesus was that selfsame sky entity (Mark 8:31-33; 9:30-32; 10:32-34, 45; Matthew 16:21-23; 17:22-23; 20:17-19, 28; 26:45; Luke 9:22, 43-45; 18:31-34; 22:48). And some messianists even saw the “Son of man” in the prepaschal Jesus’ ministry of healing (Mark 2:10, 28; Matthew 9:6; 12:8; Luke 5:24; 6:5).

Time passed. Stories of Jesus percolated throughout the Mediterranean in the second century and into the third. Concerns changed. Jesus groups got metaphysical. “Son of man” was recontextualized to express “human nature.” Jesus groups became more familiar Christian Churches with Constantine and new shifts in language brought new meanings. Great ecumenical councils convened. The rest is history.

Some of these changes in meaning brought great good. Others brought horrendous abuses and established imperial cruelty as supreme deity, disguised as the Good Lord. Cruel Omnipotens is once again celebrated, this time throughout United States cities. The superficiality of the Christianity of Donald Trump mocks a wounded nation crying for justice. How can anyone ever mistake this for Jesus?

Baggage and Filter of Donald

Take any subject from the past. Regardless of the subject and its facts, in analyzing it, what you see will necessarily be impacted by your values, experiences, and agenda. This is inescapable. The person looking at Jesus heavily impacts what he or she sees. This includes Donald Trump and his cult members. It also includes Neo-liberals, radicals, everyone. Americans cannot stand a Jesus who is not buying American values.

Our values, experiences, and agendas shape how we see Jesus and everything else. This is just as true of historians, exegetes, and theologians as it is of average American Bible readers. It is simply impossible for any of us to present purely objective data of Jesus without mixing in some interpretation. There are no “objective facts” really, just a careful (or careless) process affected by limits in human perception, selecting data, description of it, and coherent organization. Culture affects the whole thing so much that we can honestly call “objectivity” culturally-conditioned subjectivity.

We See in a Mirror, Darkly

Hence, our Jesuses—good, bad, and ugly—are always limited and approximate. Nevertheless, take care not to think that this renders all inquiry and investigation into Jesus false! On the contrary, it just means that the “facts” are ever limited and approximate. What really happened is always more.

Be careful also not to delude yourself into thinking that this renders all proposed Jesuses equal in validity. No my friends—the cruel and vapid Jesus of Donald is not “just as real” as a culturally-informed, scholarly presentation of Jesus of Nazareth. Nor is the Jesus of Donald just as valid of the Jesus of George Floyd, not in a million years.

American Filters

But all of us look at Jesus and everything else through a filter created by our cultural presuppositions. This filter determines the data we recognize, collect, and value as being important and relevant. What people believe important in their own lives determines to a large extent what they find important about Jesus. If there is something about the real Jesus that finds zero correlation to anything important in my life, what do you think I will do with that? Get rid of it? Friends, I won’t even notice it!

Does it surprise you that the Jesus and Bible of Donald Trump supports rage against black athletes who respectfully take a knee to Old Glory? It shouldn’t surprise you. Just like it shouldn’t surprise you that when a communist reads the Gospels he sees a proto-Marxist Jesus slamming the rich. Likewise it shouldn’t surprise you when the entrepreneur sees a capitalist Jesus talking about good investment of talents. This happens because it’s so easy to make a congenial Jesus, really an idealized autobiography. Ultimately, we all have filters, and to an extent, we all are guilty of this.

But God help us when a deranged POTUS named Donald Trump filters Jesus to his liking with impunity and great influence. God help us when the United States bishops, SPINELESS JELLYFISH, have for decades kept their flocks stupid and placated to the worst of American conservative narratives. God help us when the stupid follow.

A Plausible Jesus

The Jesus plausible to most folks tends to be whatever is plausible to them in their present society. But wait a minute!—is what is plausible to a Somali, plausible to a Canadian? And is that which is plausible to a Korean, plausible to an Argentinian? And that which is plausible to Donald Trump, plausible to a first century, Galilean day laborer? Every American Christian should watch “THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY” and apply what they see to their Bible reading.

Consider women and men, from our culture, reading the Bible. Is that which is plausible to women, plausible to men? Many times, no; and the reverse is also true. Therefore we need different points of view. This is so not just to respect all people, which is good also, but for the benefit of all people—different people notice different things unseen by others. Consequently, women will see things in Jesus’ story that men miss, and the reverse is true. It is therefore a gross crime committed against the faithful by the hierarchy of the Church to stifle women from the conversation of Jesus. It is a grotesque robbery that we are obligated to call out.

Dr. Richard Rohrbaugh explains that once Scripture scholarship went international, a plethora of new insights became available for Americans. Why? Because our American eyes simply cannot see Jesus in many ways. He is remote to our cultural world. In contrast, African scholars, culturally more proximate to Jesus, could. Their experiences were different than ours. And therefore we can benefit from their insights, as they can from ours.

Directions for the Dark Days of Donald

Turning things to home, we desperately need a “c” catholic insight into being Americans. People are hurting. People have been crucified in our midst for a long time. It goes on. And as far as empathy goes, many mainstream Americans are running on empty.

The Jesus of Donald is bringing us down to Hades. Rock bottom is a good place—it’s a holy place for addicts. Change can happen. But will we say yes to saving grace? This remains uncertain. God will not drag us into healing. Unlike Donald Trump and his false Jesus, the real Christ does not coerce.