Stop Saying #thisiswhywehavetrump

I was realio trulio trying to stay away from politics during this blessed Advent season. You know, trying to keep some kind of sane center in an already busy and potentially difficult time of year. Pushing children through midterms and school work with crazed dashes for the acquisition of All The Presents should be enough to keep anyone’s mind occupied. Add in some spiritual shellac of the baby Jesus and we should be good to go.

But, you know, the world doesn’t stop its madness even for a moment. Reporters gotta report. Terrorists gotta terrorize. Crazies gotta crazy. (Too much? Sorry. I’ll stop.) In this case there is the convergence on Twitter of One, another car randomly driving itself into a group of people uncontrolled by anyone certainly not…, see, I can’t even say it. Two, this sycophantic hagiography of the gods of this age. Three, to show us where we really are as Christians, this further damning piece about how much Christians read their bibles. And finally Four, the news that other Christians are angry with Russell Moore. Why so angry? Because he’s not enamored with Trump. He said some obvious things about Trump, like, He’s Not A Good Man. But we can’t say that any more, just like we can’t say that a little girl holding a pink balloon at a Shout Your Abortion party is completely incoherent, and one might say, ironic. And we can’t say the words Islamic Terrorism. And we can’t say anything about Race At All. But we can get on Twitter and say #thatswhywehaveTrump. We can say things now, but not that Trump is not a paragon of virtue and totes born again.

I was able this last week to read a really long and fascinating chapter of a book. Don’t know what the book was about but the chapter was an account of the unfolding of the civil rights movement, and the years after. I read it, frankly, enraptured, because I don’t know enough about anything, certainly not America after George Washington (I’m a missionary kid, we moved a lot, stop yelling at me.) In the course of reading this article I learned again a deep and abiding home truth. Ready?

Humanity is Evil. (That’s obvious.) But even more, Humanity is Evil even when we’re trying to do good.

So, example number one. Prohibition. Prohibition’s a pretty good idea, right? I mean, let’s help the world not be so drunken. But that single “good idea” thought up by people who I would bet five whole cents (which is the most I ever bet) were Trying to do a Good Thing, planted the fertile fields of the mafia and ultimately a super broken drinking culture in America. Show me an American and I’ll show you someone who is conflicted and guilty about drinking anything, but does it anyway, only with guilt, and maybe some stupidity.

Example number two. Beating back communism. Good right? So good. I’m so cool with this one. Except, well, Chiiinaaaaa. And well, we can’t exactly say we #nailed this one. American history is seriously complicated and broken because of this really good idea of not having communism.

Example number three. I going to go ahead and be brave and say Race. The civil rights movement was a Good Thing. But while it was going on the seeds were sown for the cultural destruction of the black community. Institutional racism and black genocide through abortion are a landscape we’ve come to live with, and in many cases, be fine with.

Example Number Four. Feminism. It’s a super good idea, isn’t it, for women to be equal? I mean, I think so. But shout your abortion? That’s evil. And yet, one followed on the other.

I could go on and talk about immigration and grocery store check out lines and clothing manufacturing and gay mirage and falalalal lalalala, but I think I’m making my point. We set out to do good, to do justice, to love mercy, but we ourselves are evil at the core and so the outcome of these Good Intentions is actually devastation and woe.

And that’s why doubling down, even though that is what we always do, is so tragically foolish. The icon of this, for me, is Trump. With a world broken by violence, injustice, economic trouble, religious anxiety, tidal wave level mental health issues, and everything in between, seeing and recognizing that Things Are Not As They Should Be, our “good idea” was to elect a man who looks just like us, who embodies American brokenness. And if you whisper gently, like the soft whisper of a butterfly, maybe this was a dumb idea, you get a shouty #THISISWHYWEHAVETRUMP. I mean, yes, I know it is. I’m agreeing with you. But of course I’m not agreeing with you.

And so, once again, I will turn so irritatingly to the gospel which is, as I’m sure you’ve heard (actually I’m not sure you’ve heard which is why I say it every day) is that Humanity Is Evil but that God Is Good. So good that he absorbs our evil in himself by taking our place and dying the death we should have endured. Our response to this information should be to fall on our faces in sackcloth and ashes. We should stop and say that we are sorry. That we understand that we are Unable to do good, even when we are trying to, and that we need God to intervene, to break in, to rescue us from the pit that we have so laboriously dug for ourselves. It’s the only way, even though we won’t try it.

And now back to the usual pre-Christmas madness. Pip pip.