By Rudy Barnes, Jr., November 2, 2024
A Presidential election in America reflects its moral culture, and there is a stark contrast between the immorality of Trump and altruistic standards of Christian morality. If Trump should win, it will reflect the failure of the church to promote Christian morality in politics; and to prevent a Trump autocracy, America will have to maintain its divisive polarized partisan politics.
The altruistic and universal teachings of Jesus to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves is summarized in the greatest commandment. It’s a moral imperative taken from the Hebrew Bible and taught by Jesus, and accepted by Muslim scholars as a common word of faith; but it has been neglected in both religion and politics.
Providing for the common good, or altruism, should be the guiding moral principle of democracy, and it requires putting the needs of others over partisan politics. Jesus was a universal Jew who never favored any religion or claimed to be divine. He taught that God’s transforming love was a universal means of salvation for all people in this life, and the next.
The teachings of Jesus were never popular. To gain popularity and power the early church subordinated the altruistic teachings of Jesus to exclusivist church doctrines that limited salvation to Christians. It was a form of cheap grace that enabled Christianity to become the world’s largest religion, but its misplaced priorities doomed the church.
Can the church regain its legitimacy after losing its moral compass in 2016? Not likely, since that would cost the church its popularity. To maintain its primacy as a neighborhood social institution, the church will have to continue to promote popular doctrines over providing for the common good for the least, the last and the lost that was taught by Jesus.
The church will have to choose between popular family institutions of the past, or adopt changes that would undermine its popularity. Either option would have religious, political and cultural implications. The likelihood will be a continuation of declining traditional churches over smaller progressive churches that emphasize the teachings of Jesus.
If the past is any indication of the future, America’s materialist and hedonist culture will resist any institutional change in the church. In the past only a war or a depression made any real difference in America’s standards of morality in politics. Cultural change is gradual. Even if Trump wins the election, any changes in church doctrine would be hard to notice.
Christianity has been distorted by demagogues like Trump and Putin to promote violence to achieve nationalist political objectives; and Netanyahu has used Zionism to promote genocide in Palestine. It’s unlikely that moral teachings on providing for the common good will overcome the propensity of unprincipled politicians to use religious nationalism to achieve political power. In American democracy, polarized partisan politics may be the best defense against autocracy.
Notes:
Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor of The Atlantic, quoted Trump saying, “I need the kind of Generals Hitler had,” and Goldberg noted “that the Republican nominee’s preoccupation with dictators, and his disdain for the American military, is deepening.” See https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-military-generals-hitler/680327/.
Stephen Collinson at CNN has asserted that “Trump revealed the most extreme closing argument in modern presidential history when he anchored his bid to win a second White House term on October 28 at a rally at Madison Square Garden, doubling down on his promise for a massive deportation program on Day 1 to reverse ‘an immigrant invasion.’” See https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/28/politics/trump-extreme-closing-argument/index.html.
On the political extremes in the church, In a race they cast as good vs. evil, Christian hard-liners are fired up for Trump. See
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/29/christian-nationalists-trump-church-state/?utm.
On The Greatest Commandment as A Common Word of Faith, see
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/the-greatest-commandment-common-word-of.html.
On Who Is My Neighbor? see
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/who-is-my-neighbor.html.
On The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves, see
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/the-politics-of-loving-our-neighbors-as.html.
On Altruism: The Missing Ingredient in American Christianity and Democracy, see
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/03/altruism-missing-ingredient-in-american.html.
On Communism in early Christianity, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_communism#:~:text=There%20are%20those%20who%20hold,Jesus%20was%20the%20first%20communist.
On Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Christian Nationalism and Democracy, See
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/04/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.. See also
Musings on Nationalism and Universalism in Religion, Legitimacy and Politics, at
https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2024/01/musings-on-nationalism-and-universalism.html.
On Christianity in the Russian Orthodox Church, known as ‘Russian World’ that promotes Putin’s war against Ukraine, The Russian Orthodox Church and Putin share the view that Ukraine is part of a cultural dominion of Russia to be protected from the values of an encroaching West. See https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-world-is-the-civil-religion-behind-putins-war-11647539958.
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