In the U.S. today, an entire religion has developed around the worship of the dominance, centrality privilege, and assumed universality of being white. “White is right,” or so this religion postulates, and its advocates have set up a particulate set of beliefs, practices (such as a highly selective use of biblical scriptures), and organizations to support, defend, and teach its “faith.” Their militant mission is to return power to white Christian America.
Christian nationalism seems to have nothing to do with democracy, watching out for your neighbor, compassion, helping those in need, and more to do with racism, authoritarianism, bigotry, and exclusion. The entire Republican Party has bought into Trump’s delusional beliefs. It’s hard to explain. Many Christians have turned to a “religion of whiteness.”
Philip Gorski explains: “For white Americans who affirm Christian nationalist ideology, “true Americans” aren’t just natural-born white citizens who identify with conservative Christianity on, say, issues like abortion or transgender rights; rather there is another aspect of what it means to be “truly American that gets entangled in the conservative Christian identity: libertarian, free-market capitalism.”
Watch Trump regarding the disaster in California. He will cast doubt on his opposition, and you can be assured, he and his rich friends will make billions of dollars in the process.
Trump has promised that he will set up a task force to root out “anti-Christian” bias and has pledged to protect pro-God context and content.
The new oligarchy will attempt to control the vote by making it hard for “problem” populations to vote or at the very least, not making it easier.
To help me survive the coming four years, I have been reflecting back on early lessons I was taught by my mother and father and others in our community:
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Always, without exception, be kind and courteous to others. You never know when you might need them to help you, or when you might be called to help them.
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Never, under any circumstance, take what a politician tells you as the truth. This may also hold true for ministers. Their truth is sometimes very different than ours.
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Big business is often to be viewed with skepticism. CEO’s many times are in it for themselves and seldom treat their workers very well. They like the minimum wage. It helps them make maximum profit.
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You can become a Republican if you like, but we wouldn’t recommend it.
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Be respectful of everyone, regardless of color, sex, social status, religious belief or disability. If you get the notion that you are better than anyone else, discord it.
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Not many things appear as they are. Light always overcomes darkness, and good always triumphs over evil. This is a lesson that requires patience and faith. Unfortunately, I’m running low on both.
Anyway, I’m hoping to lean on some of these lessons over the coming years. Now will not be the time to cower in the corner and lick our wounds.
Now will be the time we need to stand up and declare our intent to protect our neighbors, protest and declare disobedience to unjust laws and decrees by the oligarchy, and make it known that we do not intend to abide by The Gospel According to Trump.
We claim to be a democracy. Now we must affirm that belief by our actions.
Bruce H. Weik was a longtime columnist for The Zephyr and is co-creator of Many Paths Galesburg since 2019.
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: The Gospel according to Trump | Opinion
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