Trumpism’s most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. In the course of a few weeks, the US president started showing everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to build it. Then, after nationwide protests against his rule, he posted on social media an AI video of himself wearing a crown and piloting a fighter jet labeled “King Trump”, which proceeded to bomb American cities and Americans with a graphically vivid load of human poop.
As disorienting as it is to watch the president try to upend the old idea of democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there is one large group of Americans who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they turned a figure of love into a figure of hate who blesses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in the Gospel; we went from “the meek shall inherit the Earth” to “the meek shall die of cholera.” This has happened more slowly, over decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
What particularly hurts is the fact that at no point did we manage to fight back, not effectively anyway. Without intending to, we surrendered control of the idea of Jesus. It is a story that may provide some insights into how to fight the attack on democracy.
Sounds like someone doesn’t know their own Messiah. “I didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword.”
That’s Matthew 10:34-36
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
The “sword” is a metaphor for the sharp, divisive nature of Jesus’s message. It separates those who accept his teachings from those who reject them. Family division: The quote directly follows with examples of this division, such as a son against his father and a daughter against her mother. This is because a person’s commitment to Jesus could conflict with family loyalty and traditional beliefs. Spiritual conflict: The quote highlights that the true spiritual battle is not a physical one. It represents the internal and external conflict that arises when people make a profound choice to follow a new faith that may be at odds with their former way of life and family traditions.
Essentially it means that the message of Jesus is going to be a hard pill to swallow for many people, and it definitely is.
The book of Matthew also contains what Jesus himself indicates is the most important message in the Bible. If you take away nothing else from the old or new testaments, remember Matthew 22:36-40
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
The second is like unto it: You can’t complete the first commandment without following the other.
If you truly love your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, you recognize him as the creator of all things. That means he created you and he created everyone and everything else on earth. To show your love and respect for his creation you must love yourself with everything that you are because you recognize you are one of his creations, and you must do the same for your neighbor and recognize that they are also his creation.
For some reason, placing those two laws above all others, seems to be one of the most divisive parts of Christianity for many Christians.
I remember (about 20 yrs ago) struggling with my faith in the church, ie: why there were so many rules to follow. I figured that if Jesus had simplified most rules – to make believing easier – why was the church complicating things?
That’s when I stumbled upon Matthew 22: 36-40 … and suddenly it all made sense.
Not long after I left the church because I couldn’t stand the hypocrisy.
I know what you mean. *Eventually I came to dread church and just stopped going altogether when my parents finally got sick of the hypocrisy too and stopped making me go.
Speaking of hypocrisy and the church though, you might like Matthew 23. I actually just came across it tonight. Its kinda funny that anger at the weaponization of Christianity on a national scale is what actually got me reading the bible again for the first time in decades, and wondering how much the pieces of my faith I didn’t even realize I had held onto this whole time might have ended up shaping me into who I am.
I much prefer Matthew 10:23.
Most of Matthew is full of pearls. Like 23:23
Fuck yeah, Jesus! Call out those oligarch POSs
Your religion and Messiah condone slavery. Defend that one.
Not a christian, but this is Galatians 3:28 where the bible says everyone is equal under the eyes of god. Its an admission that all these things are essentially social constructs
Nationality, gender, social classes, these things are all useless to god and it doesn’t abide by them. I’d argue the correct pronouns for a christian are “it” not “he” or “she”.
Why would I defend that? Is there somewhere in the Bible Jesus says slavery is good?
I’m no biblical expert, but the only thing I can find on Jesus actually directly “stating” anything regarding slavery is from the book of Luke, and unlike Matthew, Luke wasn’t even one of his apostles.
The Bible says a lot of shit that contradicts itself and a lot of things that were definitely meant to be taken as a metaphor. It was also rewritten and edited by men who (very similar to the oligarchs of 2025) hoped to use religion and the Bible to control the masses. Whether they realize it or not, they actually get called out a lot via warnings Jesus gives throughout the Bible.
So to answer your question/accusation(?) I won’t defend slavery because why the fuck would I? I’m also unaware of anything attributed to Jesus actually condoning slavery, but the idea that he did seems to be from a quote attributed to him in the book of Luke, who did not actually know Jesus and did not become a follower of Christianity until after his death.
If you’re supposed to be the savior of mankind, you live among slaves, and you don’t even mention it (he does, by the way, and never even suggests it’s a bad thing), then you can go fuck yourself and your belief system is trash.
The Old Testament is explicitly pro slavery, and as he said himself, Jesus didn’t come to abolish the old law, but to fulfill it. To say that, and then never suggest slavery is bad, then you are condoning it. It really shouldn’t be too much to ask for him to be like, “yeah how about you don’t treat humans as property”.
Yahweh is an evil, genocidal maniac and his followers are in an abusive relationship with him. “I love you, but if you don’t literally worship me, you will burn for eternity”.
Yeah, no thanks.
Well again, the Bible says a lot of shit about having tattoos and eating pork/shellfish that plenty of people who claim the identity of Christian Nationalist are cool ignoring, while also insisting that society must strictly abide by very random parts of the old testament.
Obviously, there is no mention of Christ in the old testament, so it seems kind of odd that anyone would call themselves a.Christian while picking and choosing which random parts of the old testament you think people should obey, while also ignoring the parts of the New Testament that Christ says are most important.
Not sure what you’re saying no thanks to because I’m not offering you anything? If you can let me know what you’re referring to regarding Jesus talking about slavery, maybe I can actually address that?
Because again, as far as I know the only quote is this from the book of Luke (who never knew Jesus), and it sounds like an oligarch jumping on the bandwagon and trying to use religion to manipulate and control the followers of that religion.
If this is what you’re referring to, I would consider the context that this was not written by somebody who actually heard Jesus speak/teach. If Peter Thiel wrote a book attributing quotes to Jesus, it would probably be full of shit just like this.
Basically “don’t worry about uprising against all evil shit I’m doing. Jesus says you have to forgive me no matter how many times I do it. Just look at Luke 17.”
Specifically, Jesus seems to warn almost word for word about this exact bullshit in Matthew 23:
The oligarchs use religion as a tool to gain their seat of power and control. You may be stuck living in a society controlled by their unjust laws, but don’t be like them. Never forget the claims of their own holiness are merely an illusion and part of the tool they use to keep the “little ones” oppressed under the weight of their man made laws.
Did you even read my comment? I don’t know if I could have been any more clear, yet it seems you didn’t read anything I wrote.
You don’t get to just ignore parts of the old testament that you do not like. That’s your holy book, and if you’re going to live your life by it (and in many cases, push it on everyone else), then you’re going to have to stand behind everything in it. That includes the parts about how bad you can beat your gentile slaves.
I’m saying no thanks to Christianity. Seemed pretty clear to me in context.