Trump dishonors Jesus’ ‘woke’ doctrine. When did vengeful “hate thy enemy” displace the Christian love gospel?
A lead historian on belief systems, Joseph Campbell, confirms that Jesus’ most significant if daunting breakthrough instruction was “Love thy enemy.” Not just the difficult “turn the other cheek,” but a commandment that sought to transfigure hateful violence into peace and harmony. Similarly and earlier, paramount virtues in Buddhism became compassion, non-violence and reconciliation: murderous destruction violates the foundation of one’s humanity.
Jesus took non-violent compassion to a higher, transcendent morality. He went beyond “love thy neighbor” to the ideal of “love thy enemy.” Jesus per Matthew didn’t say critic or opponent or blasphemer but “enemy”—then “pray for those who persecute you.” This astoundingly bold doctrine, per google AI, declares Christians must practice compassion and goodwill toward persecutors. “Instead of seeking revenge or repayment of evil for evil, the command is to do good, bless, and pray for enemies, ultimately aiming to align with the perfection of the heavenly Father.”
Trump’s startling, crudely honest responses to Erika Kirk’s prayer of forgiveness reveal his unswerving, cruelty-driven retribution manias. What Ms. Kirk articulated was a 2000 year old moral legacy towards her husband’s murderer, “I forgive him, because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate.” Ms. Kirk in mourning holds firm to Jesus’ standard: to forgive, even work to love enemies, In response, the most boorish, least spiritually aware, profane leader needlessly goes out of his way to defy the gospel with this whopper:
Trump: That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent. (Laughter) And I don’t want the best for [enemies]. I’m sorry. I am sorry, Erika. But now Erika can talk to me and the whole group, and maybe they can convince me that that’s not right. But I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them.”
Thus does President Macho scorn anything that looks like mushy, woke vulnerability, no doubt speaking for much of his allegedly religious base. Never has Trump more clearly revealed his retribution-dripping, strongman distance from the gospel. Note the laughter, signaling high audience anxiety to a blasphemous assertion Jesus did not teach the highest truth. Trump thus replaces love with its opposite – revenge – turning doctrine into a transactional license to cherry-pick which Christian commandments are worthy of his ego.
The gospel as Mar-a-lago dinner buffet?
When were Christians awarded free-wheeling options to reject what the son of God clearly commanded, as if no different from opinions on tariffs or vaccines or free speech? What world faith just proposes a religious buffet for congregants to decide willy-nilly what constitutes their idea of virtue or sin. Religious truth, if not paths to redemption, are opposite to playing Jeopardy! Or betting your soul’s future on self-serving, private vanities (exactly per Christian commentators why the rebellious, God-rejecting Satan was damned).
On par, concretely wicked, is the blatant lie here that obscures monumental hypocrisy, as if Trump listens to others: “maybe they can convince me that’s not right.” When has anyone (except his dead father) decided Trump’s career fixations that life is full of menacing threats, mandating aggressive countermoves not just of enemies but anyone in his way? Especially humorists who ridicule his entitled “genius.” Trump the unlettered con man wouldn’t know or learn right from wrong if Jesus taught the class. This malignant narcissist only knows what serves his transient, primitive appetites. No one tells Trump what to do or how to think—and so he violates women, screws partners, vendors and saps, scoffs at law or justice and lies all the time—incapable of internalizing fairness or goodness.
Thus he only trusts equally unevolved, merciless folks like Stephen Miller: “We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil. And to those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us, what do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing.” Thus does brutal Trumpist dehumanization remove all empathy, compassion or even admission other people are guaranteed equal rights. Who bothers to understand, let alone forgive or love, subhuman nothings? Thus did Satan, per Christianity, prey on vulnerable, objectified pawns Adam and Eve to get back at God – and why Christ has to take human form to offset Eden’s original sin.
Vance lies worsen the inexcusable
Trump’s defiance of this accepted Christian legacy was so shocking that immediately the slavish (supposedly savvier) JD Vance was forced to go into supreme cover-up mode. Vance bizarrely fabricated that DT didn’t mean what he said and the world heard, dishing out shameless, unrivaled mendacity:
“I think the president was joking,” the vice president told Nexstar’s Reshad Hudson, “what the president was trying to do, in this very humorous and very unique way, was highlight how hard it is for us to forgive our enemies.” Right!? So JD figured he’d cover up the indefensible with most unpersuasive, outrageous distortions. When has the grim Trump, anything but a nuanced jokester, been “very” uniquely “humorous”? Such nonsense from a Catholic convert who even failed here to endorse (vs, E. Kirk) loving forgiveness as irreplaceable Christian goals.
In fact, Trump was repeating dozens of his like-minded, very “unique” hate-speech. At Iowa in July, whining that Democrats had no right to oppose his Big Ugly Bill, the unendurable paranoid blustered “They wouldn’t vote only because they hate Trump, but I hate them, too, you know? I really do. I hate them. I cannot stand them.” What adult wastes energy “hating” a demented predator doing what he promised? Weeks later, Trump condemned legitimate opponents (enemies to him) as “evil people,” nothing more than “fascists” guilty of “treason.” How uniquely humorous to slander foes as “enemies of the people,” “the enemy within” and “threats to democracy.” From day one, the dire Trump outrage machine is obsessed with invented enemies, forever falsely declaring them evil haters of America deserving every vengeful retribution his hate can wreak. Pure propaganda and the death of irony. Where’s any proof Dems openly publicized hatred of Trump?
Vance mortified himself further with his own lying corruption of what Jesus taught: “I don’t think that [Trump] was saying we should hate our enemies. I think what he was saying was that Christ’s commandment to love our enemies is very tough, actually. It’s tough to live up to in practice, but we still have to try.” Bullshit on steroids! Trump spouted hatred of enemies without reservation and without ambiguity. Vance displays equal hypocrisy when distorting what both Jesus and Trump said. What distinguishes Jesus’ message is that it contradicts egotistic selfishness, elevating this “very tough” corrective of knee-jerk hate. So Trump first scandalously blunders (exposing his truthful character) and Vance doubles down with staggering duplicity, further confirming that hating enemies is Christian wickedness, deserving punishment.
Will it be right-makes-might or the enlightened Jesus?
It’s bad enough to distort commandments, quite another to revel in disobedience, declaring the gospel irrelevant (or contrary) to his governance. After all, this hate-filled, fear-based might-makes-right fixation aligns with Trump’s serial demolitions: anti-truth, anti-law, anti-Constitution, anti-decency, anti-dissent, anti-immigration (legal or not), anti-healthcare and public health, anti-education, anti-research, anti-global trade, anti-history, anti-science, anti-free expression, and anti-political satire. Add any I missed. What Christian rejects noble, paramount ideals, many critically inspiring rights in democracies for 500 years?
What else but hatred and retribution (okay, throw in rabid ignorance) blast forth by attacking life-saving government agencies, independent law firms, research universities, the UN, foreign leaders, late-night TV hosts, news organizations and cultural institutions? Are rational adults still mystified at Trump’s scorched earth barrage of widespread destruction, presumably because chaos and disorder serve tyrannical fantasies of ruling the world, the flesh and, yes, the devil. The MAGA doomsday engine guarantees both mass fatalities and suffering, ironically taking much higher tolls in suckered red states.
How significant that a self-proclaimed Christian—who doesn’t know which side of the Bible is up—belligerently disrespects hard commandments from the most important Christian visionary figure ever. Thus the stunning contradiction of Trump’s daily strongman terrorism that dishonors the very belief system so many fundamentalist Christians declare as literal, ultimate, non-optional truth. So the choice is now between Jesus and Trump. Gosh, how will his equally backward, violence-prone base of true believers reconcile undeniable contradictions of monumental proportions?
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