The world markets are in free-fall. Trump, with his tariffs, does not care how many people he hurts, how many lives he destroys, indeed, how many people will die because of his reckless policies. When asked, his only reply is that the weak will fail, suggesting that anyone who suffers from this, anyone whose lives are ruined, are worthless because they are weak. This mentality is also what lies behind all the destruction of the government and its agencies he is doing (through Musk and DOGE). Agencies which work to protect people, especially the most vulnerable in society, are those which he is closing. He has no compassion. He is promoting what can be said to be Social Darwinism, and what flows from it, eugenics. Those who are seen as not fit to survive, based upon factors such as wealth and power, and not on character, are rushed to their deaths; they are given little to no aid (such as health care), little to no protection for their interests (such as from the Consumer Protection Bureau). Every check and balance has been destroyed: Republicans in Congress are subservient to Trump, while the judiciary is slow to act, giving Trump the time to break everything (and then he says he can’t fix what he did, as can be seen in the way he said he can’t bring back the innocents he sent to El Salvador). Trump, and those backing him, are ruthless, show no love for their fellow humanity, indeed, they show utter contempt to the notion of human dignity; why, then, are so many standing with them? Because they believe the hype of the conman; Trump, and those helping him, have gone completely P.T. Barnum on the American people, and everything which harms them, everything which is clearly making things worse, are represented by Trump as a necessity; he is promising them that on some future date, it will all be worth it – but of course, he does not mean that for the average American, he means it for the rich and powerful.
I am still amazed at the way so many Christians continue to support Trump, no matter what he does. The same Christians who, in my youth, told me how bad eugenics was, have rushed in to support the rich and powerful (like Musk) whose ideologies embrace eugenics. The same Christians who told me character matters, have found a way to ignore all the felonies Trump has been convicted of, of all the actions he has been found culpable for (like rape), of all the divorces, cheating, and other character defects which demonstrate Trump is a danger to all around him. That is because these same Christians have, likewise been promoting the principles behind Social Darwinism, with the way they look to strength and idolize it (as, for example, is seen in the way they look at masculinity, embracing a toxic masculinity where men are expected to build up muscles and take charge and dominate others, all to prove how strong and powerful they are). The same Christians who told me to follow Christ, to not ignore sins, tell me to overlook the sins most represented in Scripture, the sins which are against the poor, the vulnerable, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner – the sins which got Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed as well as led to the Babylonian Exile. These Christians remind me of the way Jesus spoke out against many religious of his day, leaders who he described as hypocrites, preaching one thing but doing the exact opposite.
It is hard for me to believe that all the Christians who tell me to read the Bible, and who say they read it daily, cannot see the vast difference between what is represented in Scripture and what Trump is promoting. Scripture consistently shows God is with the weak and vulnerable, pointing out that those who put their faith in wealth and in their own strength, will find that it will all crumble and bring ruin to them. The prophets, and Jesus, warned the rich and powerful of the destruction they will bring to themselves. Christians are not to idolize worldly strength or riches; they are to look to the way of Christ, the God-man, who in the incarnation became poor, and, in worldly terms, weak, so weak that he was taken up and killed, just like the weak and vulnerable of his age, just like the weak and vulnerable around us today. Jesus, again, said what was done to the least among us, the poor and the weak, is done to him, making it clear where God stands. Social Darwinism, with its uncaring attitude towards the weak and vulnerable, stands in stark contrast to the way of God. Soteriologically, if salvation was had along the lines of Social Darwinism, no one would be saved – this is why the ideology surrounding Pelagian thought is wrong, because no one can work their way to salvation all by themselves.
As the markets fall, as people around the world, and not just the United States, lose everything and find themselves without any support or help coming from the government (or anyone else), I look on in horror at all the Christians who have helped make this happen. Many of them, perhaps even most of them, still defend Trump and his cruelty. They take whatever he promises and believe it, no matter how much what is happening around them prove otherwise. How can they ignore Trump when he makes it clear, he has no concern with those who fails, those who suffer because of his policies, because they are deemed weak? How can they not see that this is the opposite of what Christ, Scripture, and the Christian tradition teach? How can they ignore what is happening in front of them? The delusion is great. Much of it seems to be willful ignorance. They listen to the commentary, to the media content, which tells them everything is fine and anyone who says otherwise is lying to them. They listen to them and believe because they want to believe that. They don’t want to take a serious look and listen to what is actually happening. If they don’t see all the big protests against Trump, they will believe such protests do not happen, and the few they see happening, are fake, with the protestors being paid to protest (which, if they saw the size of the protests, would be clearly impossible). They listen to hucksters who tell them it is good for them to sacrifice their lives, or the lives of their families, for the sake of Trump and Trump’s policies. How else can those who lose their children to measles because they did not vaccinate their children end up saying they would change nothing of what they have done? I cannot but look and weep. How far will the markets drop? How many lives will be ruined? How many people will die? We are about to find out; soon, pestilence will rise up (due to lack of support for proper health care and health care policies), famine (due to farmers losing out on their farms and not being able to get the equipment they need to continue farming) will be all around us, and death, indeed, will make its mark. The markets are in free fall, but so is society as a whole. And sadly, it is hard not to see, how a group of Christians made this happen.
* This Is Part LIII Of My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series
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