Sean Major-Campbell | Long live Donald Trump!

DO CHRISTIANS have a role to play in political conversations? Is that role to promote a theocratic approach or is it to advance a community of light, love, and peace for everyone?

We better understand that dodging the difficult questions about politics will not make us any better for heaven while our silence paves the way for hell on Earth. Too many Christians and other religious folks are prone to serving personality cults while preserving shrines of messianic complexes.

Some are naïve enough to hold the view that violence, terrorism, racial tensions, political instability and such concerns are not a problem if they are happening far away on the US mainland. And we are just happy with Jamaica land we love in our little corner. Talk with some folks and you get a detached and aloof confidence that those concerns are America’s problems. Is it naïve or hypocritical?

GREED FOR POWER

The fact is that the stability of the United States of America matters for us and many of our loved ones who live and work there. Many Jamaicans have more family members living in in the USA rather than in Jamaica. Reality tells me that we do well to have an interest in seeing the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States of America, being institutions of high integrity and virtuous morals. Any political institution that is driven by virtue ethics will not readily sell its soul to serve the greed for power!

We must also beware of being conveniently used by any arm of the western metropole in the divide and conquer project of colonial powers. Neither Republican nor Democratic powers have an obligation to any group of people outside of the USA! However, it matters what they think and do. Yes, it affects the rest of the world!

BEATEN BY A BLACK WOMAN

Some have suggested that God spared Donald Trump so that he could be judged by a black woman, interviewed by black women, and beaten in the presidential elections by a black woman. I am just thankful that he is alive.

There is much wisdom in affirming the fellow human status of Donald Trump while subjecting him to accountability as everyone should be. Do not be fooled. We have not yet recognised how much the mighty United States of America remains on an even keel since the Republican presidential candidate remains alive. It is okay to also observe that America was spared as the life of Donald Trump was spared! Allow this to sink in for a moment.

Dr Raulston Nembhard, writing in the Jamaica Observer of July 24, under the captioned, Republican divine obsession with Trump a danger to society, notes, “But is it not a stretch to suggest that God turned his head and spared him from the assassin’s bullet in order for Trump to do His work ‘to the glory of God’ And what is this glory and purpose that is being hearkened to? To carry out massive deportations of illegals, disrupting families and causing untold hardships on the society? Is it executing the blueprint of Project 2025, with all the hallmarks of chaos and confusion that is likely to ensue in the society? Is it to continue the oppression of minority groups such as those in the LGBTQ community; to seek revenge and retribution against perceived enemies; to continue the oppression of women as you remove from them the fundamental decisions over their reproductive health? Is it to give tax breaks to the richest individuals and corporations while giving tokens, if any, to the poorest and most vulnerable in the society.”

It is for these reasons that both the Republican and Democratic parties of the USA ought of necessity to be held to the best standards of universally accepted best practices for the cause of a just and equitable society. This is why human rights for all, and not contentious religious biases should inform the wellbeing and interest of a stronger USA.

CHRISTIAN NATIONALIST VS TALIBAN

There is a meme that illustrates a comparison between ‘Christian Nationalist’ and ‘Taliban’. It is a profound call to pause and examine any implications, truth, or concerns that may arise from this commentary. It places the positions side by side without any change; thereby producing an exact image of both. The Christian Nationalist side is anti LGBT, anti-science, anti women’s rights, anti abortion, no separation of Church and State, one dominating religion, pro gun. The Taliban side is anti-LGBT, anti-science, anti women’s rights, anti abortion, no separation of Church and State, one dominating religion, pro gun. Something on which to ruminate.

When Donald Trump asked if the USA could not just drop a nuclear bomb on the eye of a hurricane, or asked members of the government’s coronavirus task force to look into whether disinfectants could be injected inside people to treat COVID-19, to his credit, he was only asking questions. On the other hand, some thought it cause for concern when he told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India and China did not share a border.

Should Christians be concerned about politics? Should they even get involved with ever changing the political status quo? Was anyone aware of Hitler’s process leading to the Holocaust? And are some Evangelical Christians at risk of saying like many Germans in Nazi Germany, “Davon haben wir nichts gewusst” (“We knew nothing about that”)?