“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
~Maya Angelou
Peg and I found ourselves on the front porch last night, trying to enjoy what little breeze came in the wake of a small line of thunderstorms that briefly broke the oppressive heat in which the Southern Tier has been enveloped these last few days. The conversation was free-wheeling, as it usually is with her as long as we avoid discussion of interior decorating, which tends to narrow the talk until we're scrolling through ostrich-shaped lamps on Wayfair.
I mentioned an essay I'd read about how we are all overstimulated by the endless news cycle filling our in-baskets with emails detailing the latest political performance art brought to us by the MAGA crowd, entitled "Make America Boring Again". The author, Matt Labash, made a comment to the effect that one could tell a lot about the far right by contemplating the god they purport to worship, for the most part the OT Hebrew Yahweh who behaved like an insecure teenager with superpowers for most of that great body of scripture.
"Oh my god!", Peg exclaimed, pondering the revelation that had drifted into our midst. "That's why they love Trump!"
This can't be a new insight, because it's sitting there in plain view. But she's truly onto something.
Think about it. Although a squishy Episcopal seminarian will challenge the premise of a petty deity in the Hebrew Bible with a pile of verses about God's love for his people, for the most part the character portrayed in that rambling epic rewards loyalty above all else, smites those who annoy him, arbitrarily changes his mind at times about which servants are worth his favor (sorry, Saul), whines when he doesn't get his way, and shows an incredible lack of foresight when it comes to the arc of human history.
Sound familiar?
This is why, despite his cruelty and capriciousness, despite the utter self-absorption and tendency to make every national issue about him personally, DJT's tribe still loves him. The less likable traits he displays every day--and they are manifold--mirror those of the superhero in the action tale they celebrate on Sunday mornings in the evangelical, fundamentalist wings of the church. And just like the Chosen People in that collection of stories, the MAGA crowd feels a part of a tribe enabled by a special relationship with the Big Guy, who endlessly promises to make life better for them, even when objectively he's not.
But wait--over the last several years, these folks have been mostly staying home on Sundays. How can one say that their religious beliefs lead them to see 45 as some sort of deity?
Well, for starters they spent decades of their lives in the pews, listening to preachers who relied on the OT to rail against everyone not like them, and to promise divine vengeance against those who held other beliefs, or maybe no beliefs at all. That conditioning doesn't go away just because they now choose to skip church and watch Fox News on Sunday mornings.
Moreover, creepily, for many MAGA has become their religion, without jettisoning poor Jehovah. How? As it turns out, Jehovah sent us the Cheeto Messiah, a savior for our age. That's really what they're saying.
So following Trump is following God. He'll even sell you a Bible as proof they're on the same team.
Peg hit the nail on the head. They've replaced a petulant literary character with a real life, geriatric adolescent who promises his own smiting, telling the faithful that he "is their vengeance." Great. The literary character created enough mayhem through his followers. This one would have his flesh-and-blood finger on the button.
Before you start worrying about my immortal soul for being a little hard on OT God, I can assure you I try to walk the walk the best I can, and have spent lots of time parsing scripture. As I've heard it said before, I take scripture too seriously to take it literally. And if one takes it seriously, and explores the plot lines from the Garden of Eden through rebuilding the Walls of Jerusalem and beyond, one finds an evolution in the central character in the story, a fellow without much of a social or moral compass who murders whole cities and tortures his most faithful servant on a bet, but later through his prophets develops a sense of human suffering and the need for compassion and social justice. God evolves.
By the way, that's not an original observation. If you find the topic interesting, and I do, you'll thoroughly enjoy God: A Biography, by Jack Miles, a Jesuit seminarian turned ancient near-eastern literature scholar. Miles observes in this book, now nearly thirty years old, how the character of God in the Hebrew Bible changes over generations, learns through his relationship with humanity which, let's face it, would be a new experience for a being engaged in the business of solitary creation.
Time to plow through work, so P and I can sneak off this afternoon to the condo. I have visions of lying about with a book and watching storms roll over the lake. Peg mentioned she may have a few little projects for us to complete. I think we all know how this is going to turn out.
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