Allegiances and Action

President Donald J. Trump

Inauguration Day, 2017, excerpts:

“Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public. But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now…

For many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry; subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military; we've defended other nation's borders while refusing to defend our own; and spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon. One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire world.

But that is the past. And now we are looking only to the future. We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power.

From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.

From this moment on, it's going to be America First.”

When Donald Trump took office just a few days ago, his inauguration speech was forward-focused. No longer will America falter at home or on the world stage; no longer will we think about the past and its problems. It’s time for a revitalization, leaving behind any deterioration, bringing money and prosperity and values back to the working class and to all of America.

It’s safe to say Donald Trump took office under a banner of nationalism.

America will rise up again, and come together, and be better.

“America will start winning again, winning like never before,” he said.

Because America, although shackled under the weight of a faltering economy, responsibilities abroad, and declining infrastructure, is the greatest country in the world.

“At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity."”

Nationalism, you know, is a powerful force, powerful enough to bring diverse people together to pursue one goal, the good of the shared nation. The more diverse the people, the more competing the values, the stronger the feeling of nationalism must be to unite them.

Nationalism is maybe the most powerful force that can be used by a politician, along with religion (and the “best” ones always use both), but it’s nearly always a precursor to the denial of human dignity at the hands of the nation.

Adolf Hitler took power on a platform you can sum up with the phrase “make Germany great again.”

Here’s an excerpt from his 1933 speech, right after he was elected Chancellor, exactly 84 years ago today:

“In the course of the past fourteen years, our Volk has suffered deterioration in all sectors of life, which could inconceivably have been greater. The question as to what, if anything, could have been worse than in these times is a question which cannot be answered…

In spite of its lack of mobility in political feelings and positions, the German Volk itself has increasingly turned away from concepts, parties, and associations which, in its eyes, are responsible for these conditions [Communism, and generally all of Europe after World War I].

Filled with the conviction that the causes of this collapse lie in internal damage to the body of our Volk, the Government of the National Revolution aims to eliminate the afflictions from our völkisch life which would, in future, continue to foil any real recovery.

The inner disintegration of our Volksgemeinschaft inevitably resulted in an increasingly alarming weakening of the authority of the highest levels of leadership. The sinking reputation of the Reich Government - which is the inevitable product of unstable domestic conditions of this type - led to ideas on the part of various parties … which are incompatible with the unity of the Reich.”

Hitler was saying, “We have lost something important, our reputation, our pride, our prosperity, our unity. Let’s come together now against a common enemy (Communism, other nations, and later, Jews and non-Arians) and unify in the spirit of German pride.”

Hitler was saying, “Let’s make Germany great again.” He was running under the banner of nationalism.

After taking power, Hitler and his people immediately launched an aggressive campaign to end unemployment, improve infrastructure by building housing, railroads, and the autobahn, and increase the economy by encouraging consumer spending (any of this sound familiar?). All in the service of stopping the “inner disintegration” of Germany, to make it important again on the world stage, and to deny any inferiority it may have felt after taking the blame for World War I.

I need not remind you the cost of Hitler’s Reich.

For Christians, there is never a time when our allegiance is to the nation. It is first, only, and always to Jesus Christ - and the cause of Christ is for the dignity and flourishing of every human being, especially the marginalized and outcast.

The Jew, the immigrant, the Syrian, the refugee, the Muslim, the Mexican, the undocumented, the LGBTQ, the woman, the child, the old, the orphan.

And if you are not the marginalized, if you are the majority, privileged, or rich, you are invited to use your power on behalf of those who are suffering. To lay your body and your riches on the line for them. This is the life you signed up for; there is no other Christianity. It does not exist.

If you want to be a nationalist, you can follow Trump, but you cannot follow Jesus at the same time. Those who attempted following Hitler and Jesus eventually had to choose, and most of them didn’t know what they were doing until they had already capitulated to the Reich. Very few of them saw clearly enough to resist to the end, and even though those are the ones we claim as our own (Bonhoeffer), we are not worthy of them if we are not prepared to follow in their footsteps. What would Bonhoeffer do in 2017?

He would certainly not be lost in ethical debate or endless indecision, as so many Christians now seem to be.

In his book Discipleship, Bonhoeffer recalls the biblical story of the rich young ruler, who approached Jesus with ethical questions. Instead of answering his quandaries, Jesus tells him to go sell his possessions and become a disciple. The rich young ruler, says the writer of Mark, “was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.”

Bonhoeffer writes, “He hoped Jesus would offer him a solution to his ethical conflict. But Jesus lays hold, not of the question, but of the person himself. The only answer to the predicament of ethical conflict is God’s commandment itself, which is the demand to stop discussing and start obeying. Only the devil has a solution to offer to ethical conflicts. It is this: keep asking questions, so that you are free from having to obey.”

We are not freed from guilt by our ethical positions, our political leanings, our enraged Facebook posts. The questions and debates we have without end. We are freed only by obedience to Christ and the forsaking of all other allegiances. We are never freed from guilt by asking, like the religious scholar in Luke 10, “Who is my neighbor?” meaning, “Who am I obligated to take care of in this world?” We may never find anyone to help if we ask that question.

Bonhoeffer said, “You should not ask; you should act. The answer is: You yourself are the neighbor. Go and be obedient in acts of love. Being a neighbor is not a qualification of someone else; it is their claim on me, nothing else. At every moment, in every situation I am the one required to act, to be obedient. There is literally no time left to ask about someone else’s qualification.”