Speaking of things reasonable and unreasonable, some of my Trump-supporting Christian friends are sharing a letter to President Trump on Facebook written by a Roman Catholic archbishop. It's a letter of encouragement to president Trump to continue the fight against the "deep state," which the archbishop sees behind both the Covid 19 emergency and the protests and violence of the past week.
This would fall under the heading of unreasonable (and that sentence falls under the heading of understatement). The lurid worldview presented here is loosely Biblical in the sense that it sees the present situation against the backdrop of a long war between Light and Darkness, but here the Light is precisely associated with Trump and his policies (as opposed to the love and mercy of God), and the dark with opposition to Trump. It's really as simplistic as that. He strikes all the usual scare-notes: mainstream media, powerful but unnamed elites manipulating what we know and how we feel, the deep state, and of course that old chestnut, the New World Order.
Like all conspiracy theories, this worldview, once you buy into it, insures that you never really have to think again. You never have to wonder if there might be some nuance, some good and bad, on both sides. It's not a messed up world anymore, it's a very orderly world, in which it is easy to tell who is on side of Darkness, and who on the side of Light. Trump has said nice things about the Bible and has visited a Roman Catholic shrine, so he is on the side of Light. All those who oppose him and his policies, they are children of Darkness.
This is a theological mess that I am not up to addressing this morning. Maybe another time. But it has definitely struck a note among Trump's Christian supporters. In my experience, they are seldom interested in nuance, or careful exegesis, or a deep commitment to rationality, or any facts that don't bolster their presets. Their support for Trump is always unqualified, admitting no error on the part of their hero. So this letter is deeply satisfying to them.
And it seems to have come at the right time. Trump is so consistently behind in every poll, and has been for months, that even he has begun to notice. He knows he's losing, and so do his fans. After 4 years of shaking their pom-poms for Trump and predicting a HUGE victory in 2020, they're now setting up the excuses (oops, I mean the explanation) for why they're about to lose. It's the children of Darkness, of course!
After the archbishop names the usual suspects, he adds something new: the deep church. I suppose the many Christians who have been marching in the street protests (which Vigano sickeningly equates with riots and violence) are all a part of this deep church. The great thing about a conspiracy theory is that it can never be falsified. Each new development is cut and trimmed to fit the theory. It's a great con, because even as it imagines shadowy behind-the-scenes manipulators, the theory itself is manipulating facts and ultimately people to its own purposes.
But Donald is losing. Of course, anything can happen between now and the election, but for now, and for some time now, he has been losing. And if he loses in November, this will be the reason they give. The whole process was manipulated. "We was robbed!" they'll shout. And I wonder with some trepidation to whom they'll turn next.
No comments:
Post a Comment