Losing my religion

Do I really need a subtitle for this

There’s a great section in the near-future sci-fi book Fall, by Neil Stephenson, where Ted, a follower of New Christianity (called Leviticanism and is very obviously modeled on religious trends we’re seeing with Trump’s disciples), explains the tenets of the faith:

[Ted]: “So-called Christianity, as it existed up until recently, is based on a big lie - the most successful conspiracy of all time. And it was all summed up in the symbolism of the cross. Every cross you see on a mainstream church, or worn as jewelry, or on a rosary or what have you, is another repetition of that lie."

"And what is that lie exactly?" Phil asked.

"That Jesus was crucified.  That the Son of God, the most powerful incarnate being in the history of the universe, allowed Himself to be scourged and humiliated and taken out in the most disgraceful way you can imagine."

"Taken out' means 'murdered'?" Anne-Solenne asked. It was a rhetorical question that Ted answered with the tiniest hint of a nod.

"The church that was built on the lie of the Crucifixion had two basic tenets. One was the lovey-dovey Jesus who went around being nice to people—basically, just the kind of behavior you would expect from the kind of beta who would allow himself to be spat on, to be nailed to a piece of wood. The second was this notion that the Old Testament no longer counted for anything, that the laws laid down in Leviticus were part of an old covenant that could simply be ignored after, and because, he was nailed up on that cross. We have exposed all that as garbage. Nonsense. A conspiracy by the elites to keep people meek and passive. The only crosses you'll see in our church are on fire, and the symbolism of that has nothing to do with the KKK. It means we reject the false church that was built upon the myth of the Crucifixion."

"So, to be clear, all Christianity for the last two thousand years—Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, evangelical—is just flat-out wrong," Phil said.

"That is correct.  That's the first thing the church did, was enshrine all those gospels. Telling the story they wanted to tell. About the meek liberal Jesus who gave food away to poor people and healed the sick and so on."

American Christianity’s unquestioning and unequivocal embrace of Trump exposed many things to me that I was either blind to up until 2016, or, worse, willfully ignorant. It’s clear to me that American Christianity’s aim is to wield state power  against those it sees as a threat. But this isn’t new: many religions propagate through state violence - think of the crusades, the Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula (and the Reconquista that followed), the Conquistadores in North America, or any one of the religious conflicts in Europe during the post-Roman period, just to name a few off the top of my head.

Perhaps my problem is that I was told by pastors and teachers over and over that “morality matters” and that virtue, honesty, and truth are absolutes and non-negotiable (for leaders, especially), and I, a credulous child at the time, believed them. I suppose I do owe the evangelical voters of 2016 (and now 2024) thanks for dispelling what little illusion I had left that they actually believed that, or thought their “anointed leaders” should adhere to those values, even when inconvenient.

As Ken White put it:

The essence of Trumpism is the Nixon-to-Frost proposition that “if my side does it, it’s not wrong.” Trump dominates American conservatives and putative people of faith even as he rejects the values they’ve previously claimed, because they’ve decided he’s their guy.

I have been told that many Trump voters became such only because of abortion. Consider: the places where abortion is banned have higher rates of infant and maternal mortality, lower wages, and higher rates of children living in poverty. One would think that if the protection of life was paramount, they’d want to look into that, instead of harping on “personal responsibility” as a way to keep their taxes low.

I have been told that Trump voters are simply “voting their Christian values.” Consider: president-elect Donald Trump only recently pretended to fellate a microphone, suggested that Liz Cheney face a firing squad, said that immigrants “poison the blood” of our country, and said that he would turn the U.S. military on those he sees as being against him. None of this was met with even mild condemnation or concern by those Christians voting their values. At some point it would be interesting to drive through church parking lots on a Sunday and take a tally of “Let’s Go Brandon” or “Trump: Fuck Your Feelings” bumper stickers. What, then, should we conclude about these values?

But, I have been told, we can’t take Trump at his word. At what then must we take him? His actions? His 2017-2021 term was chaotic at best, malevolent at worst. Toward the end his administration executed a man so mentally disabled he would compare unfavorably to a four-year-old. This is not to say he was innocent, he wasn’t - but he should have been securely institutionalized for the remainder of his life, but not executed.

My point here is that if these people really cared about morality, humility, or practiced what they preached, perhaps they’d express some kind of even mild concern over all of this. If their goal is to re-establish America as a “Christian Nation” with Trump as its figurehead, then can we say that having a special dinner with avowed white supremacists and Holocaust deniers is in line with that? Or calling for the death penalty for five minority teenagers who were demonstrably innocent of a crime? If we’re judging a system by looking at what it does, then what would we conclude?

Again, Ken White puts it well:

Trump came wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross (upside down, but still) and too many people assumed their fellow Americans would see how hollow that was. That assumption was fatal.

P.S. I’m choosing to not have the app send this out. You all probably signed up for this newsletter because of my writings on legal AI, not on my religious or political takes.