JESUS AND TRUMP - SPOT THE SIMILARITIES (or not)

The official Christmas message from the American Republican National Committee created a Twitter storm because many felt the party was trying to liken then President-elect Donald Trump with Jesus.

Here it is: 
"Merry Christmas to all! Over two millennia ago, a new hope was born into the world, a saviour who would offer the promise of salvation to all mankind. Just as the three wise men did on that night, this Christmas heralds a time to celebrate the good news of a new king."

It was that reference to a ‘new king’ that got the Twitterati going - you be the judge.

One must, however, concede that there are similarities – two superb communicators, offering a counter-cultural solution, both with extensive geographic influence. Their messages impact on the world order and Trump's circle of advisors is reminiscent of the disciples.

They both qualify as natty dressers, Jesus with his seamless woven tunic fit for a high priest and The Donald in his tailored suits.

Not least, both were underestimated by the religious and political authorities of their times.

Okay, I’ll stop there and concede to diametrically opposite messages. Whereas Jesus championed the poor and the oppressed Trump has promised to strengthen an economic system that has the world's eight richest people having wealth equal to half of humanity combined. 

Jesus preached inclusiveness and love for all, Trump’s worldview includes winning at all costs, world conquest and entrenched privilege.

I also doubt that Jesus was obsessed with the size of his crowds.

The Trump inauguration

 (I must admit to trying to find a way to connect Trump’s proposed Mexican wall with Hadrian’s wall and then Jesus, but it was a stretch.)

The eternal optimist

As President Donald Trump and other populist politicians gain traction across the western world, I find myself pinning hope on a young woman called Yael. That’s the name Ivanka Trump adopted when she converted to Orthodox Judaism and married Jared Kushner.

Jared and Ivanka Kushner

Already pundits are predicting that she will be the most influential First Daughter in American history, a surrogate First Lady while her step-mother is in New York.

Although hers is officially an advisory role, she is known to blunt her father’s rough edges.

Moreover, her husband is The Donald’s senior White House advisor and often acts as a buffer between his father-in-law and the new people in his political life.

She is pivotal to two of the most powerful men in the world!

Having played a key role on the campaign trail, she attended her father's transition meetings which included the Japanese prime minister and technology leaders. And I find comfort in the theory that, if The Donald could do such a good job with his kids, he can’t be all bad.

For me it’s important that Ivanka and Jared are practicing Orthodox Jews. Observing the Sabbath, turning off cell phones and walking instead of driving between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday. Having to get rabbinic permission to travel by car on her father’s inauguration day.

It’s also important that her husband is the grandson of holocaust survivors who spent three and a half years in an Italian 'displaced–persons' camp while waiting for a US visa. Her in-laws speak of having had “nowhere to go”.

Moreover, she has experienced religious exclusion. When Jared’s family objected to her not being Jewish their relationship broke up in 2008.

I particularly like that, despite her high-powered business schedule, she tries to be with her children for breakfast and to put them to bed. She is also interested in working on policy issues related to children. 

Some even argue that she has a bipartisan streak. They point to a close friendship with Chelsea Clinton. (Although I’m not sure how that stood up to the strain of the vitriolic presidential campaign.) Seems their husbands are also friends.

Do I hear mutterings of rose tinted glasses? 

Yes, we optimists tend to dig deep for our hope.  Just think back on how disparaging folk were about Joe Biden when Barack Obama picked him for a running mate and look how he turned out.

I am encouraged that Ivanka is intelligent, highly successful and loyal to America’s new president. It means he is likely to take her advice. I am mindful too that western democracy was borne on the wings of a Judeo/Christian moral humanitarianism.

And, as I watch ‘women’ marches in cities across the world I’m depending on Ivanka aka Jael to get daddy to understand an African maxim: 

“When you strike a woman you strike a rock.”

Not confusing religion with God

Despite the ungodly South African hour, I watched the inaugural balls that at times seemed more like religious revival services.  The prayers, gospel singers and black entertainers all spoke to good political marketing.  It’s called “wooing the religious right” and reminds one never to confuse religion or politics with God.

Trump, who recently dropped money into a communion plate he thought was for the collection, grew up in a church-going Presbyterian family. This past Christmas Eve he and Melania attended midnight Mass at the church they were married in – the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida.

You could tell they weren’t dyed-in-the-wool Anglicans because they opted for the third pew from the front instead of squeezing into a back row. (I believe they received hearty applause and a standing ovation from the congregation.)

For security reasons, the rector would have had prior notification of the Trump’s visit so I find his gentle sermon particularly interesting. The Rev. James Harlan encouraged the congregation to let the little things go, saying, “All of us have some hurts, some resentments, some fears, some ways that someone has hurt us or offended us in the past that we won’t let go of. We kind of like it. I have those.

“We won’t let go of those things and I can tell you over time those little hurts, those little slights, those little things, consume us and they will push out that space for God’s love all too easily.”

The Trumps accepted Communion and there was no irate tweet in the middle of the night.

Pulpit power

That social media respite was short-lived but the Christmas Eve homily was a gentle reminder of overdue pulpit power. Thankfully that sleeping giant is being shaken awake by recent world events.

In South Africa, President Jacob Zuma is likening himself to Jesus. (He says he has also been betrayed by people close to him and his mantra is that the ANC will rule until Jesus returns.) 

Trump appears to be obsessed with size (hands, crowds, NATO contributions and media column inches.) 

Europe is in a tizz over Brexit and right wing parties are fast gaining political support.

Good news

Thankfully, religious leaders are mobilising but the battle is having to be fought on two fronts – against the powers that need to be checked as well as folk who believe Church should stay out of the political arena.

So, when President Zuma’s warned Archbishop Thabo Makgoba to stay out of politics and pray instead, the churchman used the power of the pulpit in his midnight mass sermon at St George’s Cathedral:

"It feels as if we are back to the national pain of 1963, living under a state of emergency, imposed on us by careless and corrupt leaders who have forgotten us, stripped us of our dignity, "

"People of faith need to begin asking: at what stage do we, as churches, as mosques, as synagogues, withdraw our moral support for a democratically-elected government?"

Makgoba also asked: "When do we name the gluttony, the inability to control the pursuit of excess? When do we name the fraudsters, who are unable to control their insatiable appetite for obscene wealth, accumulated at the expense of the poorest of the poor?

"A president of a democratic South Africa telling the church to stay out of politics? You would be forgiven for thinking that you had climbed into a time machine and gone back 30 years into the past when apartheid presidents said the same thing… 

"Mr President, we will ignore your call, made from the palaces of power where you and your fellow leaders live in comfort. We will lament and ask God, 'Where are you, God, when your people are marginalised and excluded?"

The Archbishop of Canterbury has publicly supported Makgoba but the Church challenge is not confined to us Anglicans. Other denominations and faiths are rallying. 

For example, the evangelical Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, a Christian social justice organisation, says in his latest blog: “Faith must stand up for itself, for its values, for its standards, and for its priorities.”

Wallis also says, “I believe at the heart of this election campaign was the deeply biblical, theological, and spiritual issue of how we treat ‘the other’.  He suggests that faith communities, especially congregations at the local level, could become safe and sacred spaces for deeper conversations about race in our history and in our communities, today.

A bumpy ride

Let’s face it, no politician welcomes Church criticism even our beloved President Nelson Mandela bristled when Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane called the government out for, among other things, failing to ensure that old-age pensioners in the Eastern Cape got their money. 

He’d warned, “Madiba magic won’t be solving our problems.”

A furious Madiba accused the archbishop of being ill-informed and of trying to undermine his government. The dispute raged as a presidential spokesperson suggested that the archbishop was seeking publicity and Ndungane declared that “no one will silence the Church.”

Asked what sort of relationship the Anglican Church ought to have with the government, Ndungane spoke of his ‘dual citizenship’ – South African and the Kingdom of Heaven.

“One seeks through the grace of God to be able to discern what to say. What we say will not always be popular. But we try under God to discern what is His mind and His will for a country at a particular time.”

In short, our benchmark is what fulfills justice by God’s standards. Speaking out is a gospel imperative.

Keep smiling

WORLD NEEDS PRIESTS FIT FOR PURPOSE

Billy Willson, straight A student at Kansas State University, has announced on Facebook that his first semester would be his last. His comment, which went viral, was “YOU ARE BEING SCAMMED. You may not see it today or tomorrow, but you will see it someday. You are being put thousands into debt to learn things you will never even use. Wasting 4 years of your life to be stuck at a paycheck that grows slower than the rate of inflation. Paying $200 for a $6 textbook."

Billy Willson

The Architectural Engineering under grad’s post struck a global chord. Many young adults are wondering if higher education is worth the time and money. As Billy pointed out in a BBC Trending interview, the cost of inflation is relatively small compared to fees inflation over the past three decades. 

He has a point.

The average annual increase in university tuition in the UK grew by 260% between 1980-2014. Compare this to the cost of consumer items which grew at about 120% in that period.  (And that was bad enough)

Even worse, worldwide graduates are finding that their hard-earned degrees are not an open sesame to their desired careers. Trey Foshee, one of many who commented on Billy’s Facebook post, wrote: "Years and money wasted. Very much agree. I have two degrees that I would sell back right now if they'd let me." Others mentioned professions that would be better served with on the job training.

Last year a UK education NGO reported that most graduates are employed in jobs unrelated to their degrees. Hopefully, few are in the same situation as the 35-year-old who graduated in 2010 with a master's in town planning and transport but works in a pub. 

Our South African can of worms, opened by the #FeesMustFall movement, raises several issues. The new generation of students want, among other things, a ‘decolonialised’ education, lecturers who treat them with respect and fit for purpose content.

It’s time for a paradigm shift. Do the older folk who control tertiary education have the courage to acknowledge the sheer snobbery of a system that panders to the privileged by offering unaffordable education that does not prepare students for the workplace? 

Conceived in Church

So, what has all this to do with Church?  A great deal, if one considers that "universities" were conceived and developed in 814 when Charlemagne realised he needed educated people to ensure the survival of his empire.  

Charlemagne

Every monastery and cathedral was commanded to provide free education to every boy who had the intelligence and perseverance to complete a course. Key to all this was to develop a large body of educated priests to whom the empire and communities could turn. The focus was on Latin grammar, public speaking, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.

Arithmetic, for example, was the basis for quantitative reasoning; geometry for architecture, surveying, and calculating measurements. All necessary for managing Church property and income. Astronomy was needed for calculating Easter, foretelling eclipses, and identifying the seasons.

By the second century, the church universities had expanded their curricula to develop secular leaders. For example, the cathedral school of Reims introduced Arabic numerical notation and the use of the abacus for numerical calculation. The Cathedral of Orleans specialised in classical studies, Chartres focused on the mathematical theory of music and the Norman monastery of Anselm, became known throughout northern Europe for the teaching of Law.

Birthed in a tavern 

Before I get on my soap box I must share a delightful story which showcases the birth of the modern university and the importance of faculty and students speaking truth to power.  It is told by Dr Lynn Harry Nelson, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at Kansas University. 

She writes:

One day in the Autumn of 1200, a German student decided to throw a bit of a party in his apartment for some of his friends and sent his servant, a ten-year-old boy, down to the corner tavern to get his large wine-jug filled. 

The tavern owner gave the boy sour wine and, when the boy complained, the bartender and some of the barflies beat the kid up and threw him out into the street along with his broken jug.

Why? I don't know. Perhaps it was because the German emperor had stirred up the English to start a long and bloody war with France. Or maybe it was because the barkeep liked the students' money, but not the students.

In any event, the boy dragged himself back to his master, and the student and his friends went down to the tavern and beat up everybody before they went home with a large jugful of decent wine. The barkeep asked the provost to punish the students, and the provost gathered his men, with volunteers, and blocked all the streets into the Latin Quarter. They then went hunting for the German student, slapping people around as they went. A number of masters and students were irritated by this, took to the streets, and a pitched battle ensued. The provost and his men finally withdrew, but not before they had killed five students, including the German student who had started it all, and who happened to have been the prince-bishop elect of Liege (in what is now Belgium).

The chancellor refused to help the master and students of the Latin Quarter, so they barricaded the streets leading into the Latin Quarter, and the masters held a meeting that night. They decided to organize themselves into a union, or, as it was called in the Latin of the time, a universitas. Since their students were studying to become masters themselves, the union included the students as more or less junior members. The next day, representatives of the union went to the king of France and announced themselves as spokesmen for The University of the Masters and Students of Paris.

They demanded corporate rights, privileges and protection from the king. When the king asked what they would do if he decided to say no, they replied with the famous words, "Then we shall shake the dust of the streets of Paris from the hems of our gowns." 

In effect, they were threatening to leave and to do their teaching elsewhere. King Philip realized that Paris would lose much of its attractiveness and he would lose a considerable amount of taxes if the masters, students and the people who provided services to the Latin Quarter were to leave, and so agreed to protect the members of the Universitas.

Much more happened in succeeding years. There were continuing struggles with the chancellor and provost, and even among the students and masters themselves, but in the end, the union of masters and students was recognized by all. They gained powers -- the right to establish the curriculum, the requirements, and the standards of accomplishment; the right to debate any subject and uphold in debate any subject; the right to choose their own members; protection from local police; the right of each member to keep his license to teach as soon as he had been admitted to full membership; and others. These rights were often won in open battles in which people -- masters and students -- died, but they were rights that faculty still guard jealously today.

Church wherefore art thou?

As we ponder a changing world order, faculty and students don’t appear to be that close anymore and how does Church rate in all this?

Thabo Makgoba Archbishop of Cape Town says “In times such as these, we need theologically trained leaders who will, in turn, encourage everyone in the church - clergy and lay people - to be theologically attuned,” he also told a recent synod that sound theological training provides essential grounding for the Church to face the challenges of today’s world.

The good news is that he fits the bill.

He has a BSc, a BA (Hons) in Applied Psychology and a Masters in Educational Psychology from Wits University as well as a Ph.D. on Spirituality in the South African Mining Workplace. Both a lecturer and chaplain at Wits he also served as Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape. And he gets street cred for having a son who was arrested for being involved in the recent student demos. 

Nyakallo Makgoba

Our archbishop's dream for 2017 is “that labour and business, together with civil society, traditional leaders and religious leaders will all sit together at the table of brother and sisterhood where the menu answers the question, “what is in the best interests of the majority of our people in South African society?” And that all children, yours and mine, will one day, as a result of a “New Struggle”, all live in a South Africa that has an abundance of unlimited and equal educational, health care, service delivery and economic opportunities.”

Archbishop Thabo has also strongly rejected a call by President Jacob Zuma for the Church to stay out of politics.

Just what I expect of my archbishop.  BUT where is the rest of Church in this? How good/relevant/ for purpose is the theological teaching provided from the pulpit?  Is Sunday School a good ethical foundation? Does anyone bother to tell our Confirmation candidates that a 10-minute kiss makes you crossed-eyed and causes your brain to fall out of your ears? (A survey taken among Confirmation candidates about 15 years ago revealed that many had their first sexual experiences at 12 years of age.  The majority confirmands were not virgins.)

How many of our clergy, including those from privileged backgrounds, consider a diploma in Theology good enough to equip them to equip the people in the pews.  How much training have they had in balancing reason with tradition and Scripture?  As importantly, how many read a daily newspaper, follow politics or keep up to date with scientific findings on human sexuality? Do they study developing theologies?

Just asking because I’m convinced bad theology has much to answer for as the talking heads on TV declare that we have entered a new world order. Only bad theology allows us to judge and hate those who are different. It’s bad theology to turn our backs on the marginalised.

I know it’s not easy preaching about unpopular subjects - congregations vote with their feet and their tithes. But we can’t abrogate our responsibility to archbishops and the Holy Spirit.

Charlemagne was right: We need our priests to survive the emerging world order.

 Aw shucks!