“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” — Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride,
The first Christians didn’t call themselves Christians.
It wasn’t some congratulatory self-identifier as it is today; a way of loudly trumpeting one’s own supposed goodness, quickly slapped on social media bios, bumper stickers, and t-shirts without forethought, personal cost, or empirical evidence. It wasn’t about a place you visited for an hour on Sunday before Cracker Barrel, either.
The term Christian was originally a designation of the community of people following Jesus, by those outside of it after his death. It was quite likely a slur; a scarlet letter attached to a marginalized group who’d traded comfortable alignment with Caesar for dangerous devotion to a compassionate itinerant Hebrew street preacher from Nazareth.
In the formidable Roman Empire in which it was born, Jesus’ movement was fully countercultural; shunning its power and material wealth, breaking its barriers between the important and the inconsequential, fighting the stereotypes of the in and the out.
The people of Jesus were the table-setters, the wound-menders, and the wall-breakers.
These “little Christs,” as they were called, were derided by outsiders because the expansive, diverse, interdependent community they were creating stood in such opposition to Rome’s singular, top-heavy, trickle-down might, and their generous presence created turbulence there.
Being called a Christian then meant ridicule, threat, and oppression from the Government and the religious leaders. It wasn’t a cheap decal people adorned themselves with to declare their own righteousness; it was applied to them by powerful people who despised them.
Trump Christians wouldn’t be called Christians by these people; they would be called Romans, and those following Jesus then wouldn’t recognize people supporting this President now as their spiritual descendants.
There would be no bloodline to trace, no affinities to note, no visible family resemblance.
Christians then destroyed social barriers between people; they didn’t fortify them.Christians then, welcomed the marginalized and vulnerable; they didn’t harass them at school or in hospital rooms or on street corners.Christians then healed the sick and fed the hungry and clothed the naked; they didn’t resent them, malign their character, or leave them to die.Christians then pushed back against the corrupt power hoarding wealth; they didn’t partner with it.Christians then loved their disparate neighbors as themselves; they didn’t wall them off and lock them in cages and send them away.
People aligned with a Jesus who said “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them”, would have been fully sickened seeing families separated, children ravaged by genocide, students being murdered in their schools
People emulating to a Jesus who said, “You cannot serve both God and money”—wouldn’t be overlooking rape, corruption, and bigotry just to pad their 401ks or get a few tax breaks.
People synonymous with a Jesus who fed a hillside multitude, not because they were right or saved or moral, but because they were hungry, wouldn’t recognize a “pull yourself by your own bootstraps” callousness toward those in need.People associated with a Jesus who touched lepers and healed the sick wouldn’t be able to comprehend professed believers who penalized people for preexisting conditions, or forced people to go bankrupt to pay their medical bills, or made staying alive a financial death sentence.
Most of all, people connected to Jesus weren’t tripping over themselves to publicly claim their Christlikeness. Other people decided that.
Religious people currently supporting this President can label themselves any way they want.
They can imagine themselves sanctified while perpetuating something that far more resembles Caesar of Rome than Jesus of Nazareth.
They can try and retrofit Jesus’ Christianity to the bloated, self-aggrandizing, malevolent Empire they’re currently wallowing in.
They can try and bastardize Jesus’ expansive “For God so loved the world“ purpose statement, into a walled-off, gated white community “America First” rally slogan.
They can even preach the angry gospel of white nationalism and contempt for outsiders, and call themselves Christian while doing so.
But no one in the time of Jesus would be calling them Christian.
Not the Romans.Not the Christ followers.Most of all, not Jesus.
He said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35
Outside of the narrowest segment of straight, white, Republican Americans, MAGA faithful have no love to offer.
The first Christians were labeled Christians because they emulated Christ, in all his compassionate, kind, loving, healing, welcoming, border-breaching, barrier-busting goodness.
Conservative Evangelicals emulate someone antithetical to all of these things.
Technically speaking, of course, given the origins of the word, maybe none of us should claim to be Christian and just see if people can reverse engineer our beliefs by our actions, but if we’re going to, we should at least seek some kind of spiritual synergy between our lives and the life of Jesus revealed in the Gospels.
MAGA believers may be self-identified Christians, but from the outside, the title is fraudulent.They aren’t “Little Christs.”They aren’t “followers of the Way.”They aren’t even Evangelicals, as they have no good news to bring for the poor, imprisoned, and vulnerable.They aren’t peacemakers.They aren’t caregivers.They aren’t healers.
They are simply “Little Trumps”: reflecting his heartlessness, his cruelty, his self-reverential narcissism.
In that God of arrogance and greed and malice, they truly trust.
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