Blessed Are The Religious Right, For Theirs Is The Presidency Of Trump
For those outside of Christian spaces, it may seem counterintuitive that Donald Trump, a twice-divorced, ribald and obscene reality TV star and real estate tycoon, captured the vote of 81% of white evangelical Christians. But to those of us Christians who witnessed the religious right’s backlash against the Obama administration, the rise of a man whom I will call “White Jesus” is both unsurprising and expected.
White Jesus is a work of fiction, a tool that Christians have historically used to seize political power and justify the logic of colonialism and imperialism. Donald Trump is a man made in His very image.
Most of us are familiar with a particular image of Jesus: a light-eyed, clean-shaven, long robe-wearing man with flowing hair. Common images of Jesus in the United States depict him as a white man who looks more like Kenny Loggins than a man of color from antiquity. That’s not the real Jesus. The real Jesus lived in the 1st century A.D. and was an impoverished Palestinian who spent his life primarily among other impoverished and disenfranchised people of color.
White Jesus arrived in America when white people did. The early colonizers needed to justify the brutality of Manifest Destiny ― massive land theft, genocide and enslavement. From the earliest days of U.S. colonization, it was vital that their God agree with their hostile takeover of the continent, and their desire to dominate, suppress and eliminate anyone who resisted. Jesus was the key to their success, but not just any Jesus. They needed permission and anointing from White Jesus.
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