In 1963 an Observer headline “Our image of God must go” rocked organised Christianity in these islands, primarily because the call came from John Robinson, the Anglican Bishop of Woolwich. He was addressing the problem of “anthropomorphism”, making God into a person, a quasi-human who sat above the clouds, waiting to catch us out like a grumpy and arbitrary tyrant. Many people spoke about God as a being who could simply turn on or off hurricanes, earthquakes or serious illnesses. Robinson’s take on God seemed eminently refreshing to many of us studying theology at the time. A couple of decades later, many liberal/radical Christian thinkers would come to see John Robinson as relatively conservative, particularly with regard to the authorship of books in the New Testament.
In the sixties, at the cutting edge of exploratory approaches to Christian faith was “Christian/Marxist dialogue”, which was the backdrop to my spending three weeks behind the Iron Curtain with a group of youngish people training for ministry in the churches. Fifty-five years later that all seems like a world away, not just because of the implosion of Soviet style Marxism, but also because we live in a time when engagement with secular issues going hand in hand with the development of interfaith relationships informs the agenda of the mainstream Christian denominations.
So what do we make of Donald Trump’s claim to have God on his side and that he was saved by the said God to make America great again? I am not going to say that Trump’s image of God must go. I’m not sure that he has any notion of image or religious symbolism. It is tempting to think of a traditional God being humbled in the presence of the Donald but let’s put that to one side!
I have often thought of the USA as one of the most religious countries on the planet. Sometimes I have thought of it as having the capacity to be one of the most dangerous. It is not too difficult to see connections between both characteristics at certain times and particularly in the least liberal states.
Defining religiosity is notoriously difficult and sociologists use the term in a variety of ways. I prefer the version that sees it as quite distinct from spirituality. It might involve people who are not involved in religious practice but who nevertheless sometimes use religious language. I look forward to discovering what people of faith in America have to say about the forty-seventh President, his record, his language and his priorities. Some will no doubt be keeping their heads down. Others will cite religious texts to demonstrate that someone with exceedingly dubious ethics can be the agent of “God’s will”. Some forms of American religion can be heavy on sentimentality which can mask a heavily diluted understanding of the common good.
Many fundamentalists (from different faiths) will be celebrating this week. Within Christianity the conservative evangelicals appear to have been conflicted but many may well turn out to have voted Republican in the end not because they love Trump but because they were disappointed by the Democrats. Religious belief and practice is never as neat and tidy as we sometimes think. However if there is any depth to it, a certain coherence is essential. Without that, debate within, across or beyond various religious traditions is impossible.
A low attention span, and a reluctance to read reports does not sustain coherence. Trump’s “God” pops in and out of rambling speeches, summoned to endorse his messianic status and secure certain parts of his base. There have alway been those who have exploited religion for their own ends. But in most democracies you have to look hard to find any faith that actually admits to being in favour of constant lying, naked greed and repeated sexual abuse, while denying established facts and evidence. Trump’s God is made in the image of Donald Trump – perhaps a grumpy and arbitrary tyrant!
* Geoff Reid is a Methodist minister who spent the first twelve years of retirement from the day job as a Bradford City Councillor but has lived in Barnsley since 2024.
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8 Comments
Part of me thinks that Trump does genuinely believe everything he says about God, including comments that God saved him for the role he now undertakes. Trump is an egotistical, image-driven man who can’t countenance anything that doesn’t suit his vision of himself. So I can see how he’d get himself to believing what he says. I’m not an overly-religious person, but there’s no image I have of any deity that would support the words and actions Trump and those who support him on the far-right (not all of his followers are that far to the right on the spectrum, of course). Of course, it also helps him to say he has God on his side given the religious affiliation of many who support him. If he said “there’s no such thing as God” I doubt he would have even received the Republican nomination.
There was one other notable historic figure who claimed ‘divine providence’ after miraculously surviving an attempt on his life. He also thought God had allowed him to survive a bomb blast to make his country great again.
It didn’t work out too well for him less than a year later!
Thank you for a relevant and interesting article.
Might it be that kindness and opposing bullying, especially by power organisations, comprises much of the recorded example of Jesus?
To what extent might the Old Testament God go along with the above question?
We read in Luke’s gospel that a group of Jewish people attempted to kill Jesus because he preached a message about occasions when prophets working under God aided people who were not Jews and (at least temporarily) ignored those who were Jews. This was Jesus speaking against narrowminded nationalism. Paul and Peter are recorded later saying that God has no favourites among different people.
Surely a stark opposite view to Trump’s and all those in other countries who follow his narrow nationalistic approach.
Likewise the many passages in both Old and New Testaments that show God’s strong care for the poor. Then there are the prophets’ attacks on leaders who don’t care for ordinary people and Jesus’ call for those who are rich to give up hanging on so closely to their wealth.
Likewise Jesus’ teaching about welcoming the stranger.
There are so many ways in which Trump contradicts the Christian way. I tend to feel that many Christians in the USA either feel that even Democrats do not practice Christian ways in their politics (and a majority of Democrats say they are not Christians) so politically it makes little difference who they support OR they themselves have lost the Christian way and become part of what Geoff in his article calls religiosity focussing on personal gain (spiritual as much as material) and utter self-centredness.
Jimmy Carter famously embraced evangelical Christianity and it meant something different back then. When he was elected president his opponent Gerald Ford said that he was beaten by a good man. Carter won many of the Southern states including Alabama and Mississipippi, 2 states the Democrats have no chance of winning today.
When Reagan became president he appealed to the evangelical Christians with his social conservatism; his opposition to abortion and homosexuality. Evangelicals became more right wing and the South voted Republican.
Once that journey started it never seemed to stop.
They seem not to have noticed how unchristian they have become. Christianity is meant to be about love, but noone does hatred better than US Conservative Christians. Look at what they say about Hillary Clinton and Liz Cheney. Politicians like Steve Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Green seem to find immense joy in saying hateful things about their opponents, and they have huge followings for being so good at it.
Trump himself is not even a Christian. He pretends to be one to stay onboard with his base. And there we see the hypocracy, his followers turn a blind eye to his extra marital sex with porn stars, amongst many other things.
It will take a book to explain what is really going on there.
Good and thoughtful article @jeffreid thank you.
just a comment to put “evangelicals” into context for those not in “religious circles”.
I am not what is termed an evangelical Christian, I am best described as “Radical Liberal Catholic” and C of E, but in the defence of most of the Evangelicals, it does not mean that they in the same camp as the right wing type that are supporting Trump and co, and indeed are as horrified as the rest of us at Trump’s use of God to Trump’s advantage.
My issue with the word God is it invites comparison between different religions. Christianity early on surmised that there can only be one God. So how do you include the various ways of worshiping him? It is time we looked beyond these images to the fundamental aspects of life that determine who and what we are.