At dinner the other night, my 3-year old granddaughter sat on my lap and told me she was a kitty-cat!
“A kitty-cat?” I said. “I thought you were my favorite youngest granddaughter Callie!”
“No!” she said. “I’m a kitty!”
Hugging her, I laughed, and thought about the amazingly beautiful imagination of children! Sadly, as we grow, mature, and become adults, far too many of us fail to retain that ability to imaginatively put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, and consider what it might be like to be . . . not a kitty-cat, but . . . a person of color, an LGBTQ+ teen, an immigrant or refugee, or a Palestinian parent.
Empathy is all about being able to put ourselves in someone else’s skin. It’s about having the ability to consider the struggles and challenges of those in need, and allowing such experiences to shape our responses to them and to their needs. This is what it means to have hearts that are broken by the very things that broke the heart of Jesus, and it’s what being conformed to his image and likeness is all about.
Unfortunately today, it is becoming increasingly clear that Trumpers, and the whole of the MAGA world, are far less able to do this than the rest of us! ZME Science recently shared a report by Tudor Tarita examining a University of North Texas study that found a chilling link between personality type and support for our nation’s current administration. She writes, “the research, led by psychologist Craig Neumann, examined whether certain personality traits – those associated with callousness, manipulation, and even enjoyment of others’ suffering – correlate with conservative ideology and support for Trump.” No surprisingly, the link is undeniable!
Narcissism, malevolence, and a lack of empathy are common traits of today’s white, right-wing, extremists; and while it might not be fair to label all Trumpers as callous, as a group they tend to be far less compassionate and empathetic than those opposed to Trumpism. The study also found that people with more benevolent traits — or traits more reflective of the way of Jesus — were not just evident in those on the left, but “STRONGLY linked with liberal political beliefs and a rejection of Trump.”
As with so many of the insights being revealed by studies of the MAGA movement, ungodliness abounds. And while we always need to careful not to judge the hearts of others, we CAN judge actions. We CAN judge beliefs and behavior. We CAN judge attitudes and ambitions. And such judgements reveal that there is little if anything, Godly, or Christ-like, coming from the MAGA cult. Trump supporters all across this nation who claim to be following Jesus need to consider this: Christians are what Christians do! And according to Jesus, his followers will NOT be known by what we believe, but by how we live. The mark of our discipleship is how we treat the least of these, NOT by what we say we believe about God, Jesus, or the Bible.
Christ-followers strive to be empathic and compassionate. We take no joy in seeing anyone suffer, and we work to avoid callousness at all cost. We certainly do not embrace, let along promote, malevolence of any kind. And we, hopefully as much as anyone, understand what German-American Rabbi Joachim Prinz meant when he said, “‘neighbor’ is not a geographical term. It’s a moral concept.”
Jesus’ greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. And who exactly is our neighbor? Everyone! Everyone is our neighbor. We’re called to care for EVERYONE! That is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And if that is not something we are willing to do, then we need to find a new tribe, and stop maligning the Church of Jesus Christ with a politics of hate, fear, and lies.
In the 1970’s classic book “How to be Christian Without Being Religious,” author Fritz Ridenour posited that followers of Jesus did not have to embrace all the trappings of religiosity in order to be a faithful disciple. It was one of the first places I heard the call to a faith described not as a religion, but a relationship – a relationship with a living God, and a relationship that I still celebrate and enjoy! But sadly, a large segment of the American church today is far more concerned about being religious than being Christian. And that is indeed what they are. They are religious. But they are far from Christ. And they are far from Christianity. They show us everyday how to be religious without being Christian! And the church, and our nation, are worse because of it.
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