Ignorance, Hate, and Incivility In the Name of God

I had an interesting exchange the other day with a friend on Facebook. He is a Christian and an avid Trump supporter and, while I also claim to be a Christian, I would fall under the category of “human scum,” by Trump’s standards. Being the “human scum” that I am, I occasionally poke at my MAGA friends (however, in their firm belief of self-righteousness, they are much more likely to poke at me without actually admitting it). This was one such case.

My friend posted an explanation for why he had become so political in his later years. The post was complete with the usual apocalyptic Nazi and Hitler references, but there was a twist to it that caught my attention. He described a friend and neighbor who was an inspiration to him. The man had fled Austria, to the United States, heeding warnings about what the Nazis might do. The next day, soldiers came to the man’s home and killed the rest of his family. The man was alive because he was able to escape and come to the United States.

It was an inspiring story, but I found it interesting that the hero of this testimony was a refugee who escaped life-threatening persecution and was able to come to the United States, who welcomed him. I couldn’t help but see the obvious similarities between my Christian friend’s inspiration and the millions of refugees ( a huge number of whom are Christians, by the way) sitting in camps waiting for a similar opportunity.

So, I gave a poke.

“Sounds like you made a case for helping refugees who are fleeing for their lives,” I wrote.

I admit my comment was antagonistic, but I was hoping he might see the obvious conflict between his story of inspiration and his often-expressed hatred towards refugees.

He did not.

Instead he demonstrated an uncommon hardness of heart (that has become far too common) and blind loyalty to the Trump narrative. His response, as is typical of so many rabid Trump supporters, showed a complete misunderstanding of the legal definition of a refugee and the intense process required for a refugee to be allowed to come to the United States. It was clear that his research on the topic has not gone any further than far-right, conservative memes on Facebook and Fox News. Not only did he demonstrate his complete, overreaching, stereotypical, ignorance, but his vitriol, disguised as patriotic self-righteousness, came through loud and clear:

“The man I talked to came to America and worked his ever-loving rear end off… Didn’t ask for handouts… didn’t have to be put up in a sanctuary city… didn’t come in and rape and kill our women and other Americans.”

Just a reminder, this is a Christian man. This is a man who claims to love God and be a follower of Jesus Christ. This is also a man who claims to be my friend, and yet went on to make the rant a little more personal:

“Not what’s crossing the border right now. They’re not refugees, they are an invasion. And if you don’t think so when are you going to take some into your home and take care of them. That would convince me otherwise. That you actually mean what you say and actually have a heart for the refugee.”

There is a part of me that consider my participation on Facebook a practice of spiritual discipline (emphasis on practice). With all the polarizing hate that is on display, I consider it a personal challenge to attempt to engage people with different opinions than me, in a respectful manner, regardless of how they treat me. So, I made the attempt. I tried to explain that those attempting to enter the country at our southern border do not classify legally as refugees and that the process of coming to the U.S. as a refugee has nothing to do with the immigration mess along our border with Mexico. No doubt our opinions differ about that situation as well, but it has very little to do with welcoming refugees into the country. I tried to summarize the legal definition of a refugee and paint a picture of the process they go through. I also described the futility and impracticality of having refugees live with us in our home (which would also conflict with the independence that he expects them to have) and, without going into detail, said that we try to help and be involved in other ways.

In a classic demonstration of what is so frustrating about the polarization in our country, on both sides of the political aisle, my friend dug in and showed no evidence that he even bothered to read my response. It seems that many who fall into this camp don’t have the stamina to read more than a couple of sentences of dissenting opinion. Unfortunately, that is the world we live in. Dialogue is irrelevant. Reading, research and critical thinking is unnecessary (not to mention much too hard) when we already have everything figured out. The only thing that matters is our own echo chamber. The only dialogues we are willing to participate in are the ones that encourage our own misguided rage. Our filters are narrow and specific, and we like it that way too much to consider that there might be truth beyond what we currently know. Likewise, the relevancy of information and the reliability of the source is measured purely on its ability to promote our own agenda.

So, my friend simply picked up his tirade where he left off, seemingly oblivious to my response (because, despite my misguided hope, it really didn’t matter):

“Anybody that thinks those coming into our southern border well fed and holding their cell phones are refugees, are disalusional (I think he meant delusional).”

To make it all complete, he threw in a dose of conspiracy theory, blind allegiance to Israel (because, as God’s chosen people, everything they do is right, even though God himself doesn’t see things that way), and an obligatory stab at Obama:

“That is all a well-financed setup by those that want to destroy this country. Once this country is gone, then all nations will be against Israel, just like when Obama was in office.”

I made a futile attempt to reference back to my previous statement and clarify what I said, but, of course, that fell on deaf ears (or blind eyes). There was no response. By then he had already moved on to a barrage of other unsubstantiated rants and memes warning of the coming socialist, Nazi, apocalypse if we don’t all proclaim our allegiance to Trump and God’s chosen nation.

There are some, like my wife, who wonders why I stay connected to friends like this. Without this connection, though, I might not believe the level of absurdity that our country’s polarization has driven us to. This is not just an isolated instance and this friend is not necessarily an anomaly. I have other friends who promote similar viewpoints and say similarly ludicrous things in the name of Christianity. I live in an area where Trump would be re-elected in a political landslide and anointed king all in the name of Christianity. Without Facebook, I wouldn’t believe that so many who call themselves Christian, could so easily cast aside the basic tenets of Jesus’ teaching and still claim to follow him.

Unfortunately, this is just one of many interactions that I have had with this friend and others, and it is just one of the thousands (many of them far worse), that happens all over our country every day. Our political climate is such that friends turn on friends and can no longer engage in respectful discussions. No longer can we look impartially at anything, we can only view the world through our own polarized filters. Integrity and courtesy in political/cultural issues have been sacrificed for the sake of defending our side at all costs. There is no longer any middle ground allowed, you are either on one side or the other – you are either with us or you are the enemy. The only truth is my truth. The discovery of truth is finished because I have it all.

The fallout of our polarization is that we have forgotten the Imago Dei – that we are all, all human beings, regardless of nationality, circumstance, economics, intelligence, skill, and even opinion (even if it is wrong), created in the image of God. As such we all have worth. Christians, above all others, should acknowledge such worth and be the first to denounce the type of disparaging language that seems flow so freely from my Trump-loving friends. But that is what happens when we trade our faith and trust in God for faith and trust in a man. It is the repeated story of Israel in the Old Testament played out in our present-day America.