‘If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.’
1 John 1:8-9, New American Standard Bible
Mr Trump's claim that he is ‘very innocent’ is one of the most outright denials of conscience that you'll hear, and yet he manages to sweep huge numbers of Americans before him. ‘Populism’ is such a strange phenomenon to describe — in fact, it's a direct illustration of charisma at work: you may recall our commentary on that subject on 21st March 2022.
But Mr. Trump is well-skilled at misnomers — he’s now started to describe America as a ‘fascist state’ as if there’s some comparison with the 20th century atrocities as a result of national socialism, which were also driven by charisma. Meanwhile the description of his social media channel as ‘Truth Social’ speaks volumes of precisely the opposite. Notwithstanding the gravitas of standing for the presidency, it’s difficult to tell whether his real motivation for so doing is to eclipse his becoming a ‘common criminal’ or because he’s genuinely interested in ‘making America great again’.
In fact, the charismatic appeal of so-called populism is a raw invitation for self-interest and self-righteousness, and owes a lot to the fact that we have very little moral compass in today's society: even the evangelical wing of the Christian faith is allowing it to run rampant. In America, you see it in the Trump following; here in the United Kingdom, you'll find it in the Reform Party, voting intentions for which are 15% compared to the Conservative Party's 21%, according to The Times.
The degree to which our moral compass is missing has a lot to do with spiritual vacuum.
I have just read a book called ‘Philosophers on God’ edited by Jack Symes, a researcher in philosophy at Durham University. It's written in an intriguing style: a series of chapters describing interviews with a variety of philosophers from all faiths and none and introduced by Philip Pullman, the pantheistic author of ‘His Dark Materials’. The interviews are with Christian, Muslim, feminist, atheist, Hindu and pantheist philosophers, and after each chapter Jack Symes adds a summary afterthought following each question and answer discussion with some additional questions for the reader to consider, and finally a list of recommended further readings.
As I read this book it reminded me of those challenging forty days and forty nights which Jesus spent in the wilderness, as described in Matthew 4 1-11.
One of the most intriguing themes, which challenged philosophers of both faith and no faith, is to explain the existence of evil and suffering: not just human-initiated but also natural and, indeed, systemic in the evolutionary process. If you understand the universe as ‘groaning in creation’, a struggle between construction and destruction, then this is explicable: but it's certainly a challenge for seven-day creationists. You'll find more on this in our podcast, ‘Love at the Cutting Edge’.
One of the puzzles regarding populism is its appeal to evangelical Christians, and that may have a lot to do with their interpretation of, including the relationship between, the two great commandments, to 'love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind', and to 'love your neighbour as yourself’. Many evangelicals will see a simple ranking in these — the first being the most important, the second the less important.
But I don’t think that's what Jesus meant: St. John said in his first epistle, ‘Whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen’. There is, in fact, a simple explanation that shows how you do the first by doing the second: the story of the Good Samaritan, where we are told that ‘your neighbour’ is actually the person least likely to be your neighbour, and then in that quote from Matthew 25, ‘ Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’.
This teaching is the basis for Christian community action, which I would regard as the cutting edge of the Christian faith: a typical example is in the extensive involvement with food banks throughout the United Kingdom. However, the latest reports from the Trussell Trust show that we're not making much headway in tackling issues of poverty in this country.
Do the evangelicals really understand this teaching, that the way to carry out the first great commandment is through carrying out the second? If they don’t, perhaps this explains why evangelical support is underpinning the populist creed of self-righteousness?
These are really important issues, because they challenge us to re-visit our search for that missing moral compass. The creed of ‘I'm all right Jack’ is giving rise to the hatred of people from different backgrounds: it fuels opposition to migration and enables politicians such as Trump and Farage to parade this issue above all others — for example, some of Trump's speech after his conviction echoed these themes from his 2015 speeches, when he claimed that illegal migrants were ‘bringing drugs, bringing crime and are rapists’.
Our world is more than ever besieged by fear and greed, which both speak directly of self-interest. Indeed, this week’s episode of the Hypnotist, ‘The Mirror of Self Love and Inner Beauty’, pays homage to this creed of narcissism. But it's not the way forward if we want to live in peace and harmony, either within our own nations or with our international neighbours.
So, I would suggest that the Christian faith needs to re-examine the real message behind the two great commandments. It must help to re-establish the moral compass by showing how generosity of spirit must come first, and that self-interested populism cannot claim to be rooted in faith.
Individual freedom is one of Share Radio’s core philosophies, so much so that we argue frequently for disintermediation. But we’re not arguing for self-interest and self-righteousness. We are calling for a personal generosity of spirit, which can do much to empower the giver as well as to support others.
In the meantime, it's as well to follow closely that guidance that we should be as ‘wise as serpents and as innocent as doves’, as there many villains masquerading as actors for the public good.
Gavin Oldham OBE
Share Radio