Terry Bracy: Where is the Good Samaritan?

Not far from an interstate in rural South Carolina stood a frail old man holding a sign reading “Jesus Saves.” It struck me, another old man, how exhausting that mission must be. When Winter arrives, Nancy and I head south, where we enjoy absorbing cultures that might as well be from another land.

A region built by slavery is now perhaps the most religious in America. Its politics sadly are led by corrupt partisans like DeSantis of Florida, Abbott of Texas, and of course Donald Trump, who cloud their selfish actions with religious rhetoric.

MAGA Republicans now worship at the Mara-a-Lago Cathedral where wealth, privilege, and corruption are celebrated, and where the price of belonging is more than the typical blue-collar worker earns in a lifetime. The liturgy shuns prayers in favor of flashy dinner parties, where Archbishop Donald can often be seen dancing alone to the tasteless beat of “YMCA.” Democratic opponents fail to appreciate the genius of what Trump is selling: far from resenting the excesses of Mar-a-Lago, most MAGA followers dream of being members.

Both the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and Puritans who soon followed sought in the New Colonies an escape from religious persecution. They fought the dictates of the Church of England at risk of imprisonment and built into the foundation of their new civilization and the American nation that followed the principle of the separation of church and state.

Those who disagree might be asked to show where the words “Jesus” or “Jesus Christ” appear in the Declaration of Independence or U.S. Constitution. Yet in one of the cruel ironies of this historical moment, the current President and his acolytes lay claim to God as their partisan.

While Trump openly muses about making it to Heaven (“I think I will!”), no member of his cabinet invokes the intentions of the Lord more than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

In his speeches, he calls on God to help in the battle “to break the teeth of the ungodly” and for the “Almighty and Eternal Arms of Providence” to guide his troops. And he has graduated to ending speeches “in the name of Jesus Christ.” The dangerous implication is that Providence is on our side and opposed to an evil enemy who is then dehumanized and subject to any attack at all, even if it violates the laws of war.

Essayist Robert Hubble recently reported that Hegseth is seeking to embed in our military the hate-driven teachings of Christian Nationalism. According to Hubble: “On Good Friday, the Pentagon invited its 3000+ employees to a ‘Protestant’ Good Friday service. The invitation dis-invited Catholics, saying, “There will be a Protestant Service (no Catholic Mass) ... today at the Pentagon Chapel.” True, Catholic liturgy on that day is different, but this was seen as a slap at America’s largest religion and perhaps Pope Leo, who has been critical of Trump’s wars.

Another Trump disciple who preaches the virtues of Christian Nationalism and the consequent merger of church and state is Russell Vought who is the chief author of Project 25 and the Administration’s budget. Unlike the numbskull Hegseth, Vought is a brilliant student of government who is adept at destruction of programs and agencies he opposes. Among them are almost all social programs established since Franklin Roosevelt to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food programs for the poor. This will explain why Trump’s latest budget slashes social programs by $73 billion to help cover the cost of a 40% increase in Pentagon spending to an astounding $1.5 trillion.

While claiming the endorsement of God, Trump flatly stated last week that the federal government should not bear the burden of medical and childcare but focus only on fighting wars to keep the country safe.

No one could disagree more than Pope Leo, who in his Easter sermon warned 1.4 billion Catholic faithful: “We are becoming accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming ... indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people.” He argued for a return to civility and dialogue and to the virtues of the helping hand.

As I look at our President and scan the faces of his advisers who have embraced wars, cut medical services to the poor, attacked public health and education, and taken part in corruption, I have to ask: Where is the Good Samaritan? Where among those who claim allegiance to the gospels is a leader who acts like a Christian?

More importantly, history has proved that the mixing of politics and religion almost always leads to the corruption of faith for political gain and the division of society.

I cannot think of a better example than the destruction Donald Trump has wrought.