Trump's worst nightmare: a transactional God who demands justice, love and humility as payment for saving his life
Now that Trump has overplayed the "I was chosen by God" card, time for God to collect on the quid pro quo. And time for clergy to step up to deliver that message.
Happy to have passed the 5,000 subscriber mark today, with a total of over 12,000 engaged readers of this Substack (subscribers + followers). People are seeking sane, truth-based perspectives right now, and I’m glad to bring some of that, with an added spiritual bent, to a platform that has become an anchor of integrity and stability - and dare we say gentility - in an increasingly corrupted social media universe. I’m happy to present, as best I can, an alternative to the “culture of contempt” (while still being witty and entertaining from time to time).
Thank you, Anita!
And now, God and the Art of the Divine Deal…
For clergy, this sermon (below) was the true inaugural address this week, a keynote from a religious leader of great courage and integrity.
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is no lightweight. She serves as spiritual leader for 86 Episcopal congregations and she represented them all in her sermon 1 on Tuesday at the National Cathedral - and she had a captive audience. When you watch the video, what’s striking is that we barely see Budde at all. As if by design, the camera is trained solely on the Trump and Vance families, not allowing a single squirm to go unrecorded for posterity.
And squirm they did, especially Vance, who looked like a class bully being lambasted by the principal. Just give back that lunch money, JD!
I doubt many clergy folks will have the courage to say words like hers to their own congregations, much less to the President himself.
But for clergy, this is the wake up call we have needed, a reminder that in the second Trump era, even more than the first, houses of worship are the last line of defense.
Bishop Budde told Time that she has no apologies for her remarks, hopeful that her “message calling for dignity, respecting dignity, honesty, humility and kindness is resonating with people.” She added:
I think it's all of us, you know. I think it's not about me. It's about the kind of country we are called to be. And that's what I did my best to try and speak to, to present an alternative to the culture of contempt, and to say that we can bring multiple perspectives into a common space and do so with dignity and respect.
So how do we build on Rev. Budde’s courageous keynote? With preaching, writing and activism. But given that Trump has injected divine providence so directly into his messaging, we need to be more direct, as she was, in providing a counter message. If he’s chosen to bring God into the discussion, well, that’s our turf. Just as I would be very hesitant to discuss, say, golf in Trump’s presence, or enriching oneself through Bitcoin, I would think the President might be more circumspect in claiming to be God’s chosen without expecting people of the cloth to say anything about that.
If God has chosen Trump (I throw up in my mouth just thinking those words) as Trump believes, then we need to provide constant and direct reminders from the pulpit of what that really means - what, in return for the gift of a stunning lease on life, Trump owes God.
Because, you see, if God saved Trump from the assassin’s bullet for a reason, and who am I to say whether God did, then might I suggest that God wants, as a quid pro quo, that Trump act in a godlike way, in the manner of Micah 6:8:
You have been told, O mortal, what is good,
And what GOD requires of you:
Only to do justice
And to love goodness,
And to walk modestly with your God;
In her sermon, Bishop Budde enumerated three key foundations of unity: 1) honoring the dignity of every human being, 2) honesty, both private conversation and public discourse, and 3) humility, which we all need because we are all fallible human beings. Her list matches up well with the Micah 6:8. Deuteronomy 13:5 also calls on us to walk with God - and based on that verse, the Talmudic2 rabbis expounded upon what it means to be godlike:
Just as God clothes the naked, as it says, "And God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them" (Genesis 3), so do you also clothe the naked. The Holy One, blessed be God, visited the sick, for it is written: "And God appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre" (Genesis 18), so do you also visit the sick. The Holy One, blessed be God, comforted mourners, for it is written: "And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son" (Genesis 25), so do you also comfort mourners. The Holy One, blessed be God, buried the dead, for it is written: "And God buried him in the valley" (Deuteronomy 34), so do you also bury the dead. [Soncino translation]
Elsewhere in rabbinic sources, there is discussion of God as healer, lifter of the fallen, feeder of the hungry and releaser of the bound. God specializes in forgiveness and grace - and matching up couples. There are thirteen attributes of divine mercy alone.
And the Trump - Vances might want to read this tidbit from the Jewish Encyclopedia on what it means to be godlike:
There is no forgiveness for him who puts another to shame or who calls him by an offensive name (B. M. 58b). Nasty!!
Godliness includes the forgiving disposition (Prov. xvii. 9; Ab. i. 12, v. 14; R. H. 17a). To be beloved of God presupposes to be beloved of people (Ab. iii. 13).
Slander and godliness are incompatible (Pes. 118a).
Pride and godliness are absolute contraries (Prov. vi. 16-19; Ta'an. 7a; Soṭah 4b, 5a, b; 'Ab. Zarah 20b: humility is the greatest virtue). Oy.
To be among the persecuted rather than among the persecutors is characteristic of the godly (Giṭ. 36b). "God says, 'Be like unto me. As I requite good for evil, so do thou render good for evil'" (Ex. R. xxvi.; comp. Gen. R. xxvi.).
If President Trump feels called by God, undoubtedly Trump’s God is a transactional one, just like Trump is a transactional person. Everything about Trump is transactional so he must have created the Lord he worships while looking in the mirror. To him, God is the Dealer at the Craps Table on High, or basically just another creditor to fend off. God is Deutsche Bank with brimstone. A transactional God will want to collect on the debt his servant Donald owes, sooner or later. Clergy need to remind him of that debt, that heavenly tariff, as it were.
I’m not sure a transactional God would be thrilled about the Chosen One releasing 1,500 January 6 traitors this week, some of them responsible for the deaths of police officers.3
Notice that the Trumps were squirmy but quasi-respectful while being sermonized at. Clergy are about the only sentient beings on earth that he is truly afraid of. Here’s proof: Hours after the sermon, safe from the National Cathedral, that audacious edifice situated at the highest point in the district, lording over the White House and other plebeian structures, with its 112 scary gargoyles, towering pulpits and 231 spooky stained glass windows, Trump sat in his cozy tweeting-place, demanded an apology and called Budde a “so-called ‘Bishop’ a ‘Radical Left hard line Trump hater.” For him to fling mud at her (of course, since she’s a woman, he also called her “nasty”), he had to first strip her of her title. She could no longer be an actual bishop, but a “so-called bishop,” which was a huge insult not just to her, but to all 86 congregations she represents and to her entire denomination. But it shows that he fears clergy even more than he fears the wrath of angry, marauding Episcopalians.
And perhaps for the first time in his life, he appears to fear God too.4 While Trump never has become that “changed man” everyone was touting after the Butler shooting, he at least wants people to see this all as divinely ordained.
Which is why that Micah 6:8 should follow him everywhere he goes. It should be as ubiquitous as John 3:16 once was behind the goal posts at a football game.
Let him see it, let him hear it. At home, on the road, wherever he happens to be. Micah 6:8 is God’s quid pro quo and our constant reminder of the holy book he neglected to put his hand on when he took his oath of office.
Changing times call for changing tactics. Rather than meeting Trump with mockery, like those Baby Donald balloons 5, which can be laughed off as a sophomoric, cartoonish stunt by frustrated libs (and Trump 2.0 is far more dangerous than a cartoon), let’s meet him on the playing field of spirituality and morality, where conservatives live and where they think progressives are so uncomfortable.
I’m progressive and I happen to love places of worship.
Truthfully, though, many libs do feel uncomfortable in the pews, but not nearly as fidgety as JD was at the cathedral this week. And Trump could not make eye contact with Bishop Budde once her gentle plea began. Watch the video again. It’s eerie.
We just need to keep reminding him that this “God has chosen me” stuff comes with a price tag. The feel-good Norman Vincent Peale brand of Christianity-without-consequences might be what Trump was reared on 6, but in real-world religion, our actions have consequences and we are supposed to live moral lives. God doesn’t just give it all away with no expectations. We are blessed with a supreme gift called life, and there are innumerable miracles that follow our entry into this world. But we owe God - and we owe our descendants and ancestors - more than just bombast and grift. And God doesn’t owe us anything.
If you don’t believe that we need to pay up, just brush up on your biblical history. 7 Blessings need to be earned. Contracts need to be kept. The Dealmaker on High prefers covenants to comps. Grace is great but God wants humility, mercy and justice in return.
The essence of Micah 6:8 is summed up by Judaic scholar Erica Brown: 8
Religion stripped to its most essential elements asks both very little and a great deal of us: to return to a state of simplicity, broken and small in God’s presence, able, in a state of vulnerability, to make those invisible visible, to create a society where we walk beside others because God is willing to walk beside us.
That’s God’s ask, Donald, in return for your second chance:
Be humble, Donald… if you can!
Love mercy…if you dare!
Act justly…if a man as tarnished as you even has an inkling as to what justice is.
…Cause you owe God bigly and God’s comin’ to collect.
Those of us gathered here in the cathedral, we're not naive about the realities of politics. When power and wealth and competing interests are at stake; when views of what America should be are in conflict; , when there are strong opinions across a spectrum of possibilities and starkly different understandings of what the right course of action is -- there will be winners and losers when votes are cast; decisions made that set the course of public policy; and the prioritization of resources.
It goes without saying that in a democracy not everyone's particular hopes and dreams can be realized in a given legislative session or a presidential term. Not even in a generation. Which is to say: Not everyone's specific prayers for those of us who are people of prayer; Not everyone's prayers will be answered in the way we would like. But for some, the loss of their hopes and dreams will be far more than political defeat, but instead a loss of equality and dignity and their livelihoods.
Given this then, is true unity among us even possible? And why should we care about it?
Well, I hope we care. I hope we care because the culture of contempt that has become normalized in this country threatens to destroy us. We are all bombarded daily with messages from what sociologists now call the outrage industrial complex Some of that driven by external forces whose interests are furthered by a polarized America. Contempt fuels political campaigns and social media. And many profit from that. But it's a worrisome, it's a dangerous way to lead a country.
I'm a person of faith surrounded by people of faith. And with God's help, I believe that unity in this country is possible. Not perfectly, for we are imperfect people and an imperfect union. But sufficient enough to keep us all believing in and working to realize the ideals of the United States of America. Ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence with its assertion of innate human equality and dignity.
And we are right to pray for God's help as we seek unity, for we need God's help. But only if we ourselves are willing to tend to the foundations upon which unity depends. Like Jesus's analogy of building a house of faith on the rock of His teachings as opposed to building a house on sand. The foundations we need for unity must be sturdy enough to withstand the many storms that threaten it.
And so what are they, the foundations of unity? Drawing from our sacred traditions and texts, let me suggest that there are at least three:
The first foundation for unity is honoring the inherent dignity of every human being. Which is, as all the faiths represented here affirm the birthright of all people as children of our one God. In public discourse. Honoring each other's dignity means refusing to mock, or discount, or demonize those with whom we differ. Choosing instead to respect, respectfully debate our differences, and whenever possible, to seek common ground. And if common ground is not possible dignity demands that we remain true to our convictions without contempt for those who hold convictions of their own.
The second foundation for unity is honesty -- in both private conversation and public discourse. If we're not willing to be honest there's no use in praying for unity because our actions work against the prayers themselves. We might for a time experience a false sense of unity among some but not the sturdier, broader unity that we need to address the challenges that we face. Now to be fair we don't always know where the truth lies. And there's a lot working against the truth now. But when we do know, when we know what is true, it's incumbent upon us to speak the truth even when -- especially when -- it costs us.
And the third and last foundation I'll mention today, a foundation for unity, is humility which we all need because we are all fallible human beings. We make mistakes. We say and do things that we later regret. We have our blind spots and our biases. And perhaps we are most dangerous to ourselves and others when we are persuaded, without a doubt, that we are absolutely right and someone else is absolutely wrong. Because then we are just a few steps from labeling ourselves as “the good people” versus “the bad people.” And the truth is that we're all people. We're both capable of good and bad.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn once astutely observed that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, not between classes, nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And the more we realize this the more room we have within ourselves for humility and openness to one another across our differences because in fact we are more like one another than we realize. And we need each other.
Unity is relatively easy to pray for on occasions of great solemnity. It's a lot harder to realize when we're dealing with real differences in our private lives and in the public arena. But without unity. We're building our nation's house on sand. And with a commitment to unity that incorporates diversity and transcends disagreement and with the solid foundations of dignity, honesty, and humility that such unity requires, we can do our part and in our time to realize the ideals and the dream of America.
Let me make one final plea. Mr. President.
Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country. And we're scared now.
There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families -- some who fear for their lives.
And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues … and temples.
I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.
Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being; to speak the truth to one another in love. and walk humbly with each other and our God. For the good of all people in this nation and the world.
You know it’s funny. Elon Musk just ridiculed the criticism of his apparent Nazi salute by X-ing this: “The radical leftists are really upset that they had to take time out of their busy day praising Hamas to call me a Nazi.” He could have taken the time to address some legitimate concerns non-radicals like me are feeling about what he did. But here’s the funny thing. His boss just released more radicals, some with blood on their hands, than the Israeli government released Hamas prisoners a day earlier, many with blood on their hands. Given the choices Israel had, theirs was a justifiable, though debatable, moral choice. What Elon’s boss did is not defensible in the least, as the D.C judge who sentenced many of them has stated. Per The Hill: U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote in in court filings for Proud Boys Nicholas Ochs and Nicholas DeCarlo that she would not dismiss their cases with prejudice — leaving the door open for charges to be filed against the men in the future. But to Elon I ask, Who is advocating the mass release of terrorists now? Radical leftists had nothing to do with the release of this J6 guy with the Hitler mustache, who accused Jewish people of controlling President Joe Biden and said he wanted civil war. What would God say? Hey, I have an idea, Elon. Let’s not praise Hamas or domestic terrorists. And please keep your right arm by your side.
Trump’s childhood experiences of religion were influenced by the “power of positive thinking” guru, Norman Vincent Peale. See Donald Trump: How Childhood Trauma and a Religious Mentor Influenced His Formation as American President - Here’s the abstract: This article explores how childhood trauma and religious experiences influenced the intellectual and spiritual formation of Donald Trump. It describes how he dealt with these experiences. While the lives of presidents are well documented, insufficient attention has been paid to the role of religious mentors who assisted future presidents during the periods of trauma they endured as youth. Trump’s perceptions of his childhood trauma and religious life offer an important lens into the history of family trauma, the pain of childhood neglect, the impact of religion on personal development, a father’s pivotal decision, means of coping with physical abuse, the help of a famous religious role model, and the early display of leadership traits
Per Donald Trump: How Childhood Trauma and a Religious Mentor Influenced His Formation as American President Daniel K. M. Yamashiro, Ph.D., Gary Scott Smith, Ph.D. - “Some Christians criticized Peale for promoting self-centeredness, but his upbeat message providing a Christian endorsement of wealth and egocentrism reached a large audience through his radio program, books, and articles and resonated with millions. Some Christian conservatives complained that while the Apostle Paul was appealing, Peale was appalling. Donald and his parents, however, found Peale appealing. Along with 750 other businesses and hundreds of thousands of individuals, they subscribed monthly to the magazine Peale’s organization produced called Guideposts.”
See Deuteronomic History and Martin Noth. See also Encyclopedia Britannica:
The Deuteronomic “theology of history” (a repeating pattern of sin-consequence-contrition-salvation) is displayed most clearly in the Book of Judges: unless the people of the Covenant remain faithful and obedient to God, they will suffer the due consequences of disobedience, whether it be an overtly willful act or an unthinking negligence in keeping the Covenant promise. The Deuteronomist worked out a formula for his theology of history that was based in a very dramatic way on the historical events of the period: (1) obedience to Yahweh brings peace and well-being; (2) a period of well-being often involves a slackening of resolve to keep the commandments of Yahweh or outright disobedience; (3) disobedience leads to a weakness of the faith that had bound the community together and thus leaves the community open to repression and attacks from external enemies; and (4) external repression forces the community to reassess its position and ask the cause of the calamities, thus leading to repentance and eventual strength to resist all enemies.
Here’s the full quote, a wonderful summation of the meaning of Micah 6:8 from Judaic scholar Erica Brown: “Walking modestly for the prophet is walking with eyes wide open to the presence of anyone in need, waiting to perform acts of mercy, justice, and lovingkindness. Looking at a glimpse of the exegetical history of Micah 6:8 and its contextual meaning takes us straight back to the Talmud’s expansive understanding. Religion stripped to its most essential elements asks both very little and a great deal of us: to return to a state of simplicity, broken and small in God’s presence, able, in a state of vulnerability, to make those invisible visible, to create a society where we walk beside others because God is willing to walk beside us.”
Wonderful words , Rabbi. Bishop Hudde is a courageous and inspiring woman. You gave me a good chuckle describing your AI result for Micah 6:8
Another excellent article. I loved your foot notes as much as the article. Thanks for your insightful writings. You’re the Bomb!