Image by Samantha Sophia.
Don Trump, current temporary occupant of the elective office of President of the United States, has issued an Executive Order to ferret out “antichristianity” from the federal government. Now cynics might perceive an odd karmic resonance from the “communist witch hunts” of Senator Joe McCarthy though the grotesque, twisted soul of Roy Cohn to his acolyte Don Trump, but nothing could be further from the truth. Be assured: there is no “antichrist” in this “antichristianity” purge. The choice of words is just a coincidence.
The order, issued Thursday, February 7, 2025, establishes a task force called the “Task Force to End the War on Christians,” and will include members of Trump’s cabinet and agencies. The task force will review all departments to “identify and eliminate anti-Christian policies, practices, or conduct.” It will also seek to find gaps in laws and enforcement contributing to such conduct, and recommend further action if necessary. The task force will be required to submit an annual report on its progress, and a final report when it concludes.
We and the Task Force need some guidance on how to decide what/who is “antichristian.” Prior similar efforts in history have had bad results.
After Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 312, Christians, having been severely persecuted under previous emperors, the new religion now felt capable of commencing its own program of persecution, confiscating property and killing “heretics.”
The “Spanish Inquisition” operating in Spain and in all Spanish viceroyalties and territories was equally horrific. According to some modern estimates, around 150,000 people were prosecuted for various offences during the three-century duration of the Spanish Inquisition, of whom between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed, approximately 2.7 percent of all cases.
There are numerous records of the opinion of ordinary Spaniards of the time that, “the Inquisition was devised simply to rob people.”
“They were burnt only for the money they had,” a resident of Cuenca averred. “They burn only the well-off”, said another. (This may be why the Spanish Inquisition targeted Jews.) In 1504 an accused stated, “only the rich were burnt.”
In 1484 Catalina de Zamora was accused of asserting that, “this Inquisition that the fathers are carrying out is as much for taking property from the conversos as for defending the faith. It is the goods that are the heretics.”
This saying passed into common usage in Spain. In 1524 a treasurer informed Charles V that his predecessor had received 10 million ducats from the conversos, but the figure is unverified. In 1592 an inquisitor admitted that most of the 50 women he arrested were rich. In 1676, the Suprema claimed it had confiscated more than 700,000 ducats for the royal treasury. The property on Mallorca alone in 1678 was worth “well over 2,500,000 ducats.” Many such efforts ended badly and were thought to have taught a lesson to subsequent generations to avoid such religious purifications or purges.
Jesus, supposedly a Christian, gave much direction as to what is Christian in the New Testament. Jesus, himself a refugee in Egypt as a baby with his parents Joseph and Mary, preached a Christian duty to aid refugees. Later during his ministry he preached a duty to cloth the naked, feed the hungry, aid the poor, visit those in prison, teaching that sometimes the stranger, the refugee, the immigrant may be god or an angel, as a test for one’s “Christianity.”
So maybe, the new Task Force should start by ferreting out ICE, DHS, and the Border Patrol’s anti-Christian treatment of those folks?
Some prior temporary occupants of the elective office of President made speeches reminiscent of Jesus’s teaching. Dwight D. Eisenhower preached against war and the weapons of war: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
Having long experience of war and destruction, Eisenhower, a deeply religious man, warned the nation in his farewell address of the danger of its entrapment by the military-industrial-congressional complex and losing its connection to the Prince of Peace. Maybe the Task Force could root out those in government responsible for our many wars, nuclear and biological weapons, torture and abuse of prisoners?
It is of some concern that the current occupant of the office of the President, may not be the best judge to determine precisely what is “Christian” or anti-Christian. (Not to mention a serious First Amendment problem with government doing so.) Judge not that ye be not judged it is taught, on the other hand, one may judge themselves, or reveal themselves by their own words, no? Here are some quotes of Mr. Trump which may call into question his capacity for judging what is “Christian:”
“The beauty of me is that I’m very rich.”
“I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
“You know, it really doesn’t matter what they [news media] write, as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”
“I did try and fuck her. … I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married.”
“She does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
“Ariana Huffington is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man. He made a good decision.”
“My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”
“Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”
“I have Black guys counting my money. … I hate it. The only guys I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes all day.”
“I think that putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing. … I don’t want to sound too much like a chauvinist, but when I come home and dinner’s not ready, I’ll go through the roof, OK?”
“Waterboarding is your minor form. Some people say it’s not actually torture. Let’s assume it is. But they asked me the question. What do you think of waterboarding? Absolutely fine. But we should go much stronger than waterboarding. That’s the way I feel.”
“A person who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10.”
“I know words. I have the best words.”
Mr. Trump may have the “best words,” or maybe Jesus or Eisenhower have better?
Interestingly the Bible informs how to identify the antichrist: “He was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. … Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:5, 6). The task of dividing Christian from antichristian is rife with difficulty, and perhaps ought be left outside government because, as Shakespeare warned:
“The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose;
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the core.”
Sound familiar?
In any event, between avoiding becoming the American Inquisition and rooting out true anti-Christian bias, the Task Force has its work cut out for it. May god guide them and have mercy upon them.
