Christ's Kingdom and autocracy

The nascent but real US-Trump autocracy–self-promoting, self-serving, deceitful, violent, and heartless as it is–presents the worldwide Christian movement with new opportunities and challenges. One is to realize afresh that Christ’s international kingdom is not dependent on, and certainly not equivalent to, any kingdom of this world. The Apostle Paul’s declaration in Romans 8 rings true for Jesus’s followers in all contexts across the generations and around the world:

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sudden and devastating USAID cuts neither cut off heretofore beneficiaries around the world from God’s love nor hinder Christ’s kingdom from pressing forward in service. That part of Christ’s kingdom in the US–be they among immigrants/refugees who are under new threats of deportation or citizens who grieve the autocratic power that President Trump has been granted by his enablers (and that he continues systematically to seize and exercise)–has the new opportunity to trust ultimately not in some idealized “America” but in God’s prevailing mercy and love. That majority part of Christ’s kingdom outside the US–including those in countries either threatened to be annexed by the US or suddenly stiff-armed by a heretofore reliable friend–has the new opportunity to realize that the USA, with its brazen claims of “greatness,” is not Christ’s kingdom per se but one among many self-serving nation-states under God’s rule, and one that bears particular responsibility for the vast economic and military power that it wields.

Another opportunity and challenge is to live out MIcah 6:8: “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.“ For its part, the US-Trump autocracy conveys distortions, power, wealth, disregard for the environment, and vengeance on its opponents (and on its dissenters and increasingly even those who raise questions). It labels political opponents as “Marxist” or “pathetic.” It bars select news media from covering the President’s briefings, or cuts off federal funding from media and universities, labeling most all of them as “leftist,” “rogue,” or “anti-Trump.” POTUS openly exhibits a conflict of interest by conducting a sales event for Tesla with Elon Musk on the White House lawn. Without due process, the autocracy targets, arrests, and threatens to deport select green card holders. Christ’s followers have fresh opportunities to stand for justice, to show kindness, and exhibit humility indiscriminately–toward strangers, government officials, political opponents, those in need of food-shelter-health care, and others.

Living at odds with certain prevailing values is inherently part of belonging to Christ’s kingdom in this still fallen world. For that part of Christ’s kingdom in the US, living under a self-promoting, self-serving, deceitful, violent, and heartless autocracy presents new challenges and opportunities. Faith, hope, and love remain. God is good, all the time. Kyrie eleison.