Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.
Three faiths have major religious observances around this time of year.
The oldest one is the Jewish Passover (Pesach) which began on April 12 and ends at nightfall Sunday, April 20.
That Sunday is of course Easter Sunday, marking the end of the Christians’ Holy Week in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Islamic Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, began at sundown on February 28 and ended at sundown March 29. For practicing Muslims, Ramadan is a month for fasting, prayer, giving, and self-evaluation.
Although President Donald Trump and his supporters have proclaimed that God saved him from assassination to “Make America Great Again,” Trump has little in common with the core principles of those three faiths. On the contrary: we find unending contradictions between his behavior and religious values.
TRUMP AND PRINCIPLES OF JUDAISM
Passover commemorates the escape of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt—generally believed to be in 1446 BCE.
Samuel Boyd, a University of Colorado scholar of the Bible and ancient Judaism, has written that “Passover is a particularly poignant time to recognize the tragedies of the past year and offer hope for the future.”
Some 4,000 years later, hope is what we still cling to.
For guidance, the Hebrew/Old Testament prophet Micah offered these thoughts:
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”(Micah 6:8)
So, how does Trump measure up against the virtues of “justice,” “kindness” and humility?
(Confession: When typing the above question a line from a character on the Fred Allen radio show of the 1940s came to mind. A fictional southern U.S. Senator, Beauregard Claghorn, would explain to a befuddled person: “That’s a joke, son.”)
In regard to justice, Trump has defied the courts, the U.S. Constitution, and any other impediments to his reign, issuing more than 100 executive orders.
To date, one can place little or no confidence in U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley’s assurance from February: “We have a president that has taken an oath to follow the law. And I assume he’s going to do that.”
Trump was repulsed by a request to be kind and show mercy. In January, he characterized as “nasty” and “ungracious” an Episcopal bishop’s public and personal plea to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now”—people including the LGBTQ+ community and migrant workers in the nation illegally.
As for humility, likely a virtue in all religious faiths, please consider a compilation of clips in which Trump boasts, proclaims and worships his accomplishments in just about everything except modesty and self-effacement.
By my count, that video shows Trump claiming about 45 times to know “more about” (fill in the blank) than anyone else and, at least once, more than anyone who has ever lived.
A counter quote from Proverbs 3:7 is relevant here: “Do not be wise in your own eyes.”
TRUMP AND CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS
There’s no definitive count of Christ’s parables in the New Testament; one source lists at least 46 recorded ones.
Even given the varying (and sometimes contradictory) interpretations of scripture, you’d have to stretch to find even one parable that suggests Trump is a model for the righteous life.
And in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:3-10, those who are deemed “blessed” by Christ seem more like targets to Trump and Elon Musk—what with the “blessed” including the poor in spirit, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers.
Trump and MAGA folks might list him as belonging in the last beatitude, those who “suffer persecution for justice [or righteousness] sake.”
As noted a previous Bleeding Heartland post, Trump has likened his May 2024 felony conviction to the persecution suffered by Christ. He also likened those he pardoned for their roles in the January 6, 2021 insurrection to Christian martyrs—“persecuted Christians” was Trump’s phrase.
The Hebrew Bible, the Christian Old and New Testaments, and Islam’s Quran all express the importance of empathy and concern for the oppressed, the vulnerable and the suffering.
That’s why Musk entered the scene a few lines above because he got considerable backlash when he came out against empathy on a rightwing podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
Greg Depow, a Canadian, put it this way:
In a recent appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” the world’s top right-leaning podcast, Musk made a surprising proclamation: empathy, he claims, is the “fundamental weakness of Western civilization,” pushing us toward “civilizational suicide.”
As a Canadian social psychologist who researches empathy scientifically, I disagree sharply with his assessment. Simply put, Musk is wrong.
A Musk quote from that podcast: “Like, there’s so much empathy that you actually suicide yourself. So, we’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on. And it’s like, I believe in empathy, like, I think you should care about other people, but you need to have empathy for our civilization as a whole, and not commit to a civilizational suicide.”
Foreshadowing Musk, Linus Van Pelt opined in the Peanuts comic strip: “I love mankind—It’s people I can’t stand.”
TRUMP AND ISLAMIC PRACTICES
The prophet Muhammad founded the Muslim faith in the early decades of the 7th century, 610-630. Islam recognizes many of the prophets that Judaism and Christianity do. Muhammad is believed to have had visions of the Archangel Gabriel, whic he recorded in what would become the Quran.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all trace their roots to the biblical Abraham and Sarah and a covenant with God, which read in part: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing…and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12: 1-3)
Given their common roots and the nature of religious faiths in general, the principles of the three faiths all include desires for peace, justice, and compassion. Given the nature of humans, believers in all faiths fall short of those principles. Hence there is emphasis on repentance—an alien concept to Trump and to many elected or appointed public servants.
So with the nature of the faiths and our shortcomings, the contrasts between religious principles and the shortcomings of our governance discussed above need not be repeated here. But it’s easy to learn that many core teachings of Islam echo values of Judaism and Christianity—despite efforts in some quarters to equate Islam with terrorism. Consider:
- The word “Islam” means “submission” and is often interpreted as submission to peace.
- Many Muslim communities engage in interfaith dialogue and promote peace with other religions.
- Extremist groups misinterpret and misuse Islamic teachings to justify violence, which does not reflect the beliefs of most Muslims.
- Islam advocates for social justice, charity, and the protection of the vulnerable, which are peaceful principles.
- Muslims around the world identify with peaceful values and oppose violence.
Having begun with references to the three religious observances, it’s appropriate to close with words common to each. May all believers be as faithful to their founding principles as we wish our political leaders would be to ours.
Shalom. Peace. Salaam Wa Hubb (Peace and Love)
Top image is by godongphoto, available via Shutterstock.