Both were prosecuted and convicted of crimes by the state.
Therefore, they are the same."
This seems to be the logic permeating a substantial portion of American Christianity of late, the portion that sees Jesus and Donald Trump as essentially equivalent persons. Trump is, by this way of thinking, a martyr, whose struggle is our struggle. The only reason he is being pursued is that he is the only one who can speak up for the little guy, the only one who knows and speaks the truth. And like Jesus, he is willing to pay the price for his truth-telling.
This is, of course, utterly insane.
One could just as easily place Adolph Hitler into that Venn Diagram, only Hitler actually went to prison for the beer-fueled uprising he instigated in Munich. Like Hitler, the trial and conviction of Adolph Hitler only cemented his popularity among his followers, for precisely the same reason that Trumpists take Trump's convictions as a marker of his legitimacy. Only a true patriot would be willing to suffer for us! Just like Jesus! And Hitler! Yay TrumpJesusHitler!
But just as Jesus and Adolph were nothing alike, so too Donald and Jesus are nothing alike.
The two bear no resemblance to one another whatsoever morally or personally. They are, in point of fact, the opposite sort of person entirely. Making the argument that they are the same is a marker of a disordered mind.
"Are you saying my mind is disordered?" might come the snarled aggression response from the avowed Trumpist, who has learned that threats and bullying are their most effective tools in silencing opponents.
Yes. Yes I am. Insofar as you are in thrall, yes.
But I will admit that there's something inaccurate about my statement.
That way of putting it assumes that Trumpism is a physical pathology, a peculiar and pernicious neurodivergence or imbalance in brain chemistry.
It is not.
Trumpism is first and foremost a moral disease, the same moral disease that has afflicted humankind since we were first driven from Eden. It is the willingness to blame others for our own mistakes. It is the desire to resent, to attack, and to manipulate truth to our own ends. It is the hate of one's enemies, and the love of mammon, and the delight in violence and violent thoughts.
It is a disorder of the soul, a spiritual illness.
To use some pointlessly overcomplicated words, Trumpism is a sociopolitical manifestation of Augustinian concupiscence. It tastes of the fruit of the knowledge of evil, its' sickly sticky siren song sweet as Turkish Delight straight from the cold hand of Jadis.
There, I suppose, you do have your theological connection, because the reason we human beings need Jesus so utterly is our hunger to be ruled by men like Donald.
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