Really, the Messiah? Reflections From My Personal Experience

I thought I’d take a break from politics because I’m sickened and depressed by it. But given the last couple of days—and how they remind me of something I grew up with—I can’t let it go without a few comments.

Recently, President Trump made a number of boastful comments. On Wednesday, August 21st, he proclaimed, “I am the chosen one,” speaking of his taking on China in a trade war that might be destroying our economy. Yes, he later said, the comment was meant as a joke. But was it? I wonder because on the same day that morning Trump quoted a tweet by Wayne Allyn Root (evangelical, conspiracy theorist and conservative writer) that “the Jewish people in Israel love him [Trump] like he’s the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God!” Note the lack of awareness that Jews believe that the Messiah has not yet come once, let alone twice. Jews don’t believe in the “second coming.” Note also, the conflation of Israel and America (two chosen nations?), which Root had in an earlier opinion piece contrasted, criticizing America (and American Jews) for not accepting their savior. Among Trump’s many boasts, he now was caught saying (threatening?) that he might stay another ten years after his second term—as if no human being could remove him, no election. As if he’s untouchable, omnipotent and beyond our comprehension.

We’ve long known that many evangelicals, especially those who think the end times and the return of Jesus is near, believe God chose Trump to be president at this particular time and that the election was God’s will. On August 22, I woke up to Gail Collins in the New York Times (“The President Goes Godly”) and Alexandra Petri in The Washington Post (“Oh, good, Donald Trump is God now”).  Excellent articles—clever, witty, but hangman’s humor. Readers’ comments also point out how dangerous this is for America. As one reader explains, this is the classic definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but that this is our President, with access to the nuclear codes that could bring about the Armageddon that, supposedly, some extremist evangelicals would like to happen so Jesus can return. Only, if Root and Trump are right, he’s already here! (even if unacknowledged by those who aren’t his supporters).

Again, Trump says he was only joking when he called himself “the chosen one”, but with his most recent claims, I think we are moving into uncharted territory. Our president has gone beyond “I can do anything I want.”  This is beyond the “divine right of kings” ideology. Every week I think things can’t get more surreal, or more dangerous and yet they do. We have been pushed into the realm of a messianic world-view.

I don’t think many people know more than I do about individuals who claim to be the redeemer, the savior—words that appear in Isaiah chapter 49, where God says  “I the Lord am your Savior [moshiach, in Hebrew], your Redeemer.”  I grew up with a father who, you might say, also had a Messiah complex.  He wasn’t like Trump.  He was a religious and spiritual man. He didn’t have or aspire to political power and wasn’t elected to political position. My father thought of himself as a prophet, the voice of God, a prophet of the end-times. He was sure the final war was imminent, that there would be floods and famine and fires; that the seas would rise. Many times I worried—still do--that he was right. But my father also believed himself appointed to be the Redeemer and he had a small group of followers.

 I know how such a claim of authority, the promise of a better life, can appeal to people, especially people who feel they’ve been forgotten, even despised. But I know the problems, the dangers and harm it can cause from personal experience. And I recognize the characteristic of a person who thinks he is the Redeemer, the only person who can save a rotting world. Such a person insists on complete loyalty and absolute power. If my father thought you weren’t loyal, or disobeyed in any way, he could throw you out of your home, excommunicate you. He insisted on his absolute authority. His word was the law in my family; it went unquestioned, and if you questioned it you were punished. He was the judge, and even gave commandments (like executive orders?).

He didn’t start out this way, I’m sure, but he changed, and gradually he claimed to be more and more powerful. But eventually old age caught up with him, because (of course), no one really is God. If you live under someone who claims absolute power, it does damage that cannot always be repaired. I understand how love can get mixed into it. But I’m fearful when I see people surrounding Trump who never defy him—either through fear of their own, accepting his messages or through vicariously enjoying his life without perceived limits. They surrender their will and at times ignore what they know in their hearts and minds to be wrong.  Its a condition of unquestioning obedience.

My siblings and I eventually grew up and became our own persons (though we may carry invisible scars), capable of exercising our own judgment.

Somehow, we survived,  but will America?