Using Christianity to Defend Nativism is BS

JD Vance said that it's a Christian concept called ordo amoris (rightly ordered love) that taught him to care about his family first, then neighbors, then community, and
after all of that one can focus on the rest of the world—it's his rational for being mean to refugees from other countries and he accuses the "far left" of inverting the ordo amoris by "hating citizens of their own country and caring more about people outside their own borders."

Using Christianity to defend nativism is bs. There are practical reasons you might take care of those close to you before taking care of people in other countries, but it's not Christian doctrine. 

Pope Francis thinks so too. He sees the U.S.'s mass deportations as a major crisis and replied to Vance, 

"Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. . . The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the Good Samaritan, that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all without exception."

Christianity is not an argument for putting family and America first. You're supposed to love everyone without exception. It's easy to love the people you like best. Howard Thurman offers a more expansive view of Christianity in Jesus and the Disinherited. 

Endure the Terrible Pressures of the Dominating World Without Losing Your Humanity

I first read Jesus and the Disinherited in 2022. It fuelled my feelings for being part of the "resistance" post-Trump. Vincent Harding wrote the forward and mentioned that this book could be mistaken for "liberation theology," which is doctrine that justifies action against oppression. That is exactly how I read it in 2022 when Biden was in office and I thought we were on an upswing after Trump's horrible low—but hopefully singular—point in American history. I just read it again after the inauguration in January. 

I felt so different reading it recently, like a downhearted loser. I understood better that Thurman sees Christianity as "liberating spirituality," which is a survival strategy for the oppressed. Thurman said he wrote for the poor, the dispossessed, the disinherited. He is examining what the teachings of Jesus might offer to help the oppressed to "endure the terrible pressures of the dominating world without losing their humanity." 

The teachings of Jesus offer a survival plan to the oppressed. He encourages us to refuse to give in to fear, hypocrisy, and hatred, because they are ultimately bad for us. He says to be humble, not for the sake of subservience, but because the balm for humiliation is humility. When your life is horrible (as Jesus's was; as enslaved peoples' were; as immigrants' fearing deportation are; as the LGBTQ community's under Trump will be, you have to establish another basis for well being. This basis is that you are God's child. He loves you. There is an afterlife. The kingdom of God is within. Jesus says, don't see yourselves as your oppressor sees you.

A Minority with Majority Privileges

This is all such good advice, and helpful. But Paul's words, "Slaves, be obedient to your masters," have always given me pause. How is this helpful advice to the disinherited and marginalized? Paul gives the sanction of religion to slavery. It's clearly problematic (as is a lot of the bible, honestly). But Thurman explains something constructive about this. Paul was the most privileged apostle. He was Jewish, but he was a Roman citizen. He was a minority with majority privileges. He has no idea what it's really like to be Jesus and this bit of scripture shows it. Thurman says, unless one actually lives day by day without a sense of security he cannot understand what worlds separated Jesus from Paul. 

I need to make sure I don't make this mistake. Yes, I'm a woman and things are bad for women under this administration, but I am safe. I live day by day with a sense of security and I need to remember that. I'm barely different from the oppressors. I should differentiate myself as much as I can from them and be clear eyed about my position in all of this. I need to make sure I'm helping people instead of being a brooding, sanctimonious grump, which I am inclined to be. :)

I know many of you feel alone or crazy because so many people in power lack your values and see the world so differently from you. They're doing abhorrent things and no one is stopping them. Carl Jung explained that loneliness does not come from "having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible." So I hope you will write or sing or paint or post or tell me what you're thinking because it might help you feel less alone.