An article in The Nation, Yes, Donald Trump Is Making White People More Hateful:
A new study finds empirical evidence of the “Trump Effect,” by Joshua Holland, concludes with the following words:
“It appears that both are true: Obama’s election activated white voters’ racial grievances and anxieties about being displaced by other groups. But it was Trump’s nasty rhetoric that gave them permission to say what they might have kept quiet out loud – and in some cases, to act on those feelings.”
I am reminded of St. Paul’s words: “The law was our disciplinarian until Christ came.”[Galatians 3:24]
We must not underestimate the power of a nation’s laws and its social norms. Before a person discovers the power of grace, it is often society’s norms that provide the boundaries for behavior. On the other hand, we must also not overestimate the power of laws and social norms. We have seen how lies and propaganda can undermine norms and move nations to authoritarian rule and even genocide. The genocide in Nazi Germany and the genocide in Rwanda are examples. The rhetoric that dehumanizes and appeals to hate paves the way.
Furthermore, laws and norms, in relation to human behavior, always have the weakness of being too general to help us in our everyday situations, in our relationships with partners, coworkers, friends, and enemies. They also prove weak when there is a daily onslaught of lies coming against them. And, of course, there have always been unjust laws.
And yet the law, as weak as it is, does have a disciplinarian effect and, therefore, provides some degree of social order. But that is until grace (the experience of God’s liberating presence) comes into our lives and we experience the Spirit. Paul is quite radical here: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.”[Galatians 5:18] This is because the Spirit produces what the law cannot: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.”[Galatians 5:22-23]
If we have come to experience grace and to live in some measure from the Source of all life, then we are called to be witnesses to that reality and to speak and act beyond what the law provides. At this time, in these United States of America, when the law is being undermined and social norms are further weakened, we must declare the larger reality: what is on the heart of God as we are coming to know it. We must embody and give witness to the matters Jesus says get neglected: Doing justice, loving mercy and living faithfully. We have to call for justice in specific ways to correspond to specific injustices. We must demonstrate mercy in specific situations where people are being demeaned and judged. And we must do this faithfully, trusting in God, walking humbly with our God.
We must do this in an age of hypocrisy when it is easy to be a Christian without Christ, to name the name, but not live in the reality. Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruits.” I have often read comments by those who identify themselves as “unbelievers” and yet who call “Christians” to account on the basis of what Jesus has said. Many who do not name the name of Christ can see the falsehood of those who name the name but do not live the life.
In a time of breakdown in the so-called “rule of law” and in social norms, our nation is in need of witnesses to that which comes from grace: the call to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.