“Just to be clear, if we’ve understood the gospel, we know we’re no better than Trump. Anything I say about him is true about me. Do I hear an Amen?”
So a friend of mine recently on Facebook.
Disclaimer: This post is not about politics. My friend could
assume that there would be wide agreement among his Facebook friends about the
characterisation of Donald Trump as depraved. This might even allow for the
belief that in some respects Hillary Clinton is more depraved. It only excludes
people who see nothing much wrong with Donald Trump.
This got me thinking. Am I better than Trump? Without further
qualification the question cannot possibly be answered. Better in what way?
Am I better than Trump at making money?
No.
Am I better than Trump at making women feel uncomfortable?
No.
My friend presumably means something like “better before God”
– am I better before God than Trump? To my taste even this question lacks precision but I
am inclined to answer yes. From what it looks like across the pond I am in
Christ and he is not and this means that I am right with God and Trump is not.
More precisely, what my friend means is that we are “guilty,
vile and helpless” apart from Christ. I am no less in need of God’s grace and
mercy than Donald Trump or anyone else. Agreed.
And yet I am unsure whether it makes sense to
declare that “on our own” we all are (would be) equally bad and wicked. It is
hypothetical. None of us is, ever was, or ever will be “on our own”, as far as I
can tell. All of us have been shaped by our heritage and upbringing; many people and events have impacted on us long before we can even begin to ask who we are.
To remind myself than in some (many) ways I am “no better
than Trump” may strengthen my humility and if it does, it will do some good. (Of
course, perverted as our hearts often are, it is also possible to take this
along lines that bolster pride: I am so glad that I am aware of how sinful I am
unlike this Pharisee over there who thinks himself better than Donald Trump.)
Still, there is something that bothered me and as I reflected on it further I came to the conclusion that it is probably this: the danger of nothing-buttery.
I am a bunch of cells, a mass of molecules. So is Donald Trump.
No difference then, eh?
Nothing-buttery is usually a way of avoiding moral and
theological questions. "Embryos? Nothing but a bit of tissue." It can be useful
in some contexts to simplify and focus by way of deliberately ignoring some of the complexities of a situation, but maybe more often nothing-buttery sidesteps what is
most important.
“There but for the grace of God” is a helpful sentiment. I
remind myself regularly of my privileges. My upbringing and the contexts in
which I lived my life enabled me to become less of a crook than I might have
been. And the grace of God in Christ, through his Holy Spirit, has positioned
me differently before God. Not only that but it changed my life down to ways
of thinking, relating and acting.
I am what I am by the grace of God. If it helps me to remind
myself of my ongoing need of Christ then saying “I am no better than Trump” fulfils
a useful purpose.
And yet, precisely because Christ is everything should I spend much time thinking about me apart from Christ? It would be a reductionism,
and in the end there can be nothing but the most general answer to the question what I would be
apart from Christ. What would I be like if I had not married 24 years ago? Who
knows? Who cares? What would I be like if I had not lived half my life in
England? Is it not futile to speculate for more than a few minutes?
If I had been born in the USA and spent my life there I
would be as American as Donald Trump. But I was not and I have not.
If I had spent as much time in unhealthy locker room conversations
as Donald Trump apparently has, my way of relating to women might well be as
corrupt as his. But I have not, and I am grateful for that.
I am German albeit maybe not as German as I might be if I
had not made my home in England.
My ways of relating to others are less corrupt than Donald
Trump’s although my life could have turned out very differently.
If I am better than Donald Trump, it’s not down to a splendid
achievement on my part.
And yes, there are ways in which I am no better than Trump; my heart can still be pretty twisted. But I am reluctant to shout about it for fear of dishonouring the one who has begun a great work in
me.
If it helps to magnify Christ, I will declare that I am no better than Trump. But to the extent that it obscures the real difference Christ makes in people's lives I will not agree to the proposition. Nor would it bear true witness to God to pretend that he does not know the difference between relative good and evil.
