The profoundly spiritual questions set in motion by MAGA

I ended yesterday’s reflections by suggesting that, for all its insidious, even hideous, qualities, Trump’s threat to absorb Canada also represents a gift. Let’s explore what this gift means in the context of this question: how can we as Christians, and as a country, respond with hope-filled, constructive and effective answers to this threat?

To briefly recap: with ideology, a group of people absolutizes a societal end, legitimates the means needed to bring it about, creates a scapegoat that must be destroyed and recruits Messianic forces to implement the end. Pursuing the end or goal becomes all-important, giving meaning and purpose in life to its adherents. This is evident with the MAGA movement, which has sacralized President Trump, empowering him to bring about the return of a utopian “Golden Age” for American citizens who have been disenfranchised and excluded by the “elite.”

In Hope in Troubled Times, Dr. Bob Goudzwaard – Christian economist and former member of the Dutch Parliament – and I note that ideologies typically move through identifiable, relatively predictable stages or phases. The progression of the Nazi, apartheid, Soviet and French Revolution ideologies, for example, can be historically traced according to these phases: conception, actualization, reconstruction, domination, terror and dissolution. In my view, actualization of the MAGA identity or nationalist ideology began with the January 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington, which I have often called an “incarnational moment” – when all of those words of hate became flesh. Reconstruction – the phase we are presently in – has begun with Trump’s second term.

How then can we slow, resist or even stop the progression of this ideology, so that it does not advance to its most destructive next stages? 

Advocating the meaning of fundamental values

The answer lies partly in the nature of ideology itself. The MAGA ideology is a battle of legitimation, and in that sense it is a contest for hearts and minds. As Christians, we ought to be well-positioned to articulate the deep meaning of the fundamental values that the ideology seeks to seize and redefine as its own: truth, justice, mercy, peace, economic stewardship, care for the earth, solidarity. These are ways, norms that God has engraved in creation, paths for us as peoples to walk down. They are gifts of the Creator; when followed, they lead to human and environmental flourishing. Therein lies our hope: God’s ways are still active, and ultimately, they still carry the day. Embodied and vindicated by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, they compel us to articulate and live them out in our time.

In common cause with people of other faiths, and with Canadians in general, let’s then advocate their deep, robust meaning. We can urge Team Canada (Canada’s senior politicians) to engage their political counterparts in the U.S. with their hope-filled meaning. As Christians we can do that with believers south of the border. As citizens, let’s support politicians and decision-makers in the U.S., including Republican members of Congress, who do not endorse the powerful conversion of all values demanded by the unfettered pursuit of the MAGA end.

A restructured, care-driven economy 

Then, on that basis, let’s advocate for a joint North American, inclusive economy of caring and sharing, along with a security architecture based not on militarization but on what actually makes for peace. Why? In part, because only a restructured economy and a new security architecture will effectively respond to the abandonments that gave rise to the MAGA ideology, as noted in the first article: working-class people were abandoned by the leaders of global capitalism; in the foolhardy Iraq war, President Bush sent working-class men, but not sons of the “elites,” to die; and President Obama rescued big banks and large companies during the 2008 crisis, but not millions of regular homeowners who lost their homes. 

In our rich economies – possessing historically unprecedented wealth – that means first looking after care needs (of the poor, of the environment) and only then addressing the scope of production and consumption. It calls for a care-driven economy rather than an economy obsessed with uninterrupted material expansion – an obsession shared equally today by the left and the right. 

A new security architecture

In terms of peace, it means fundamentally restructuring our security architecture. When the Cold War ended in 1989, the original purpose of NATO (to deter Soviet aggression) became obsolete. Regrettably, however, NATO did not realign its mandate (as it had agreed to do), nor did it use the anticipated “peace dividend” for peaceable rather than military purposes. There would still be more than enough resources available for defence. Instead, against NATO’s original commitment, an ideology of guaranteed security, combined with an ideology of unending material prosperity, drove NATO further into military expansionism, eastward towards Russia. This unprovoked escalation can legitimately be described as one of the factors leading to the unconscionable invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Presently the world spends over $2 trillion annually in military spending. It cannot be said that insecurity in the world today is due to a lack of military capacity. 

Trump’s current actions with respect to NATO offer the possibility, in very concrete ways, of reconfiguring NATO (and other institutions) towards peacemaking. Canada should indeed raise its security-related spending, but only if it is allocated in this direction.

Rethinking global capitalism

How is Trump’s threat to annex Canada a gift? It provides an opportunity to fundamentally rethink Canada’s fiscal, economic and military priorities, structures and practices. Rightly so, it means that business as usual cannot and ought not to continue. It raises profoundly spiritual questions. It allows the chance to rebuild in such a way that global capitalism no longer leaves so many people behind, that wars are not fields of militarist aggression and that people without buying power can be supported to be vital, meaningful members of society.

Then the reasons why the MAGA ideology has arisen will have disappeared. But, more importantly, we will have turned our ways towards following paths that lead to genuine flourishing.

Let’s accept this opportunity and seek to make it happen – not because what we do will “save” Canada, but because in this way we can witness to the hope that lives within us, namely that God still will powerfully bless faith-filled obedience to God’s life-giving ways.    

Read earlier installments in this series here and here. Send your thoughts to [email protected].