Some Thoughts on the Existential Threat of Current World Leaders
With all the madness being foisted upon the world by the current US administration, it is easy to forget about the danger the current Russian administration poses to the world.
Oh for the days when we only worried about Vladimir Putin!
In February of 2022 Dmitry Kiselyov - Russian state tv personality, openly stated: “Why do we need a world if Russia is not in it?"
This was after Putin had put Russia nuclear forces on high alert, and was a clear reflection of Putin’s threatening worldview. Many times Putin has overtly signalled that he would prefer the disorder and destruction of a nuclear exchange than a diminished Russia.
Whether this is sabre-rattling or not, it is not an empty threat. Russia does not likely possess the nuclear weapons to win such an exchange, but they do possess the weapons to begin a nuclear conflagration. The question is not can they, but would they. And Putin has said on multiple occasions that, for the sake of a strong Russia, they would.
That is, of course, horrifying. But it is not the most dangerous threat the world currently faces.
Donald Trump is no Vladimir Putin. He has no real guiding ideology outside of himself. There is no external factor for which he would sacrifice. He is not, for instance, a Christian Nationalist. Oh, he has surrounded himself with Christian Nationalists such as Pete Hegseth and Franklin Graham - more on this later - but he himself is not one. He has no knowledge of the Christian faith, and even less interest in or commitment to any of its tenets, not even warped and corrupted ones. Nor does he have any knowledge of or commitment to the US Constitution. He does not care about America, certainly not Americans, and even less so about anyone else. He is entirely uninterested in making anything great beyond himself.
And this is profoundly dangerous.
Trump is a solipsistic narcissist. He is the god of his own reality, the only consciousness that matters. Other people do not truly exist to him.
Whereas Putin would rather see no world than a world without Russia, Trump cannot envision a world without himself. And his time is short. He knows it.
One would hope that the system he is lodged in would provide at least a basic check and balance against this level of potential humanity-ending destruction. But again, there are people around him who, for their own Christian Nationalist reasons, are quite happy to initiate an apocalyptic nuclear war. They see it as their religious duty to bring the world to the brink of total destruction and beyond. They likely know that Trump does not share their religious views, but it doesn’t matter. They are thrilled to use such a malleable, manipulatable tool to bring about their End Times fantasies. I am no fan of the threats of hell-fire, but even this potential caution - the one consequence that does at least seem to penetrate beyond Trump’s otherwise total lack of conscience - is being chipped away by the likes of Franklin Graham and the Dobson Family, who are busily convincing Trump that he has nothing to fear from God. They are granting him spiritual immunity, much as the Supreme Court granted him legal immunity. Both of these moves are insanely foolish.
And Trump is quite content to use these deluded and deluding Christian Nationalists to fashion the world into his own image, including its end as he comes near his end. What better way to honour the only person, in his mind, who truly matters? The world can be his fiery Viking funeral boat.
Using each other, Trump and the Christian Nationalists could very well bring about nuclear holocaust. And their supporters would cheer as they were engulfed in the flames.
Needless to say, this is not the way of Jesus. The apocalypse - that is, the revelation - of Jesus is that we were made for loving union with our Creator, in Christ, by the Spirit. A central manifestation of this union is the sacrificial love for our neighbour, the Other, the least of these, the sick and poor and imprisoned, the enemy. We simply cannot hold onto Christ with one hand and a bomb with the other. That is quite literally anti-Christ.
The way of Jesus is the exact opposite of the way of Trump, the way of MAGA, the way of Christian Nationalism, the way of nuclear holocaust.
Resistance to this insanity - in Russia, yes, in Israel, yes, in the US, yes, and everywhere else as well - is urgent. Pray for (and become) people of stricken conscience who refuse evil orders to wipe out other humans. Pray for (and become) people of peace who will open their homes and lives to those in danger. Pray for (and become) those who resist evil and work for a different way.
The time is now, the choice is now. It is the way of Putin and Trump or the way of Jesus. As Cohen sang, give me Christ or give me Hiroshima.
