Christian Contemplations #4: Welcome to Babylon
The religion series is back
Don’t adjust your email - this is still the MCIMAPS Report.
At the start of 2025, I began a new subseries for my MCIMAPS newsletter. While my substack is largely focused on political analysis, I resolved to create a series that was much more personal - a religious commentary blog - Christian Contemplations.
However, if you are a newer follower of mine, you might be thinking “wait, when did he do this? I haven’t seen anything.” That is true, as I have not posted a new issue of my series since Lent. This issue, however, seeks to pick this series back up. With the Holiday Season in full swing, as we now are more than halfway through Advent, this is the perfect time.
I also want to explain a bit more why its been silent for so long. Actually not so much an explainer, but more me working through my own thoughts on what I want this series to be. Before I get into that however, let me explain how we got here. And I’ll tell you why the title of this is all about being in “Babylon.”
I’m a Big Time Lefty Christian
Anyone who has known me for a good deal of time knows that I, despite being an avowed leftist, am also very religious. And no I don’t mean I just wear a cross and go to church, I mean my life his shaped around my faith. My entire worldview, how I try to conduct my life, and how I judge people’s actions, is shaped around my faith. I’d be out of politics long ago if not for my faith. It has been, and will always be, the main driver of everything I do.
I was born and raised in a liberal-leaning Christian church, The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. When I was young I was very into Church and Sunday School and Bible Study, as it was a time of community and fun. I wasn’t raised in a hyper-judgmental household that made you afraid of falling into hell all the time. THAT theology is one that leads to nothing but adults who fall out of the church.
I went through a crisis of faith in college, the classic “how do I know this is real” dynamic. That also could be a good future article topic. Short version is months/years of study and prayer led to me coming out with an even more firm resolve around my faith than before. Would this be a “born again” moment? I’d venture so.
Despite this renewal of faith, I was still never one to lecture or “preach” to people. So much of this was influenced by the late 2000s era I was in college during. This was an era of Christian rightists eager to push their faith on you and warning hell awaited otherwise. Conversely this was the height of the “New Atheism” movement - where atheism absolutely became a religion itself, eager to preach that folks like myself were stupid. This time is also where I stopped watching Bill Maher, as he turned his lack of religious views into a nonstop attack on anyone who believed in the “man in the sky.” I was frankly just exhausted with people shoving their views on God or no God in your face - and all looking like jackasses while doing it. I resolved to be the non-asshole of this entire war. Want to talk religion? Great happy to. Am I gonna bring it up on my own? Nope.
As I saw it, my role in life was to advocate for things (racial justice, aid to the poor) using the political skills I had, and my faith would be its own thing between myself and those close around me.
Trump Emerges
The rise of Trump changed alot in how I viewed discussing faith. Here was man, an obvious atheist, an abuser, an adulterer, a narcissist, who had become President with a large amount of Christian support. I had often been on the opposite political side of American Christians, namely protestant and “Evangelical” groups. However, while I disagreed with their backing for folks like Bush, McCain, and Romney - those GOP candidates were not, as I see it, bad people. Donald Trump, however, is objectively a monster of a person. For my entire life, Evangelicals, still smarting over Bill Clinton adultery, claimed personal character mattered. Now they’d backed Donald Trump.
To myself, it revealed the fundamental rot in the heart of the American Christianity. That so many people could be fooled by him. The initial analogy I came to was that of King Saul of the Old Testament. The man the Israelites wanted to be their Kind, because he would keep them safe and protect them. Spoiler it didn’t work out well. I directly compared Trump to Saul days after the 2016 election.
My complete lack of respect for Trump and his movement has never changed. In fact it's only gotten worse as he has objectively gotten more vile and wicked. As Trump has gotten worse, or simply revealed more of himself, I have found it impossible to remain silent. While my writings are laced with anti-Trump sentiment, they took on a more religious tone with the 2024 elections.
An original dislike for Trump has further crystallized into a broad condemnation of the MAGA movement, which I find to be entirely anti-Christian and extremely heretical. This personal disdain for Trump, MAGA, and “Christian nationalism” came rushing to the front in September of 2024 when I wrote about the anti-Haitian attacks in Springfield, Ohio.
At the end of that article, which step by step goes into how much MAGA defies what the Gospel calls on Christian to do, I ended with this…
For a party that for my entire life claimed to be the party of God, it is currently in the clutches of a man who is the embodiment of rejecting the words of the Gospel. Donald Trump’s diseased soul, per Christian scripture, can be saved. I, revealing my own struggles with at times failing to offer others grace, have no faith it will. But unlike W, I cannot find one redeeming quality about Trump. He is a poison not only for the country, but for the Christian faith. That evil cloud, an evil I feel comes from the origin of creation, billows off this man and his movement.
The healing for this country won’t happen over night. But it must start by denying this… wicked man… the power he craves. In November, we MUST perform an exorcism at the ballot box.
Sadly, this country did not perform an exorcism at the ballot box. Donald Trump’s 2024 victory told me we were in alot of trouble as a nation. Not only would Trump do tremendous damage to the country, which he is, but it also revealed far too many people have lost the plot on what it means to live as Christians. The fact that Trump, who is an obvious atheist, got 80%+ of the Evangelical Vote, has got to to be the election equivalent of the Israelites that Moses rescued from Egypt starting to worship a golden calf like six seconds after the red sea was parted.
I just could not be quiet anymore
Starting a new Series
With the election results, I was adamant to continue my work as a political analyst but also to sprinkle in more religious writings. I wanted to do this for a few reasons. A big one I cannot deny was to try and offer a “sane” voice for Christianity in our political arena. After all, so much of Christianity in America is tied up with right-wing political figures. Originally it was folks like Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority - a bunch of conservative squares that frankly I’d just roll my eyes at. But now there is this new Christian Nationalistic movement that manages to do much more damage. As such, I was sick of Christians being this right-wing caricature that folks like Bill Maher could mock, but who I knew did not represent the actual Gospel message at all.
I also saw the opportunity to write more religious themed articles as a way to expand my own faith and dedicate more time to Biblical study. I’ve long struggled with this issue of balancing faith with day to day practical matters. Its really easy to say “ok I’ll read this book or check out this study project tomorrow” and then get sidetracked when some political scandal breaks out. Here the conflict of balancing “vocation” with faith has taken center stage.
As the year started, I fired off a series of articles. Before officially launching any series, I planned out a deep dive for the Inauguration itself. I knew exactly who I wanted to write about too: Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is someone I first learned about in my college days, so like 15 years ago (holy hell I’m old). He was a Lutheran Pastor in Germany that became a well known Nazi dissident. A deeply religious man, Bonhoeffer’s writings talked about the nature of God in community and when Christians must rise to resist unjust actions. Bonhoeffer famously argued that at times Christians must not just aid the afflicted, but “jam a spoke in the wheel” of oppression itself. Serving as a spy for the allies while in the Reich, as well as knowing of the bomb plot to kill Hitler, Bonhoeffer was eventually arrested and hanged by the Gestapo. He is considered one of the great Christian martyrs of the last several centuries.
Since the Trump inauguration was on Martin Luther Kind Day itself, something that must have been a cosmic joke, I wanted to write about Bonhoeffer and specifically the role black churches played in his life. You see, Bonhoeffer was raised in Germany and raised specifically on the Volk theology - which is basically Christian nationalism that prioritizes the Germanic nation over others. Bonhoeffer was raised and trained in theology around this notion, and he believed it. However, a 1920s trip to New York City for a year of study abroad exposed him to the Black churches of Harlem and completely re-orientated his perspective on Christ, the Church, and suffering of people. Bonhoeffer would leave Harlem a transformed man, and would then return to Germany and quickly become an anti-Hitler figure.
In the days following the Trump inauguration, I had plenty more to say. I wanted to start a formal series of Christian commentary, and found the perfect first topic.
It came from the homily Washington DC Bishop Mariann Budde gave at the interfaith Prayer service held on January 21st. With many politicians, including Trump, in attendance, Budde used her prayer at the inauguration events to call for mercy toward immigrants, LGBT folks, and those fearing the new administration. Her comments, and the right-wing freak out to them, are covered in my first issue of my new series.
Just a month into the administration, I had plenty to say about immigration policy. There is no room for debate or dissent here, Gospel laws are clear. While a nation does have a right to control immigration and its borders, it is obligated to do so with humanity and dignity in mind. I wrote this in February, well before the horrific actions of ICE really kicked into full gear. Even back in February, we were heading toward a dark path, and the church was already speaking up.
After this second issue, I began to hit a wall.
The News is Depressing
The news coming out of the administration quickly became SO BAD and so depressing that while I followed it, I found real trouble being able to dissect it to then offer commentary on. The cut off of foreign aid, which is killing people as we speak… the pardoning of violent insurrectionists from January 6th… the mass locking up of immigrants…. it was all so much.
In order to write about any of this and offer a Christian counter meant to spend days and weeks with the material to form a coherent article. This began to rapidly drain me. Articles that were started never finished as I’d literally depress myself mid-work and be unable to pick the topic back up. I’d fluctuate between depressed and angry, and angry in a very un-Christian way.
I tried to use Lent to get off twitter for a bit, hoping it would rejuvenate my ability to calmly consume the news and then offer a proper reaction to it. That became the topic of my next article.
However, while not being as chronically on twitter, or any social media, is a good idea and did help me, I still struggled to get back into the grove of writing commentary on news events with the grace that being a Christian requires.
April is when my struggles became clear, as I was able to start but unable to finish an article I began as a reaction to when Trump hosted El Salvador President Navid Bukele at the White House. Below is what I had written before I stopped. Everything in italics below was written back in April and sat in a draft for months.
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On Monday, April 14th, Donald Trump sat down with the authoritarian president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. As most of us know, Bukele has been a major ally of Donald Trump, namely in allowing his prisons to be used for immigrant deportations. This has been brought under increasing scrutiny and attention with the case of Kilmar Garcia - a story that now dominates several news outlets.
The deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a refugee who fled El Salvador as a minor when the Barrio 18 gang threatened him and his family, has put a stronger human face on what is occurring. Kilmar has resided in America since 2009. In his time here, Kilmar married a US citizen and they have a child together; a child that no longer knows where his father is. Kilmar was shielded from deportations in 2019 - as it was found he faces the risk of violence if he returns. Claims he was affiliated with the gang MS-13 have been proven false and relied on the word of a cop that was soon suspended. None of this stopped ICE from arresting Kilmar in March and subsequently sending him to El Salvador to be confined at the country’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center - which by all accounts is operating as a United States concentration camp.
When Kilmar’s situation went through the US Court system, the DOJ initially admitted Kilmar was sent to the TCC in error. The US Supreme Court eventually ruled 9-0 that the federal government must facilitate his return from El Salvador. With that mandate known, Americans watched as Trump and Bukele would meet and likely discuss the situation. No one can be shocked it went as badly as it did. When questioned on the issue, Trump said
"The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?"
After blowing off the issue, Trump followed it up with a direct threat about deporting US citizens.
“I said homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You’ve got to build about five more places.”
I was profoundly struck and despondent by the inhumanity on display. It should not have shocked me. After all, both Trump and Bukele are very similar in their style. Both are authoritarians that think they are far smarter than they actually are. Both claim Christian faith even though both are clear non-believers who simply wrap themselves in the Cross. Both Trump and Bukele are celebrated by Christian nationalists as the godly warriors and “Christian Princes” that will fight against the evils aiming to tear down God.
The Oval Office meeting with Bukele come as Trump and his unholy administration continue to defy the laws and words of God with their monstrous immigration policy. Granted, I expected nothing better from Trump when it came to immigration and following the standards of the Gospel. The darkness of Trump’s soul were seen clearly last September amid the false attacks on Haitian migrants living in Springfield, Ohio.
That dark evil aura has only grown with Trump now vested in Presidential power. While it can be seen in countless issues, it has been personally personified in Trump’s work with Bukele on immigration deportations. As thousands of undocumented are arrested and detained across American, most with no criminal history, it has been easy for many Americans to just gloss past the humanity at stake here - to merely view immigrants as “people here illegally” and giving no thought to their safety or health as fellow children of God.
As I watched that meeting, I though, “we truly are living in Babylon now.”
As I watched the scenes unfold in the Oval Office that day, I thought of a line from the Book of Daniel, Chapter 5 Verse 3. This book covers a time when the Israelites have been removed from their kingdom and sent into exile in the Babylonian kingdom. Daniel was one of these exiles.
2 Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. 3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.
The beasts, described in following verses, were described as looking like mutated versions of a lion, bear, and leopard. The four beast, scariest the most to Daniel, would match with what we see as a dragon. Daniel confesses these dreams greatly troubled him. To me, this artistic direction of the dream is what always enters my mind.
If you have never read Daniel, you are likely reading this going “what does a dream that feels like its out of Dungeons and Dragons have to do with politics?”
As laid out in the same Chapter of Daniel, this dream is not about actual beasts or demons. These figures represent the Kingdoms of Man, specially in the case predicting several Kingdoms to come. These are dark empires doing bad things, crushing people under their power and defying the laws of decency and hence laws of God. In the modern context, when I see the beasts of Daniel’s dream, I see nations like Russia, China, and now the Trump-led United States.
A few days ago, my best friend, knowing what a massive history geek I am, asked me straight-forward - “why does it seem like things are getting so much worse?” My only answer was to give an honest one - thing are getting worse.
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Welcome to Babylon
The article was originally meant to talk much more about the dynamic of Babylon and being in exile. It is a Biblical account that is often cited by Christians and Jews for how to live within a society who’s rulers are not following God’s law. If you don’t know this Babylon story and the message it holds, this 5 minute video is a good explainer.
Being an “exile in Babylon” is a loaded phrase and has been misused by many people over the centuries. Hearing right-wingers claim they were “in Babylon” when Obama got elected in 2008 was the height of ridiculous nonsense. Even in the first Trump term I was hesitant to use this phrase. After all, many live under true oppressive rule. Who am I to compare myself to a Christian in China, North Korea, Afghanistan, and the like.
However, as this administration has only proven itself to be more vile and cruel, the phrase and analogy feels more and more apt. The issues of Daniel and the exile also heavily focus on how to respond to unjust governments and/or society that has strayed from a righteous path. The vision of the beasts also instantly makes me think of the growing anti-democracy movement happening not only in America but across much of the world. The re-rise of autocratic sentiment and of nations engaging in wars of conquest and civilian slaughter. The historian in me sees horrible parallels to the 1920s and 1930s. The Christian in me looks back to the dream Daniel had.
Plans Moving Forward
The Christian contemplations series fell to the sidelines for half a year due to my own mental exhaustion. That exhaustion has not gone away, but I have been determined to revive this series because it truly matters to me. I have also realized that I cannot, nor do I need to, offer religious commentary on everything going on. I must pick my battles and work on what I can handle. I have several topics I want to talk about over the next several months, and I will take things bit by bit.
I already know what Issue 5 will be, and with any luck it will be out by Christmas. We are going to talk about “A Christmas Carol” and Jacob Marley’s chains.
Thank you for this thoughtful reflection on what it means to live faithfully in “Babylon.” I’m struck by your honesty about the struggle to balance Christian discipleship with everyday life and culture. In The Eternal Now, I explore similar themes of how *eternal realities — like how God shapes identity and meaning — aren’t just future promises but practices we live into in the present moment. I’d be honored if you’d take a look and continue this conversation with me: https://open.substack.com/pub/theeternalnowmm/p/please-share-the-eternal-job?r=71z4jh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Posted the following to my Facebook account and I'll do the same with my very irregular substack:
A very different take on the mixture of religion and politics …
It’s no real secret that I’m not a religious person. In fact, I like to say, “Of course I believe in God, I just don’t believe in religion.” This largely comes from the fact that I grew up in a household that was not deeply religious, and I came of age in the era of the Jim and Tammy Fay Baker scandals, and Oral Roberts proclaiming, “God is going to call me home if I do not raise one million dollars,” all the while having a donor in his hip pocket who guaranteed to make up any shortfall. It wasn’t until very late in life that I realized that church attendance was not just about worship (and isn’t supposed to be about lining the pockets of the preachers) but also about friendship and support and camaraderie and love, something that I’ve missed out on.
But I do know a number of people who are deeply religious, and I see how much it means to them in their everyday lives. Faith is a profound part of who they are, and it always has been through the many decades that I have known them. They don’t proselytize, they don’t wear their religion on their sleeve, and they don’t condemn those who don’t worship exactly the same way that they do. Unlike the so called “Christians” of MAGA and the Alt-Right, I have tremendous respect and admiration for these friends.
It's with this background that I commend to you the writings of Matthew Isbell, who seems to be very much like the friends that I so admire and respect. In the latest edition of his blog, Christian Contemplations, he explains his background, the evolution of his views on faith, and how he has navigated (and struggled with) the intersection of religion and politics. Along the way he throws in a few very helpful biblical explainers for religious Philistines like me:
https://mcimaps.substack.com/p/christian-contemplations-4-welcome