Nonviolent protests are one way God’s people help reclaim a gospel that is good news for the power and powerless.

By Adam Russell Taylor

In the past week, the Trump administration brokered a deal that secured the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. While the terms of the long overdue ceasefire are being contested, this is a groundbreaking accomplishment for which I’m deeply thankful. But this short-term peacemaking victory abroad was quickly undermined by the administration’s bellicose rhetoric and actions at home.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly abused his ability to declare emergencies and seize power under the pretense of maintaining law and order. For example, he declared immigration emergencies to further militarize the U.S.-Mexico border and label drug cartels terrorists; he declared a “trade emergency” to justify and impose costly tariffs; and he declared an energy emergency to greenlight new drilling projects and ignore regulations. Most alarmingly, he has falsely declared a “crime” emergency to federalize and deploy National Guard troops to additional cities.

The No Kings protests taking place this weekend, which Sojourners is cosponsoring, are the most visible markers of resistance to the Trump administration’s increasing suppression of freedom and consolidation of power, a style of leadership known as authoritarianism. While the term “authoritarianism” can feel abstract and alarmist, polls show that Americans are increasingly worried about authoritarianism’s impacts, including political division and erosions of fundamental freedoms. Fortunately, as Trump threatens to continue sending National Guard troops to U.S. cities under the pretense of fighting crime, most Americans reject this idea.

No Kings makes the “increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption of the Trump administration,” even more plain. As materials for the Oct. 18 day of action explain:

“They are targeting immigrant families, profiling, arresting and detaining people without warrants; threatening to overtake elections; gutting health care, environmental protections, and education when families need them most; rigging maps to silence voters; ignoring mass shootings at our schools and in our communities; and driving up the cost of living while handing out massive giveaways to billionaire allies, as families struggle.”

This list echoes what Protect Democracy calls the authoritarian playbook, a list of the tactics that authoritarian leaders employ in order to consolidate power. Reviewing these tactics now, Trump has already employed each of them to varying degrees, including his attempt to politicize independent institutions, spread disinformation, aggrandize executive power at the expense of checks and balances, quash criticism and dissent, scapegoat vulnerable or marginalized communities, work to corrupt elections, and stoke violence.

In this first year of Trump’s second term, we have witnessed him act more like a king than a democratically elected president who cares about and governs for all Americans. Kings demand and reward loyalty while seeking to punish their enemies; Trump has increasingly weaponized the Justice Department to punish his enemies, including the recent indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud. Kings so often instill fear and trade in hate; Trump declared during Charlie Kirk’s memorial service that he hates his opponents and does not want the best for them. Kings rule by coercion and not by persuasion; Trump told our nation’s military leaders that they must focus on the “enemy within.” Kings govern by decree instead of persuasion or building consensus; as the costly government shutdown enters its third week, Trump has reportedly told Republicans to refuse to negotiate with Democrats to end the shutdown.

If you haven’t personally felt the impact of these actions, consider listening to members of some of the groups the administration has most targeted, including immigrants, LGBTQ+ folks, and members of Black and brown communities.

These tactics are obviously destructive to our democracy. As Christians, we need to be clear that authoritarianism also perverts our faith, especially as many leaders have misused and weaponized Christian faith to justify their pursuit of concentrated power and wealth. Trump consolidated support among many white Christians by stoking their sense of victimhood and grievance, arguing that only he could protect them and promising to be their “retribution.” The rise of Christian nationalism, which so often wraps the cross in the American flag, has become an ideology supercharging the Make America Great Again movement.

In biblical language, this is the sin of idolatry—pursuing worldly things before our devotion to God. Warnings against this echo throughout the Bible, from the Ten Commandments given to Moses and the frequent warnings of the prophets, to Paul’s letters to early Christian communities. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus declares that “You cannot serve God and wealth,” and in the Great Commandment a few chapters later, instructs us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (22:37). Jesus, our ultimate example of what it means to love, understood the dangers of concentrated power. His birth was heralded by Mary as an event that “brought down the powerful from their thrones” and instead “lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52). In his ministry, Jesus proclaimed a gospel that was good news for those who lacked power—the poor, the sick, the imprisoned (Luke 4:18). And when the religious and political leaders of the day saw his message as a threat, Jesus ultimately gave his very life to subvert the brutality of the cross into the promise of salvation and liberation.

Idolatry, by contrast, hollows out the Christian faith in service of power. It tempts folks to seek wealth and the ability to control others instead of the last-shall-be-first gospel Jesus preached; it so often places the pursuit of profit over people and the pursuit of coercion over the common good and an extra concern for “the least of these.”

If you’re curious what “service to power” looks like, let’s zero in on Trump’s threats to invoke the Insurrection Act, which represent a clear red line into more dangerous authoritarianism. So far, Trump has used a different legal justification to deploy National Guard troops to U.S. cities led largely by Black Democratic mayors; however, given recent court rulings blocking additional deployments to Portland, Ore., and Chicago, it is becoming more likely that he will invoke the Insurrection Act to circumvent these rulings and further consolidate and abuse power.

Though rarely used, the Insurrection Act gives the president the power to deploy U.S. military forces domestically in specific circumstances of rebellion, insurrection, or civil unrest. In the past 150 years, it has mainly been invoked to suppress racist violence in the South during the Reconstruction era and the Civil Rights Movement. President George H.W. Bush invoked it in 1992 at the request of California’s governor to help quell violence during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. But the act has a gaping weakness: A Supreme Court ruling in 1827 affirmed the president’s exclusive authority to decide when an insurrection exists, opening up the potential for considerable abuse of power.

After ruling against Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Portland, Judge Karin Immergut—who was nominated by Trump in his first term—wrote that the administration has “made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation.” In response, White House adviser Stephen Miller posted on X: “The issue before is [sic] now is very simple and clear. There is a large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country. It is well organized and funded. And it is shielded by far-left Democrat judges, prosecutors and attorneys general. The only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks.”

Referring to nonviolent protesters exercising their First Amendment rights as terrorists and insurrectionists is both dangerous and ludicrous. The administration is also using the spurious argument that National Guard troops are needed to guard federal buildings and protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, many of whom are inflaming tensions with their aggressive and sometimes lawless actions. In reality, ICE is increasingly being used as a paramilitary force, particularly with incidents of masked officers abducting, detaining, and in many cases, deporting suspected undocumented immigrants. This is despite federal data showing more than 70% of detainees as of last month had no criminal convictions. And if Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, this surge of ICE officers and crackdown on protest will likely be a preview of what’s to come elsewhere.

Jesus warns: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36). Obeying in advance and capitulating to democratic backsliding are all roads that succumb to the very real temptation to compromise the gospel for short-term gain. And while protest alone is insufficient, it can help us break out of feelings of despair, powerlessness, or fatalism. That’s why this Saturday’s No Kings peaceful protests—alongside protecting those being targeted, defending our civic institutions, engaging in noncooperation—are important; all are ways to cast a hopeful vision for the Beloved Community and a new America in which liberty and justice become real for all. As Christians and as the church, we are one body with many parts, with different gifts and roles to play.

We can’t simply wait this out or refuse to see what is becoming increasingly clear: The Trump administration is using authoritarian tactics, and invoking the Insurrection Act would be a dangerous next red line down this path. Christian conscience calls us to oppose it with even greater courage and sacrifice.

 

Source: Jesus Cast Down the Mighty from Their Thrones. So Should We | Sojourners