Un-American Americanism

“Anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity.”

Wow! That’s a whole lot of anti-s!

All appear, together, in a memo President Trump signed recently aimed at “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.” The memo identified a presumed “terror network” that is fueling violence, particularly violence against ICE agents.

The trinity of anti-s appears in the President’s claim that the “common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility toward those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

The memo goes on to suggest ways in which law enforcement is to counter individuals and organizations seeming to engage in or support such viewpoints and activities. They pretty much come down to the government can do practically anything it wants to hassle anyone or any organization that it suspects does not agree with its priorities and policies.

Wow, and wow! This is American?

There are all kinds of ways to challenge this dangerous memo (and what’s the status of a memo anyway, even if the President authors it?). But focus for the moment on the anti- threesome.

The implication of placing the three of them together is that the three are interrelated: that “American, capitalist, and Christian” are like three peas in a red, white, and blue pod; that you can’t be any one of them one if you aren’t willing to be all three; that if you are opposed to, or even mildly suspicious of, any one of them you must automatically be opposed to the other two.

With regard to Christianity’s place among the three, remember that Christianity has been around for far longer than the either the United States or capitalism have been. Its reach around the globe is far broader than our nation’s ever will be. And Christianity as a faith neither wants nor needs any government to defend it against those who are against it.

Christianity has flourished in America for 250 years, not because to be an American is to be a Christian or vice versa, but because Christianity has been free of government support and control. That the number of Christians in American is declining is not the government’s problem. In fact, the religious convictions or lack of such convictions on the part of the American population is only of interest to our government when any one faith tries to use the state’s power (including tax money for religious schools) to achieve its own ends.

There were a lot of Christians in the room when our nation was founded and its Constitution adopted. And they freely paid homage to God and Jesus in many of their writings. But they left both out of the Constitution precisely because they had had enough of state-sponsored religious institutions. They did not want their federal government to equate being an American with being a Christian, or with any other faith or non-faith group. Until the present administration, we pretty much agreed on that, despite recurring passionate skirmishes over exactly what it means.

I have no idea who or what this Presidential memo is for, or what it will eventually result in. I do know that in its every detail it is just about as un-American as anything I’ve ever read.