A New Commandment: Hate Your Neighbor

The Central Tenet of Christo-fascism

I’m sometimes asked why, as a biblical scholar, I write so much about politics and economics; all of my books and every one of my dozens of blogs, published articles and hundreds of lectures in some way have dealt with those subjects. The long answer is that in addition to the concern for political justice that emerged in my youth (I was a street soldier political activist beginning in my early teens), I also have a strange professional pedigree. I am primarily a New Testament Scholar with a doctorate in Early Christianity and Formative Judaism with a focus on the four canonical Christian gospels. Yet, my undergraduate training was in political science, I studied for the MBA, worked on Wall Street for most of a decade, was director of economic development for a small city in New Jersey, received a Master of Divinity degree thinking I had a calling to the Christian ministry (thankfully, I dodged that bullet), then earned the Ph.D. from an Ivy League university, in which one of my principal advisors was a former civil rights Freedom Rider.

That’s the long answer. The short answer to the question is that political and economic issues and concerns literally pervade the Bible. That is certainly the case with the Christian gospels. If politics and economics are fundamentally about who gets what – in other words, about distribution and redistribution -- then the gospels most assuredly are political. Why? Because in the gospels Jesus talks about the poor and poverty more than anything other than God, and he consistently challenges those in power over their mistreatment of the people. Unfortunately, the politicality of the Gospel witness has been obscured by centuries of misinterpretations, mistranslations and purposeful misrepresentations, all of which have conspired to distort and weaken the power of the Bible to inspire resistance to oppression. A primary example of this is the treatment accorded to what Jesus calls the equivalent of the “greatest” commandment, which is also social core of his Gospel: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37).

This commandment is often treated as quaint and aspirational; an unattainable goal that is more a suggestion than a command. And, admittedly, it is unrealistic to expect anyone to love non-intimates, and especially strangers, as much they love ourselves and their own loved ones. But in reality, this command is neither about emotions nor sentimentality; it is about actions. It is a command to honor our neighbors’ common humanity by wanting for them -- indeed, acknowledging their need for -- the same security, rights, access to opportunities and material sustenance, and freedom from oppression that we want and need for ourselves and our own loved ones. But it is also more than that, which is where actions come in. Because most everyone of right mind and moral decency will, to the best of their ability, actively strive to vouchsafe the best for their themselves and their own loved ones, then “Love your neighbor as yourself” is also a command to actively work for the common good of our neighbors to have the same good fruits necessary for the decent life that we seek for ourselves. In other words, “love your neighbor as yourself” is not just a commandment to want the common good. It is a command to actively struggle for the common good, for a political order that treats people’s needs as holy. Conversely, it is also a powerful command to struggle against anything that militates against the common good. This is an expression of the Bible’s pronounced socialist ethos. Not socialism, which is a political philosophy that evolved almost two millennia after the birth of Jesus, but “socialist” in the sense that its main focus is not individualism, but the collective, the community, what is best for the society and the people as a whole, never what is best for a privileged few. This was the biblical prophets’ gravest concern. In fact, the Hebrew Bible, which Jesus solely quoted and taught from, has no word for “individual”; it always refers to “the people” or “my people.”

What that means for Christians is that the Gospel commands every believer to actively reject oppressive, exploitive, self-serving, death-dealing pronouncements, policies and actions that hurt innocent people and militate against the common good. It is no stretch to recognize that this describes virtually everything that the Trump administration says and does. Donald Trump seems hellbent on destroying every policy and practice that serves or protects the common good. If a working definition of evil is causing unnecessary pain and suffering, whether in pursuit of a selfish agenda or simply for twisted personal gratification, then Trump’s is an evil agenda. In addition to his consistently hateful and intentionally divisive rhetoric, here are just a few of his most recent destructive schemes that seem specifically crafted to cause needless suffering:

· Destroying USAID, which helps starving and hungry neighbors around the globe.

· Cutting billions of dollars from state health services used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.

· Destroying the Consumer Protection Agency, whose mission is to protect consumers from every manner of financial abuse, fraud, and exploitation by corporate predictors.

· Destroying the Department of Education which, among other things, enforces civil rights statutes in order to ensure equal educational opportunity for all students, regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, disability or age.

· Detaining and deporting legal immigrants for protesting against Israel’s unbridled attacks on the Palestinian people.

· Destroying the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which works to prevent and end homelessness;

· Destroying the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which works to prevent and resolve work stoppages and labor disputes;

· Destroying the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which provides financial assistance to struggling communities;

· Destroying the Minority Business Development Agency, which aims to bolster minority-owned businesses.

· Crippling the National Labor Relations Board from fulfilling its mission to enforce worker’s rights.

These are just a few of Trump’s actions that are clearly crafted to wreak widespread pain, suffering and destructive social chaos. We might as well call it what it is: the evil ideations of an evil man who thrives on cruelty. The seminally humane commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves demands that believers in the Christian Gospel and all who believe in love and justice for all of humanity must fight against this evil actor. In America today, the best way to love our neighbors and protect our families is struggle mightily to stay the hateful hand that seeks to hurt as many as it can by making malevolence and cruelty the basis of all its policies.