The Gospel According to JD
The VP shares his Deep Thoughts on Loving Thy Neighbor
Happy Tuesday.
Donald Trump blinks on tariffs (while claiming a win) and floats the idea of a massive slush fund that might buy Tik Tok (in the Before Times, we called this “Socialism”). Meanwhile, RFK Jr slouches towards confirmation, as the GOP hands out more kneepads; and the spotlight continues to focus on America’s real president: Elon Musk.
Check out these pieces:
Elon Musk Has Appointed Himself Dictator of America - Andy Craig in The Unpopulist
Elon Musk’s Blitz Shakes U.S. Government as He Sweeps Through Agencies - The New York Times…. which includes this
One Trump official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Mr. Musk was widely seen as operating with a level of autonomy that almost no one can control.
So, “All Hail” our new Muskian overlord?
But, since I’m a contrarian mood again today, I’d like to take a look at that forgotten man, Vice President JD Vance.
Happy Tuesday.
JD’s Shrunken Gospel
Since he evidently has no actual day job in the Musk Administration, J.D. Vance spent some time last week offering Deep Thoughts on what Jesus actually meant to say.
During a Fox News interview, Vance explained that telling much of the rest of the world to fuq off was completely consistent with the Gospel. Or would be if it was written by someone with Donald Trump’s notions of Christian duty.
“There’s this old school,” explained the veep, “and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way — that you love your family and then you love your neighbor and then you love your community and then you love your fellow citizens and your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”
“A lot of the far left has completely inverted that. They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own borders. That is no way to run a society. And I think the profound difference that Donald Trump brings to the leadership of this country is the simple concept of America First. It doesn’t mean you hate anybody else, it means that you have leadership. And President Trump has been very clear about this — that puts the interests of American citizens first. In the same way that the British prime minister should care about Brits and the French should care about the French, we have an American president who cares primarily about Americans, and that’s a very welcome change.”
Actually no, explained people who actually understand the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10: 25-37).
“It’s important to point out that this is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), the sermon in his hometown synagogue (Luke 4), and basically every other time he opened his mouth,” said Zack Lambert, an author and pastor of Restore Austin.
Jesuit priest and author James Martin also endeavored to explain the Parable to Vance.
“After Jesus tells a lawyer that you should ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’ the lawyer asks him, ‘And who is my neighbor?
“In response, Jesus tells the story of a Jewish man who has been beaten by robbers and is lying by the side of the road. The man is helped not by those closest to him (a ‘priest’ and a ‘Levite’), but rather by a Samaritan. At the time, Jews and Samaritans would have considered one another enemies.
“So Jesus’ fundamental message is that everyone is your neighbor, and that it is not about helping just your family or those closest to you. It’s specifically about helping those who seem different, foreign, other. They are all our ‘neighbors.’
“But Jesus’ deeper point can only be understood from the point of view of the beaten man: Our ultimate salvation depends, as it did for that man, upon those whom we often consider to be the ‘stranger.’”1
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Vance also found himself embroiled in what became a nasty online debate with former Conservative British cabinet minister Rory Stewart.
Stewart called Vance’s argument: “A bizarre take…. less Christian and more pagan tribal. We should start worrying when politicians become theologians, assume to speak for Jesus, and tell us in which order to love…”
Vance insisted that his position was well-grounded in Christian theology, and indeed, the concept of “ordo amoris” [Latin for 'order of loves’] has a long history. His supporters cited St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, and many conservative evangelicals rallied to his defense.
But Stewart pushed back:
This is what made Christianity so radical among tribal religions. When asked “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus chose a Samaritan—an outsider and theological enemy of the Jews—as the moral exemplar - to challenge the idea that obligation is primarily to one’s own people or community.
This does not mean that Christians should not care for their families. St Augustine + Aquinas talk about why for practical and emotional reasons we focus on those closest to us. And they reflect on how difficult it can be to reconcile love with the demands of justice and mercy.
But Christian love is radical precisely because it always extends to the most vulnerable and marginalised and to those we desperately do not want to love. Hence “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven”
Since I am not a theologian I won’t attempt to wade into these deep waters. But as a deeply flawed Christian, I do find it curious and revealing that the Christian right is so eager to put limits on God’s love — and our own duties to our fellow humans.
And it’s important to note the context of this debate.
Vance is trying to find justifications for policies that include mass deportations, family separations, and cruelty on an epic scale. His argument about the limits of Christian duty also come as the Trump/Musk Administration is dismantling foreign aid programs and halting crucial humanitarian grant programs.
Vance is not making a purely abstract point; he is very specifically defending and justifying policies that will result in human suffering on a massive scale.
Atul Gawande, who ran USAID’s health programs for the last three years, laid out the consequences of the Stop order on foreign assistance. Trump’s order, he posted on X:
1. Stops work battling a deadly Marburg outbreak in Tanzania and a wide outbreak of a mpox variant killing children in west Africa before it spreads further.
2. Stops monitoring of bird flu in 49 countries, a disease which already killed an American on home soil.
3. Stops critical work to eradicate polio.
4. Stops >$1B in corporate drug donations and coordination eradicating tropical diseases like river blindness, elephantiasis, and others on the verge of elimination in whole regions. https://neglecteddiseases.gov/about/results-and-impact/…
5. Stops medicines, supplies, systems building, staff support aiding >90 million women and children to get low cost vaccinations, prenatal care, safe childbirth, contraception, and other basic lifesaving health needs.
6. Stops direct services for 6.5 million orphans, vulnerable children, and their caregivers affected by HIV in 23 countries.
7. Stops donated drug supplies keeping 20 million people living with HIV alive.
“Make no mistake,” he wrote, “these essential, lifesaving activities are being halted right now. Consequences aren’t in some distant future. They are immediate.”
This is what JD Vance is defending as a “very Christian concept.”
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BONUS: JD was so nettled by Rory Stewart’s criticism that he resorted to trolling his IQ.
Stewart’s response?
An honour to have my IQ questioned by you Mr VP. But your attempts to speak for Christ are false and dangerous. Nowhere does Jesus suggest that love is to be prioritized in concentric circles. His love is universal.
An Update on Rubio’s Bigot
In last night’s newsletter, I talked about Marco Rubio’s appointment of the odious Darren Beattie as acting Undersecretary of State for public diplomacy. You can check it out here.
Well, it’s even worse.
As Rush Doshi notes: "The new — State’s top public diplomacy official: 1) not only denies the Uyghur genocide but appears to applaud it 2) says the US should sell out Taiwan to China for concessions in Antarctica (???)”
..
Nota Bene:
Trump’s biggest fan: Putin says Europe will stand “at the feet of the” master as Trump imposes tariffs
“I assure you: Trump, with his character, with his persistence, he will restore order there quite quickly. And all of them, you will see — it will happen quickly, soon — they will all stand at the feet of the master and will wag their tails a little. Everything will fall into place,” Putin told pro-Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin, who presents the primetime “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” program on the Rossiya-1 state TV channel. The comments were reported by state news agency RIA Novosti and translated by Google.
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The Situation: What’s Going on at the FBI? | Ben Wittes at Lawfare
Don’t look now but the FBI is resisting the political witch-hunt loosed upon it….
From what I gather, the pushback has been remarkable. A large number of agents are refusing to fill out the questionnaire. The FBI Agents Association has sent around model language for agents who refuse to cooperate. At the management level, the leadership of a number of field offices has made clear that they will not take administrative action against those who do not self-report. And the bureau’s acting leadership itself is clearly pushing back against the demands for this information.
In his email to the workforce, Acting Director Brian J. Driscoll, Jr. made clear that the demand for information “encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts. I am one of those employees, as is acting Deputy Director Kissane.”
How widespread is the internal resistance? I don’t know. But we are going to find out soon.
Tuesday Eli
Eli keeps watch over my wife’s yoga practice.
Fr. Martin added:
NB: Jesus was often critical of those who would put family first. When Jesus' own family came from Nazareth to Capernaum to "seize" him, he was told that his mother and brothers were waiting outside a house in which he was preaching. Jesus said, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”... Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Mt 12:46-50). For Jesus, ties to the Father were more important than family ties. And responsibilities to family took second place to the demands of discipleship
I've said it once and I'll say it again: this Trump cult is operating like ancient world pagans, complete with worship of the Emperor.
JD Vance is a dangerous snake, like the one in the Garden telling lies.
Funny how the vice president extends a lot of grace towards unrepentant adulterers like his boss, RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, MTG, and so on while being indifferent to human suffering in other parts of the world.
From Letter 7 of The Screwtape Letters:
"Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours – and the more ‘religious’ (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here."