Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling

Since people who believe they’re self-made usually worship their creator, or themselves, some theologians think President Donald Trump’s commencement speech Saturday before Liberty University’s soon-to-be graduates did little to advance the historical message and life of Jesus of Nazareth.

Speaking in a packed stadium resembling the Roman Empire’s Coliseum, they also questioned if Americanized Christianity even resembles the “Jesus” before Christianity, let alone the Jesus Movement before it was Romanized.

To be sure, the president’s message barely resembled a politically, economically and socially conscious Jewish revolutionary who walked across the Galilean countryside to gather followers for a messianic movement with the goal of establishing a nationally transcendent, egalitarian and just society.

What’s more, the Trump Administration’s recent actions appears more like the merciless, militant empire that arrested and tried and then crucified the Jewish peasant for crimes of sedition than the Jewish peasant himself.

One Nation Under or Above God

Telling graduates “In America, we don’t worship government, we worship God,” and citing the phrase “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance,” the president also said “the country was founded based on faith in God.”

But the God Jesus had in mind seems far removed from the central figure in America’s national drama. Surely, its hard to reconcile his God with genocide against Native Americans, enslaving millions of blacks, Cold War massacres like Guatemala and Vietnam or the Global War on Terror.

And though Liberty University has changed since Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. and his Moral Majority, some worry many goals remain.

Along with the Sept. 11 attacks possibly being the result of God’s judgment against pagans, abortionists and feminists, there are those who believe the Prophet Muhammad was a war-like individual who founded a violent religion.

They fear too an Islamic global conspiracy that wants to dominate the world and establish a caliphate. As a result, a pro war and military establishment is clearly evident.

Year of Jubilee or Years of Economic Misery

Neither would the Jewish peasant necessarily be a “steward of great institutions” in order to “rebuild the nation.”

Indeed, he was one of many itinerant preachers who denounced the exploitation of peasants through corporate debt and imperial taxation, predicting the collapse of any nation or empire that did the same.

Consequently, his first sermon (Luke 4) promised the Jubilee “Year of our Lord,” a restoration of economic justice and balance by annulling the backlog of debts and restoring land and liberty to the peasant citizenry.

Mostly consisting of white evangelical conservatives and religious fundamentalists, Liberty University meanwhile continues to denounce labor unions and most of the economic disadvantaged, claiming they just want a “hand out.”

In fact, the common theme is that when people “get right with God” they not only become better workers, but make more money. As for the burdensome college debt that many graduates have to carry at ridiculous interest rates, it’s simply a test of and religious faith and good stewardship.

What One Learns Leads to How One Acts

The historical Jesus as well reminded nationalists, corporatists and militarists about an apocalyptic judgment based on feeding the hungry, providing clean water for the thirsty, inviting strangers, clothing the naked and visiting the sick in prison.

Through prophetic condemnations, organizing communities, mass demonstrations, nonviolent direct action campaigns and political sabotage, he moreover confronted institutions that hanged humanity from iron crosses of intolerance, racism, militarism and corporatism.

Just as the Moral Majority questioned the sincerity of the nonviolent intentions of Civil Rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., including economic sanctions against Africa’s apartheid state, Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr. has encouraged many of the 15,000 (and 100,000 online) students to denounce the recent social unrests by blacks that were often caused by institutionalized racism, police brutality, or a lack of economic opportunities. He moreover takes issue with granting equal rights to the LGBT Community.

Making a Difference Depends On Which Jesus One Follows

Whether Jesus would agree with the president telling graduates they should “relish the opportunity to be an outsider” like himself, Jesus was no multi-billionaire.

Instead, he was a common worker who boldly dreamed of dismantling the heartlessness and arrogance of a vast governmental bureaucracy that protected those who built cities on the back of the poor or conquered empires. In view of the arc of history, “changing the world and making a real lasting difference” among Jesus’ followers is dubious at best too.

On the contrary, many graduates of Liberty University hope to make a difference and change the world by dismantling the public school system, which they believe is a breeding ground for atheism, secularism, humanism, lawlessness and social welfare.

In addition to privatizing public and even higher education in order to receive federal funding, many alumni now sit in state legislatures or on state education boards where they’ve mandated Biblical Studies and an anti-science, anti-climate change curriculum.

For more on this story go to; https://article.wn.com/view/2017/05/16/Trump_Fails_to_Remind_Liberty_University_Graduates_A_Moral_M/