Teaching Students about the Bible in the Age of Trump

Trumpism has complicated two main points that have characterized my teaching of the New Testament. In all my courses, I always highlight (1) the creation and not just the reflection of reality through language, and (2) the contextual or perspectival dimension of interpretation. It is not unusual, especially in my introductory course on the New Testament, for me to underscore both emphases by pointing my students to the differences among the four canonical Gospels. I help them see how the Gospels, themselves contextual interpretations of the life and death of Jesus, contain all kinds of contradictions among themselves and hence the so-called Gospel truths rise beyond facts and are subject to multiple interpretations.

These two main points, I tell my students, have given room to feminist and minoritized readings as well as given root to the question of power; it matters whose reading counts and whose does not. However, Trumpists have now co-opted these emphases, so instead of questioning power, they are using social construction of reality, perspectival interpretations, and identity politics to become more and more shamelessly explicit about not only their will to power but also their exercise of raw power. With their cries of white nationalism, shouts of "alternative facts," and doubts of climate change, sociopolitical rhetoric since 2016 has been less about giving reasoned arguments and more about throwing out unsubstantiated claims or assertions without evidence. Put in a more religious vocabulary, Trumpist rhetoric is more like dogma. As Giorgio Agamben and others have taught us, power means, more often than not, the power to be arbitrary; Trumpists can, therefore, talk about "alternative facts" and "fake news" more or less at the same time without any sense of self-contradiction.¹ As a result, slogans such as "facts matter," "science matters," and "truth matters" have become immensely popular as protest and resistance against Trump.

We have seen ample examples, I think, of how words matter during the Trump era in the United States and beyond. Just when I am writing this, I hear that soldiers in Nigeria opened fire at protesters with the excuse that, according to Trump, rocks thrown by protesters at the military are the same as firearms—a US supporter even tried to "prove" Trump's assertion by referring to the Bible's story of David using rocks as his weapon to fight Goliath in a battle. Pierre Bourdieu writes that "utterances are not only (save in exceptional circumstances) signs to be understood and deciphered, they are also … signs of authority, intended to be believed and obeyed."² There are arguably no truer or older "signs of authority" to be "believed and obeyed" in US culture than the words of the Bible, and my utterances about the Bible, given its status as religious canon and cultural icon as well as my position as a New Testament scholar, certainly, like the words of Trump, carry sociopolitical implications. What does a Bible scholar who emphasizes constructed realities and multiple interpretations do in the age of Trumpism? Given the obvious reality of the power differential and the need to resist Trumpism, does one become more militant, more assertive, and less ambiguous in one's rhetoric to become more persuasive by presenting "definitive" readings of various New Testament books or passages to create an anti-Trump reality for students? Do you scale back your emphasized distinctions between "Gospel truths" and historical facts?

As many Trump supporters have pointed out, they see Trump as a strong leader who not only can "Make America Great Again" but also is willing to go on the offensive and be offensive. We are living in a time when many are hungry for and enamored by self-assured personalities or strong (masculinist) selfhood. "Like Trump, I am not afraid, I am not ashamed. No matter what you say or what support you give, I know I am right, and I will do and say whatever comes to my mind. I will make decisions to show how macho I am and how great America is." This kind of self-assurance or arrogance can, of...