I no longer know what to say about the state of our nation that I and others have said over and over again, especially during the course of 2025. When I encounter someone with an opposing worldview, a phenomenon we all must live with at what seems like increasing frequency, I understand that it is socially difficult to engage, so I, like so many of us, just shut down and walk away, mumbling something like, “It’s just not worth it…”. That has become so commonplace that it is the opposite situation that has become more troubling. When I meet someone of like mind who finds the current goings on in this country to be highly objectionable, we invariably get into an argument over what is likely to happen next. I call this a battle between optimism and defeatism. My opponents would call it a battle between realism and naiveté. You get the point…the issue is whether this too shall pass and pass soon or whether we are heading into a new Dark Ages that our children and grandchildren will be forced to endure and may well be characterized in the future as yet another era of human civilization receding while the grip of lesser angels prevails.
I have always prided myself as a student of history. My most pleasurable trips are those that delve into the places and cultures that have formed us as a people. My most prized possessions are not technological wonders, but antiquities that demarcate great moments in human evolution. Those abound in my home and remind me daily of the greatness of humanity. They are not religious icons for the most part though I appreciate more than most the important role religion has played over the millennia of human development. I was raised with plenty of religion in my life and feel that I really do appreciate the role and importance of grace versus nature and the spiritual aspects of human consciousness. Despite all the negative aspects brought to bear by religious fervor over the ages (and even today), it is still hard for me not to acknowledge the good intentions that are imbedded in most scripture and religious teachings. They are predominantly focused on making a kinder and better world with more rather than less understanding and mercy. That said, the acts committed “under the banner of heaven” remain some of the most severe and brutal and least humane in recorded history. And those who carry those banners with pride and righteousness are perhaps the most self-righteous and universally denounced protagonists in human history.
It seems we are once again at such a point on the world stage. Religious persecution almost always distills down to an innate fear of others. Others are not understood and do not understand us. Familiarity may lead to contempt, but unfamiliarity takes people directly into their worst nightmares. Anyone who has ever travelled to Africa knows that of the social forces that plague the continent, tribalism and religious persecution are at the top of the list. Others are less tolerated on that dark continent as much or more than anywhere in the world. But this regionally self-inflicted trauma has historically been elevated to disastrous proportions by external interference. Tribal rivalry and cruelty was turned into global tragedy and centuries of oppression of massive proportions by the introduction of the Western slave trade. Extractive resource struggles were turned into destructive warlord cultures thanks to the Western thirst for minerals, oil and blood diamonds. The West cannot seem to help but compound human frailties in Africa for their own aggrandizement…and then blame the events on the inherent flaws of these soulless indigenous people.
And so we are at it once again, this time in Nigeria. The highly arbitrary decision by the Trump administration to enter the tribal warfare in Nigeria has now reached a new motivational low in Western rationalization. We wanted slaves to build southern mercantile expansion, do we ravaged West Africa. We wanted sparkling diamonds so we helped put assault rifles into children’s’ hands in the southern and western parts of the continent. Anywhere oil was found on or offshore, we wanted that to drive our industrial machinery. None of this was pleasant and justification was mostly corrupt and ethnocentric, but economics, as dismal a science as it is, can at least claim the betterment of one over another as its rationale. Trump’s decision to intervene in an internal Nigerian conflict seems very different. This is not seizing Venezuelan oil tankers and claiming historical sovereignty over the worlds largest oil reserves. This is not coveting Greenland for its strategic minerals. This is not even supporting the destruction of the Shiite Kingdom of Iran to curry favor with the Sunnis of the Gulf or the Jews in Israel. The Trump attacks in Nigeria are all about feeding the white Christian supremacy doctrines of the American Evangelical community that comprises 14-16% of the American population. Major evangelical denominations are the Southern Baptist Convention (13 million members), the Independent/non-denominational (3 million), Assemblies of God (3 million), and various Baptist groups, Pentecostals and many others. In terms of political/cultural weight,
despite being ~15% of the population, evangelicals punch above their weight politically because of high voter turnout (especially older white evangelicals), geographic concentration in key states, and their organizational strength.
This white Christian minority was recruited to the Trump base back in 2016 and many believe it created the tipping point for Trump’s ascendancy. It had its own trial by fire with the infamous “grab them by the pussy” moment, but organizational pragmatism prevailed over spiritual righteousness. Now, as the Trump balloon is losing more and more political air with Epstein files dropping and egg prices rising, some brilliant Trump political strategist (you just know Donald has no clue where Nigeria even is on the map) has decided that what’s needed is a base booster that can’t possibly offend any of his constituents. What better than to kill a bunch of Muslim extremists that he can claim are killing Christians. What a pity there aren’t enough white Chtistians in Nigeria to add that to the headline, right? They had used that in South Africa with their visa privileges already. And the best part of all of this? Do it at Christmas…it’s the only Christian thing to do. Merry Christmas Nigeria.