What motivates President Trump’s “Tariff War”? Some powerful people “pulling the strings”, or a populist response to resentment against globalisation, to the loss of US manufacturing jobs caused by global capitalism’s search for cheap labour and greater profits? Globalisation was promoted as an important contribution to solving global poverty, but it also increased domestic inequality. Twenty-five years ago this was a live debate (see Colin Hines’ book: “Localization- a Global Manifesto”) but today supply chains have become far too complex to reverse it (so can Trump’s aim to bring back jobs to the USA work in any way?).
One paradoxical effect of globalisation is that some nations have begun to react by asserting a new and often exclusive identity, one that can regard any domestic political or cultural dissent as betrayal of the rediscovered pride that was in danger of drowning in a nondescript mass of human mediocrity. All too often this re-assertion of nationalism is bound up with a religion that is conceived as the foundation of the nation’s past greatness. So Christianity in the USA, (and for some people in the UK), in its Orthodox form in Russia, Hinduism in India, Islam in Turkey and Iran can play this role, particularly for leaders seeking easily identifiable markers of “our people” which saves them from the far harder task of finding real solutions for the needs of their people. But religion misused in this way is corrupted.
Such corruption was the target of the prophets’ condemnation in ancient Israel- our reading of Jeremiah 19, verses 1 to 7 and 10 describes how he took an earthenware pot and smashed it in the sight of the elders and senior priests as a sign that the nation’s worship of other “gods” (gods of wealth and power rather than justice and peace) was self-destructive, and would lead to disaster. But in that destruction lies the possibility of renewal and restoration.
Jeremiah’s other “acted prophecies” carry a similar message: he makes a yoke for himself, a symbol that the nations of the region will fall under the control of Babylon (chapter 27, verses 3 and 12). When the “false prophet” Hananiah breaks that yoke (28, verses 1 and 2), Jeremiah responds with an iron replacement (28, verses 12 to 15). But the exile in Babylon can be a time of re-thinking and renewal, if only they listen to all the truths God has spoken to them through their prophets over many years (chapter 36). Truth, and the telling of truth, is the first step in any hope of renewal today- recognising, for example, in Ukraine how the treatment of Donbass Russian-speakers gave a pretext and justification for the Kremlin’s invasion. But power will always suppress truth in order to achieve its aims, creating a “fog” that can seem impenetrable.
Some situations call for direct confrontation and disruption, in the way Jesus overturned the tables in the Temple. The consequences of such action cannot be predicted, and depend on the way the powers react. But in other cases Voltaire’s advice in his novel “Candide” is better: when everything around us is collapsing “we must cultivate our garden”. This is not a recipe for opting out of political and global challenges but a way to lay foundations for the future, as in the letter of advice Jeremiah sent to the exiles in Babylon: “Build houses and live in them: plant gardens and eat what they produce…… Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (29, verses 4 to 7).
Wisdom is deciding which of these is the right response at any one time.
Weblinks:
Katharine Hayhoe: “Saving Us” https://www.waterstones.com/book/saving-us/katharine-hayhoe/9781982143848
Robin Wall Kimmerer: “Braiding Sweetgrass” https://www.waterstones.com/book/braiding-sweetgrass/robin-wall-kimmerer/9780141991955
Colin Hines: “Localization- A Global Manifesto” https://www.perlego.com/book/1577585/localization-a-global-manifesto-pdf
Marika Rose: “Theology for the End of the World” https://scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780334060666/theology-for-the-end-of-the-world
Brian McLaren: “Life after Doom” – https://brianmclaren.net/lad/ and John Weaver’s review: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://fibq.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/FiBQ-23.4-John-W-review-of-McLaren.pdf
Voltaire: Candide- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19380.Candide