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This interview/profile of Jeff Sessions is fascinating https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/magazine/jeff-sessions.html?utm_source=Jewish+Insider+Contacts&utm_campaign=4480b4d42a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_06_24_06_53_COPY_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_008e75e2f9-4480b4d42a-92927070 The part where he mentions Egypt is particularly interesting
Sessions makes comparison between Copts & Evangelicals support for Sisi & Trump. "They chose to support somebody that would protect them. That’s basically what the Christians in the United States did. They felt they were under attack & the strong guy promised to defend them.”
Obviously a lot of people have taken issue with the comparison between what the Copts' were facing compared to U.S. Christians. Is the Muslim Brotherhood threat similar to the Democratic Party! But I find three assumptions/points here important.
1. No matter what our assessment of the threat facing Christians in the U.S. is, Session's statement is true as an observation of how some/many Christians in the U.S. think.
That some/many Christians in the U.S. feel that the Democratic Party and its policies pose an existential threat is a problem, not just for them but for the Democratic Party and U.S. democracy itself. Democracy requires an acceptance that outcome of voting is not existential.
It requires an agreement on the overall rules. That a change in party rule does not mean persecution or infringement on inalienable rights. Whether Christians are right or wrong to feel this way, it is irrelevant. The perception of reality becomes reality and is acted upon.
2. In comparing Trump to Sisi, Sessions frames them as strong men. Is Trump really a strong man? Well, he isn't and he hasn't acted as such. If anything, the Trump record is mostly a failure to deliver to his supporters expectations.
3. Most problematic for me is the theological aspect of this. Not just what it says that Copts or Evangelicals feel they need saving, but rather their belief that they need a Savior other than ....
Another interesting assumption of course is that Copts in the Egyptian case and Evangelicals in the U.S. understand the flows of their chosen savior and are only resorting to them out of fear of the alternative. In the case of Copts at least that is not true.
Most Copts who support Sisi, if not all of them, would be unwilling to see his flows and instead view him as a perfect savior. They aren't choosing him reluctantly. They are embracing him willingly.
