Christian insensitivity towards the suffering of vulnerable people, the subject at the centre of this article, contradicts the core of Christianity, a religion supposedly guided by unquestionable love for one another, irrespective of who they are. In the Good Samaritan parable in the Bible, Jesus, the inspirer of Christianity, cautions his followers not to limit their definition of a neighbour to someone they know personally; our neighbours are the known and unknown people we encounter throughout our lives. Jesus saw human relations as expanding and expansive, a view that certain factions of the Christian Right, especially the African Christian Right, seem to ignore as they align with United States President Donald Trump’s stance against vulnerable groups like refugees and the LGBTQ community. Drawing from my research on the Christian Right and personal encounters in Cameroon, I explore how extremist religious beliefs can veil some African Christians from sympathising with those in need, revealing a troubling contradiction in their faith.
Defining the Christian Right (CR)
I deliberately use the term Christian Right (CR) to describe Christian fundamentalists, primarily found in Pentecostal and charismatic wings of Christianity. In Africa, these factions often consider themselves the chosen and privileged children of God, tasked with setting divine standards for societal beliefs and practices. While they emphasise personal salvation and conservative values, their intolerance, conservatism, and exclusiveness can resemble authoritarian ideologies. This is to say that, even if not all members share this extreme stance, as American author Chris Hedges has argued, such traits in the CR globally can evoke comparisons to fascism.1 In Africa, the rigid beliefs of some CR members sometimes blind them to the suffering of vulnerable populations, a dynamic that becomes evident in their support for Trump. This support raises questions about how their faith aligns with the compassion Jesus modelled.
A Personal Encounter: The ACR’s view of Trump
Meeting a member of the African Christian Right (ACR) is often revealing, especially when they assume you share their beliefs. In my part of the world, Cameroon, being a “saved child of God” means you have surrendered your life to Jesus Christ. If you admit otherwise, as I did during a conversation with a Pentecostal colleague, you may face condemnation or disqualification as a true Christian. I must admit that my academic approach to religion in general, which avoids taking a firm stance, surely unsettles many in the CR.
A few months ago, while discussing the influence of traditional African religions on Christianity with said colleague, the topic shifted to Cameroon’s poor internet connection. Their friend, a middle-aged man, praised Elon Musk’s Starlink, claiming God supported the project because Musk backed Trump. He declared, “but, he is a (white) Christian,” before criticising former US President Barack Obama. This encounter highlights how some in the ACR elevate Trump, a figure they see as upholding their conservative values, while dismissing the harm his policies may cause to vulnerable groups.2
Trump’s Appeal to the ACR
Some factions of the ACR have found novel interest in American politics, particularly after Trump’s sensational messages on issues such as homosexuality, abortion, migration, and transgender rights.3 For them, Trump offers a template to label undocumented immigrants, “illegal aliens,” as criminals destroying America and LGBTQ individuals as contradicting Christian beliefs. They think of America as a holy land needing redemption, a mission they believe Trump executes effectively through his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement. This narrative often overlooks the degradation and dehumanisation of these vulnerable groups. Here, we see religious beliefs take precedence over human suffering, necessitating reflection on why the ACR prioritise ideology over compassion.
The Role of Race and Global Christianity
Although religion is crucial to the construction of individual and group identity, uncritical loyalty to it can blind followers to its potential as a mobilising force for exclusions, hierarchies, and oppression. While many of those “illegal aliens” recently deported from the US are Christians, their vulnerability stems from not belonging to an accepted echelon of Christianity often associated with white privilege. Some factions of the CR clearly place less value on non-white bodies, subjecting them to indignities and violence. Members of the ACR, especially, often ignore this dynamic, identifying primarily as Christians rather than with the Christian Right, except when invoking moral superiority to critique the Western world. They may fail to recognize a global Christian capitalist system that, as Frantz Fanon might argue, positions them as “the wretched of the Earth.”
Topping this, the ACR values the symbolic importance of white Christians in global Christianity, perhaps convinced of this through the 2000-years long depictions of a white Jesus in art, literature, and religious iconography. This imagery, rooted in European traditions, reinforces the notion that whiteness is central to authentic Christianity: in African Pentecostal churches, where dynamic faith communities thrive, white converts are even celebrated as ‘significant trophies’ – symbols of validation for a faith that originated in the West but now flourishes in Africa.4
This reverence for white Christians is what can lead some ACR members to align with figures like Trump, whom they view as a defender of a white, Christian ideal, even when his policies may harm vulnerable groups, including their own kind – African immigrants. This paradox highlights a tension: the ACR’s admiration for a global Christian identity often overshadows their own marginalised position within that system.
The Christian Right as a Global Force
The CR, a global powerful force, is embedding its roots in influential spaces, presenting themselves as historically marginalised folk who lacked a voice before Trump’s presidency. What some CR members mean is that they oppose the separation of the church and state, longing for a world where Christian doctrine dictates policy. We remember that when church and state were one, Christianity operated with an unmatched capacity for cruelty – a catalogue of violence, murders, and intolerance speaks for itself, with the enslavement and colonisation of Africa standing out as unforgettable legacies. However, as James Baldwin famously challenged us to examine a troubled world shaped by Christianity, we must also acknowledge that not all Christians support such exclusionary visions – a contrast the ACR often overlooks this in their support for exclusionary figures like Trump.
Rethinking Solidarity
The African Christian Right’s support for Trump reveals a misplaced, selective solidarity that prioritises conservative ideology over the compassion that is central to Christianity, inadvertently supporting the oppression of vulnerable groups, including their own kind, around the world. In this light, this essay calls for a realignment between Christian faith and the core teachings of Christianity, fostering a solidarity that uplifts rather than excludes.
- Hedges, C., 2008. American fascists: The Christian right and the war on America. Simon and Schuster. ↩︎
- https://religionunplugged.com/news/usaid-cuts-trump-remains-african-churches-favorite-politician [accessed on 05/08/2025] ↩︎
- ibid ↩︎
- Maxwell, D. 1998. ‘Delivered from the Spirit of Poverty? Pentecostalism, Prosperity, and Modernity in Zimbabwe’. Journal of Religion in Africa 28.3, 350-373. ↩︎
To cite this article:
Primus M. Tazanu, ‘Reflections on Misplaced Solidarity,’ The Helsinki Notebooks, Vol. 1, No. 20 (1 September 2025).
Reflections on Misplaced Solidarity © 2025 by Primus M. Tazanu is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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