A Different Type of “Trump Tower”
What Could God Be Teaching Us through Divided Public Opinion on Donald Trump?
I cannot tell the future, and I cannot claim to know the exact thoughts of God for any given circumstance. A lot could change between now and November of 2024. But a familiar Bible story returned to me as I read polarized poll results about former president Donald Trump. I wonder if God is teaching America something it didn’t learn in 2020–a lesson it hasn’t learned from Genesis 11, either.
The lesson is this: If humanity is to reach its highest potential, it must learn how to listen to those with different perspectives. And man, does this country evidently have some different perspectives.
Article after article points out how even the criminal trials against Trump do very little to sway public opinion about him. By now, in America, you either love Trump or hate him–and those opinions sure do seem to be set in concrete.
Trump continues to be a frontrunner for the 2024 campaign. That means to me that our country’s political landscape will go through what we went through in 2020 all over again–possibly worse this time. Hatred towards the other party on both sides might be lying low for the moment. Still, if Republicans choose Trump as their presidential candidate again, I can’t imagine the vitriol spewed from Democrats on Republicans and Republicans on Democrats.
Any “peace” between parties we might be feeling is short-lived. This election is going to be a doozy.
So what are we missing? What did we not learn in 2020 that God might try to alert us again in 2024?
The answer could lie in a story you’ve heard since you were a kid–but maybe you weren’t taught the whole picture.
The True Meaning of the Tower of Babel
When you think of what the Tower of Babel is supposed to teach us, you likely think of how God had a problem with humanity trying to build a tower tall enough to reach the heavens. They wanted to be god-like, so God had to stop it. But that is, unfortunately, a very incomplete picture of this story that Westerners hold.
To summarize the story really quickly so that it’s fresh in your head: Humanity had been kicked out of the Garden of Eden, experienced the flood, and now Noah’s descendants/the nations of the world are continuing to head East (metaphorically away from God’s desire for them). The people created a new technology of bricks. And then they decided, “‘Come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth’” (Genesis 11:). So God comes down to see what they are building and notes that nothing will be impossible for them if they do this, so he confuses their language. The people then stop building their city.
Marty Solomon and his Bema podcast share their perspective on what this story is actually about. It’s not about hubris, and it’s not about God punishing people for their ambition–but it’s a story about how God wanted to give humanity its best chance for becoming the people he wanted them to become. And he did this through confusing, differing perspectives.
You see, God did not have an issue with their new technology of bricks. And, of course, he did not have an issue with them working together. But humanity, up until that point, had not learned the lessons God had wanted them to. They had yet to learn how to trust God and his good story. They had yet to learn to say when enough was enough and stop destroying. They had yet to learn to have control over their desires.
And, as Solomon points out, evil was expanding and organizing itself. Evil wasn’t just in a person or a family. It was now nations and nations of people, and this evil was starting to acquire infrastructure and organization. So, it was not the common goal of building a tower that was the issue–it was the lessons they had not learned yet.
If you saw evil building and organizing itself and gaining power, you’d want to stop their actions, too. But instead of punishing humanity, God gave them a chance to reverse their evil by confusing their language so they could not automatically understand each other. But why?
Why Do Different Perspectives Grow Us as People?
When you learn about someone, really learn about them, you start to see the world from their point of view. And further, you start to see the value of seeing the world from their point of view–how their perspective is not worse than yours, it is just different than yours. And this is what God wanted to accomplish by confusing their language.
Solomon wrote, “It’s interesting to note how in order for humanity to continue to progress as a whole, they will need to learn the language of others. You cannot learn the language of another culture or a people without learning something about their perspective.
Learning the diversity of perspectives always provides one with a sense of pause and consideration. It requires a sense of learning how to control one’s desires in order to reach a common goal together. In the confusion of Babel, God has not so much slapped our hands as He has given us a new redemptive project that will cause us to be the people that grow into the humanity that bears His image.”
I imagine God being a father who overhears his kids talking about how they want to build a lemonade stand to earn enough money to buy some extra things they want. Instead of being opposed to the idea, God encourages it–but he knows it’s going to be an utter disaster for the whole neighborhood unless his kids with big personalities learn how to listen to the quieter ones; until the quieter ones learn how to stand up for themselves; until the creative kids concerned with the look of the stand learn how to listen to the pragmatic kids concerned with the profit margins, and vice versa.
He wants our endeavors to be a success! But for them to succeed, we must learn to sit with each other in genuine empathy, curiosity, and love. Without listening to the different perspectives of others, our pride runs rampant, and all we’ve created is an idol for ourselves.
What Does the Tower of Babel Have to Do with Trump?
What sticks out to me about the Tower of Babel story is that God gave the people different languages to cause confusion on purpose. Just like he allegorically gave one nation Hebrew and another nation Sumerian, who’s to say that God isn’t giving some people the conviction that guns save lives and another the conviction that guns take them?
Or that God isn’t impressing on some the belief that the election was a fraud and some the belief that the election was fair?
Of course, there is only one truth and reality, so I know my metaphor breaks down eventually. But my point is this: as polar opposite as this country’s opinions are on certain issues, who’s to say God isn’t making or allowing that to happen on purpose so we can learn from each other? So we’re forced to say, “Okay, I’m seriously confused by your perspective. Please teach me. I want to learn from you.”
We will be in a stubborn gridlock until we do.
One political party may build something that benefits them, and the other party something to their own benefit. But neither of those creations will be godly. Neither one will truly be loving unless they each learn to consider the perspective of the other.
Let’s aim to learn each other’s languages. Humility begins by seeking understanding. Ask your neighbor, coworker, or church acquaintance out to coffee and start by gently asking for their perspective. They might very well have something to teach you. And even if they don’t, your humility will invite humility on their part to learn from you, too. Of course, you can’t control that, but that’s the whole point.
Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Scott Eisen / Stringer
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
Kelly-Jayne McGlynn is a former editor at Crosswalk.com. She sees the act of expression, whether through writing or art, as a way to co-create with God and experience him deeper. Check out her handmade earrings on Instagram and her website for more of her thoughts on connecting with God through creative endeavors.
