The Gospel of Guns, Until It’s Inconvenient
Exposing Trump’s Ukraine Hypocrisy
Previously:
In the last two articles, I unpacked a moral contradiction many spiritual progressives are wrestling with: Can someone committed to peace support Ukraine's attempt to arm itself in defense? And more personally, can a New Thought minister support an arms deal—without losing his soul in the process? In this final part, we zoom out. Because there’s a deeper hypocrisy that demands our attention: the far-right’s sudden embrace of pacifism, led by none other than Donald Trump himself.
You can’t preach peace and peddle cruelty. But that’s exactly what the MAGA movement wants to do.
We’ve heard it all recently—claims that helping Ukraine is “warmongering,” that America should stay out of “foreign entanglements,” that sending weapons is un-Christian, un-American, and somehow a betrayal of peace itself.
But let’s be clear: this isn’t pacifism. It’s political theater. And at the center of it is Donald Trump, the man who once tried to extort Ukraine by withholding the very weapons he now pretends to oppose.
Let’s remember: when Trump was in office, he blocked congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine unless President Zelensky agreed to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. That wasn’t a peace move. That was manipulation. It was using a country under threat as leverage for personal gain.
And now, the same man—and his followers—want to claim the moral high ground?
False Pacifism, Real Damage
This shift isn’t about morality. It’s about optics.
The far-right, after years of beating war drums and glorifying military power, now wraps itself in the language of restraint. Why? Because aiding Ukraine means admitting that democracy matters. That sovereignty matters. And that Trump was wrong.
So instead, they distort the narrative. They say peace means doing nothing. That helping Ukraine is prolonging war. That withholding support is somehow compassion.
But let me ask: When has silence ever stopped a dictator? When has inaction ever brought peace to the oppressed?
Real pacifism is active. It intervenes. It protests. It protects. This isn’t that. This is cowardice dressed as principle.
A Mirror to the Movement
Supporting Ukraine in this moment is about more than tanks and treaties. It’s about exposing hypocrisy.
The same people who support arming American citizens with AR-15s to “defend freedom” want to deny a sovereign nation the ability to do exactly that.
They want to call themselves protectors of liberty while turning their backs on one of the clearest examples of authoritarian aggression in our time.
We must call this what it is: a moral sleight of hand. A way to avoid confronting Trump’s past behavior by pretending to be peace-loving in the present.
The Spiritual Reckoning
This final turn in the series brings us to the heart of the matter: Spirituality without truth is just performance.
If our spiritual values only show up when they’re convenient, they aren’t values. They’re window dressing.
As people of faith, we are not called to be comfortable. We are called to be courageous. And right now, courage means standing with Ukraine—not because we love war, but because we love justice. Because we understand that real peace sometimes means standing in the way of destruction, even if it means taking heat from those who’ve sold their integrity for soundbites.
We don’t support this arms deal because we believe in violence. We support it because we believe in life—and because we’re willing to see through the lies that try to disguise themselves as virtue.
Where we go from here:
This series ends here, but the work doesn’t. In future pieces, I’ll explore how spiritual communities—especially New Thought—must evolve to meet this moment. It’s time to trade comfort for clarity, and intention for action. The world needs us wide awake. And ready.
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