A strange and unsettling phenomenon has taken place in our world in the past year.
The post-Cold War global order and peace are in trouble, Europe is cracking under terror and mass migration, and confidence in the global economy is shaky at best. Entertainment is becoming darker and darker, homosexuality is being institutionalised, fashion is embracing depravity, and what once was secure is becoming uncertain and unreliable.
Call it what you will: a disturbance in the force or the winds of change, the fact is, change IS occurring—and not the good kind. JRR Tolkien's character Galadriel put it best when she said:
'The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was, is lost...'
Trumped up hope
At a time like this, much of humanity is turning their nervous eyes to America for answers.
Since WWII and the Cold War, the US's presence on the world scene—whether symbolic or actual, and for good or ill—has been a symbol of the security, hope and morality which is now quickly slipping away.
So it's no surprise that at a time like this, when the tectonic plates of this world's foundations are writhing two and fro against each other in unsettled angst, that we would once again look to the US for answers.
Enter the 2016 US Election.
Enter Donald Trump.
Astoundingly, many people, including evangelicals, believe Donald is the 'Trump' card this globe needs to solve its poker-like problem. This couldn't be further from the truth. Trump is not the ace in the deck of this high stakes point in human history—he's the joker of Suicide Squad proportions.
End of the world as we know it
If the world changed since 9/11, and monumentally so in the last year, it's nothing compared to what'll happen if Trump wins in November. In the telling words of R.E.M, it'll be 'The end of the world as we know it'.
Forget for a minute all of Trump's laughable campaign moments, oratory blunders, rudeness, ignorance, obvious immorality, and disrespectful treatment of others. They are serious dangers to the symbol and substance of American power, politics and leadership in and of themselves, but they aren't the worst of what lies under that fluffy blonde toupee-like hair of his.
The worst are the foreign policy ideas lurking in the brain underneath.
Of these, one is the worst and has the potential to create chaos in this world not seen since WWII. The idea is this: ban all Muslims from entering the US.
In an official statement released by Trump's campaign at the end of last year, Trump called for a 'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on'.
Recently, in another official statement, Trump widened the circle: 'Maybe we get to that point,' at which 'a lot of people from overseas' are prohibited from entering the country. In the same statement he implied that the first places he'd consider for such a ban would be France and Germany. After all, if a handful of people from those countries are extremists, everyone else is dangerous too, right? The absurdity of this speaks for itself.
Historically bad
Trump's proposal of a complete Muslim ban is quite possibly one of the worst ideas in human history.
Apart from being totally absurd—the witch of extremism will start to be seen everywhere and in all forms—it's also totally unfeasible (how exactly, Mr Trump, do you plan on eradicating Muslim influence when there are already Muslims in America?), and completely short-sighted.
Banning Muslims from the US would justify the message of Islamic fundamentalists who see America and its values as an adversary which seeks its destruction. Being labelled 'the enemy' would turn countless Muslims into just that overnight—how else would we expect them to respond?
This occurrence would be repeated all over the world, even in countries which don't ban Muslims, as the West's message to them would be clear: 'You are our enemy'. All that would be left would be a circling of the wagons and a tragic fight to the death.
Time and column inches fail us to be able look at all of Trump's disastrous ideas, but his implied message that America may not defend its NATO allies if they don't pay their bills is as bad as the Muslim ban.
It's easy to imagine what the response of Russian President Vladimir Putin would've been—specifically, uncontrollable laughter as he contemplated a possible Trump presidency, followed by planning just how he'd go about disintegrating the boarders of Baltic states Russia once ruled.
Russia's attack of Georgia and Ukraine, along with its annexation of Crimea and military build-up along bordering nations show Putin has already been thinking along these lines under an Obama White House—just imagine what would happen under his admirer Mr Trump's.
The only trump card is Christ
If such a thing as a trump card for the recent woes of this world exists, then Donald Trump is certainly not that card. Quite the opposite: Trump embodies the very uncertainty and moral corruption now plaguing this world.
All this world's solutions are being shown for what they are: false hope. Without the grace and upholding power of Christ, all its problems will only continue to get worse. Its only current hope is, ironically, the only hope it's ever had: the reforming and redeeming power of God.
Tim has lived on the Gold Coast in Queensland for most of his life. He has a B.A in Journalism and Writing, a Graduate Diploma of Education and an Associate of Theology degree, and has taught in Christian Education for just over six years. He enjoys writing, bodyboarding and watching movies.
Tim Price's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/tim-price.html