The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of multiple weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing all observers his designs for a lavish reception room twice the size of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the eastern section to construct it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of casualties resulting from his reductions to international aid stands at 600,000 and growing, and this week a study forecast his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have dared – really, no previous leader would have conceived – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the White House to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' into 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president try to upend the established notion regarding democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we were raised with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of affection into a symbol of animosity who endorses specifically the brutality that he denounced in the Gospel; this change developed more slowly, through multiple decades instead of months, yet it remains disturbing via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my upbringing, as conceptually Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and since the fastest-growing cadre within America might have little sense regarding him because they identify as skeptics or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; but I do think that exist valuable insights of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically not the narrative of a mighty king appearing; instead, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to avoid undercover officers. The baby grows up in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and housing. Christ's response to violence is to turn the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a means to instruct the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing is that if someone steals your outer garment you must offer him your sweater too.
The obvious and direct truth that Christ in biblical accounts requests a type of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity rather a controversial faith: engaging for the masses, but owing to its inherent radicalness requiring to be controlled. During the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – Protestantism was so prevalent that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
So I have been heartened to observe the persistent defiance to Trump arise in this past year. It has provided substantial consolation to participate in developing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to participate in numbers in interim political contests. We shall require to continue it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners throughout each rally and appeals to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by reference to elements that cause it to be special and wonderful, which is the example of Christ. In neither case does it suggest feigning the most negative about the nation and religious tradition did not happen; it means both meekness and belief, a combination that committed national faithful ought to accept.
