The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and distinctive moments – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the American president started showing everyone his designs for an ornate dance hall two times larger compared to the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the existing assessment of fatalities from his cuts to USAID amounts to 600,000 and growing, and presently research predicted his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have risked – really, no former commander would have conceived – solo demolishing significant portions of the White House in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which conduct transactions with public institutions.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the leader attempt to overturn the old idea about democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there is one large group within America who should not find it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics close to half – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of love into a symbol of animosity who blesses exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this has happened more slowly, across decades instead of months, yet it remains disconcerting in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, because theoretically Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding about him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the story of a powerful ruler arising; instead, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape secret police. The child matures in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his teaching concerns compassion for others, specifically for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Christ's response to violence is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing states that when a person pilfers your outer garment you should give them your pullover too.
The obvious and straightforward truth that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a type of profound affection centered on the poor has perpetually caused the Christian faith somewhat of a scandalous religion: appealing to the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. During the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Highest Among Us
Hence I have become encouraged to observe the persistent defiance against Trump arise in this past year. It has provided substantial consolation to help build the campaign that has protested openly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in large quantities during minor elections. We must have to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners during all protests and appeals to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you welcome them and welcome him or reject?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the best within national tradition, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it imply feigning the most damaging about the nation and Christianity was nonexistent; it signifies both modesty and belief, a blend that genuine national faithful should be comfortable with.
