The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and characteristic occasions – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the American president started showing the public his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to construct it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of fatalities from his cuts to international aid is 600,000 and growing, and presently research forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have attempted – genuinely, no former commander would have conceived – unilaterally destroying large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of numerous America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the chief executive try to upend the established notion about democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group among Americans who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we were raised with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of love into an icon of hate who approves exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this has happened at a slower pace, over decades instead of months, however it is still disconcerting through similar means, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my upbringing, since in theory Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group within America might have little sense of him since they are skeptics or agnostics or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that there are pearls of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of a powerful ruler arising; rather, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his doctrine is about love for other people, specifically for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and housing. Christ's response to hostility is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a way to teach the aggressor; his crime policy states that when someone steals your coat you ought to provide the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and direct fact that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a type of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy has perpetually caused Christian religion something of a controversial faith: appealing to the masses, but because of its intrinsic extremism requiring to be controlled. In the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Finest of Us
So I have been encouraged to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump arise in this past year. It has served as significant comfort to help build the movement that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to participate in large quantities in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners at every demonstration and calls to the best parts of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by reference to the best within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be special and wonderful, specifically the model of Christ. In all circumstances does it mean feigning the most damaging of both America and Christianity never occurred; it signifies both meekness and belief, a mixture that serious US believers should be comfortable with.
