The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining moments – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the nation's leader started showing everyone his intentions for a gilded ballroom two times larger than the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the existing assessment of fatalities from his cuts to foreign assistance is 600,000 and rising, and recently an analysis predicted his energy policies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have attempted – truly, no previous leader would have imagined – solo demolishing large sections of the White House to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which conduct transactions with public institutions.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' to 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept about democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Essentially, they turned a figure of love into a symbol of hate who blesses exactly the harshness that he criticized in biblical teachings; this has happened more gradually, across decades rather than months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the rapidly expanding group of Americans could have minimal awareness regarding him since they are non-believers or uncertain individuals or nones. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that exist valuable insights of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of a mighty king appearing; instead, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to another nation to avoid covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to violence is to offer the other cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever someone steals your outer garment you ought to provide the person your additional clothing too.
The obvious and straightforward reality that the Savior from scripture requests a type of radical love focused on the poor has perpetually caused Christian religion rather a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but owing to its natural unconventionality needing to be controlled. In the fifties it was restrained by dilution – Protestantism was so widespread that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
So I have been heartened to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the movement that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated electorate to show up in large quantities in interim political contests. We shall require to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags during all protests and appeals to the best parts in US history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by relationship to the finest about American history, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, which is the example of the Savior. In both situations does it imply feigning the most damaging of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it represents both modesty and belief, a mixture that genuine national faithful ought to accept.
