The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and characteristic occasions – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of a few weeks, the US president started showing the public his plans for a lavish reception room double the dimensions compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to international aid amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and presently an analysis projected his petroleum strategies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – truly, no former commander would have contemplated – independently wrecking significant portions of the executive mansion to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, almost all of whom have business with the government.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the world' into 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the leader try to upend the established notion of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group of Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into a symbol of animosity who endorses exactly the harshness that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, through multiple decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and because the quickly increasing segment within America might have little sense about him since they are atheists or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically absolutely not the account of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his teaching focuses on affection for others, specifically for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Christ's response to violence is to present the additional cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to educate the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if a person pilfers your jacket you should give the person your additional clothing also.
The apparent and clear fact that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a form of radical love centered on the needy has consistently rendered Christianity something of a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but because of its natural unconventionality requiring to be restrained. During the 1950s it was contained via weakening – Protestantism was so prevalent that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Finest Within Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to observe the determined opposition regarding Trump develop during the previous year. It has served as significant comfort to participate in developing the movement that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired citizens to participate in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, in other words, by relationship to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by reference to that which renders it unique and beautiful, which is the example of Christ. In all circumstances does it imply pretending the worst of both America and religious tradition did not happen; it means both meekness and conviction, a blend that serious American Christians should embrace.
