The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of several weeks, the US president started showing everyone his designs for a lavish reception room double the dimensions of the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the eastern section to build it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and growing, and this week a study forecast his energy policies would kill another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have dared – genuinely, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking large sections of the presidential residence to build a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of numerous America's wealthiest, the majority of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' toward 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the chief executive seek to颠覆 the old idea about democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics a near majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of love into a figure of hostility who approves precisely the cruelties that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred more gradually, across decades instead of months, however it is still disconcerting via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Savior that I grew up with, because theoretically Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and because the quickly increasing segment within America may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as non-believers or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the account of a mighty king arising; conversely, a baby is born to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his message is about love for fellow humans, especially for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to hostility is to turn the other cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a way to teach the attacker; his method regarding offenses states that when an individual takes your coat you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and direct reality that Christ in biblical accounts calls for a type of extreme compassion focused on the poor has perpetually caused Christianity rather a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness requiring to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest Among Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to observe the persistent defiance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has been substantial consolation to participate in developing the movement that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged citizens to turn out in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the highest within national tradition, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to that which renders it special and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest pretending the most damaging regarding America and Christianity was nonexistent; it means both modesty and belief, a blend that serious US believers should embrace.
