The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of a few weeks, the American president began displaying all observers his intentions for a lavish reception room twice the size compared to the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the present calculation of deaths due to his slashing to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and this week a study projected his energy policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have dared – genuinely, no former commander would have conceived – solo demolishing significant portions of the executive mansion to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the leader try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it entirely new. That is those of us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of affection into a figure of hate who blesses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in the Gospel; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, over decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disturbing in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and given that the quickly increasing segment within America could have minimal awareness regarding him because they identify as skeptics or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of great price within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly not the story of an authoritative monarch appearing; conversely, a baby is born to displaced parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to avoid undercover officers. The child matures in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his teaching is about love for other people, particularly for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a means to instruct the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing states that when someone steals your outer garment you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The obvious and direct truth that Christ in biblical accounts requests a form of radical love centered on the poor has consistently rendered the Christian faith something of a provocative belief system: attractive to the general public, but due to its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Highest Within Us
Hence I have become inspired to observe the persistent defiance against Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has been significant comfort to participate in developing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to participate in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
America is best defended, essentially, by reference to the highest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended through connection to elements that cause it to be special and beautiful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In neither case does it imply feigning the worst of both America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it signifies both humility and conviction, a blend that serious US believers ought to accept.
