The Trump phenomenon's most telling and defining occasions – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the nation's leader began displaying everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size than the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the present calculation of deaths due to his slashing to USAID stands at 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study predicted his energy policies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – truly, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking major areas of the presidential residence to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of multiple the richest Americans, almost all of whom have business with public institutions.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the president try to upend the old idea of democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment within America who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they turned a figure of affection into an icon of hostility who blesses precisely the cruelties that he criticized in the Gospel; this change developed at a slower pace, through multiple decades as opposed to months, however it is still disturbing in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my upbringing, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the fastest-growing cadre within America might have little sense of him since they are skeptics or agnostics or nones. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of great price in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; rather, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to escape undercover officers. The infant develops in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his teaching is about love for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. The Savior's reaction to violence is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a way to instruct the assailant; his crime policy is that if someone steals your outer garment you must offer them your pullover too.
The obvious and direct fact that Christ of the gospels advocates for a form of extreme compassion focused on the poor has consistently rendered Christian religion somewhat of a controversial faith: engaging for the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism needing to be restrained. During the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest of Us
Hence I have become inspired to witness the persistent defiance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has been significant comfort to participate in developing the campaign that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags throughout each rally and calls to the finest aspects in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you receive him and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by reference to the best within national tradition, just as Christianity is optimally secured through connection to elements that cause it to be special and wonderful, specifically the model of Christ. In all circumstances does it suggest pretending the most damaging regarding America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it means both modesty and faith, a mixture that genuine US believers ought to accept.
