The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining occasions – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the American president started showing everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to build it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of casualties resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study predicted his petroleum strategies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – truly, no other president would have imagined – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of multiple the richest Americans, the majority of whom have business with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' toward 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there is one large group among Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed across decades as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we learned about into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Essentially, they turned a figure of compassion into a symbol of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more slowly, across decades instead of months, yet it remains unsettling via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Savior that I grew up with, because theoretically Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and since the quickly increasing segment of Americans may possess limited understanding about him since they are atheists or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly absolutely not the narrative of an authoritative monarch emerging; instead, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to evade covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his teaching concerns compassion for others, especially for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and protecting. Christ's response to hostility is to turn the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a way to educate the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever a person pilfers your outer garment you must offer them your pullover too.
The obvious and direct truth that Christ in biblical accounts calls for a form of radical love centered on the impoverished has perpetually caused the Christian faith somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the general public, but because of its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Finest Among Us
So I have been encouraged to see the determined opposition against Trump emerge during the previous year. It has been significant comfort to participate in developing the campaign that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners throughout each rally and requests to the finest aspects of American history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is optimally secured by reference to elements that cause it to be unique and magnificent, specifically the model of the Savior. In both situations does it mean acting as if the most damaging of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it means both meekness and belief, a combination that serious US believers should embrace.
