The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions than the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing to erect it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to international aid stands at 600,000 and growing, and recently an analysis projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying major areas of the executive mansion to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous the richest Americans, the majority of whom have business with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the world' into 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group among Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched across decades 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 a figure of hate who endorses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, over decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting through similar means, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, because theoretically Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and given that the rapidly expanding group among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him because they identify as atheists or agnostics or nones. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically definitely not the narrative of a mighty king emerging; conversely, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape secret police. The child matures in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, specifically for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his crime policy states that when a person pilfers your jacket you must offer them your pullover as well.
The obvious and direct fact that the Jesus from scripture requests a form of radical love centered on the poor has consistently rendered Christian religion somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was contained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to see the persistent defiance regarding Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as great solace to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated voters to show up in numbers during minor elections. We shall require to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners at every demonstration and calls to the highest qualities of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and embrace them or not?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to what makes it unique and beautiful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In neither case does it suggest feigning the worst of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it means both meekness and conviction, a combination that committed American Christians ought to accept.
