The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president started showing all observers his designs for a gilded ballroom two times larger compared to the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of deaths from his cuts to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study predicted his petroleum strategies would kill an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have dared – genuinely, no previous leader would have imagined – independently wrecking large sections of the executive mansion to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of numerous the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which maintain dealings with the government.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the world' into 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the president try to upend the established notion regarding democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we learned about into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they converted a persona of compassion into an icon of animosity who endorses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, across decades as opposed to months, however it is still disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior from my upbringing, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and because the rapidly expanding group within America may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as atheists or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, a baby is born to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to another nation to escape covert authorities. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his message is about love for other people, especially for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and protecting. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the additional cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a way to instruct the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever a person pilfers your coat you ought to provide him your sweater also.
The apparent and straightforward fact that the Savior from scripture calls for a kind of radical love centered on the poor has perpetually caused Christian religion something of a controversial faith: appealing to the masses, but due to its inherent radicalness demanding to be contained. During the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – Protestantism was so widespread that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Best Among Us
So I have been encouraged to witness the persistent defiance regarding Trump arise in this past year. It has been significant comfort to help build the movement that has protested openly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated electorate to participate in numbers in interim political contests. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is most protected through connection to elements that cause it to be unique and wonderful, which is the example of Christ. In neither case does it imply pretending the most negative of both America and religious tradition did not happen; it represents both modesty and faith, a blend that committed US believers should embrace.
