The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and defining instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the US president began displaying all observers his designs for a lavish reception room twice the size than the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of deaths from his cuts to foreign assistance is 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have attempted – truly, no previous leader would have contemplated – independently wrecking major areas of the White House in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of numerous the richest Americans, nearly all of which conduct transactions with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the world' to 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the president try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – among senior generations a near majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we grew up with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into an icon of hate who approves exactly the harshness that he criticized in scripture; this change developed at a slower pace, over decades rather than months, however it is still disconcerting through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, as conceptually Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and since the quickly increasing segment among Americans might have little sense of him as they consider themselves skeptics or agnostics or nones. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically definitely not the narrative of a mighty king arising; instead, an infant arrives to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to another nation to avoid covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and housing. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to offer the other cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to educate the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing is that if someone steals your outer garment you must offer him your sweater too.
The evident and direct fact that Christ from scripture advocates for a form of radical love concentrated on the needy has perpetually caused Christianity somewhat of a scandalous religion: appealing to the masses, but owing to its natural unconventionality demanding to be controlled. During the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
So I have been heartened to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump arise in this past year. It has provided significant comfort to help build the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired citizens to turn out in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags during all protests and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or reject?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to that which renders it special and beautiful, specifically the model of the Savior. In all circumstances does it suggest acting as if the most negative about the nation and Christianity was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a combination that serious US believers ought to accept.
