Trumpism's most revealing and defining instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the US president began displaying the public his intentions for a lavish reception room twice the size than the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of casualties from his cuts to USAID stands at 600,000 and rising, and presently a study projected his petroleum strategies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have dared – truly, no former commander would have contemplated – independently wrecking significant portions of the executive mansion to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, the majority of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the leader try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there is one large group among Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we learned about into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of affection into a symbol of hate who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this has happened more slowly, across decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless unsettling through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Jesus that I grew up with, because theoretically the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and because the quickly increasing segment of Americans might have little sense regarding him as they consider themselves atheists or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably not the narrative of a mighty king arising; rather, a baby is born to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to escape undercover officers. The infant develops in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching focuses on affection for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to turn the other cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to educate the aggressor; his method regarding offenses is that if an individual takes your coat you ought to provide the person your additional clothing also.
The evident and clear fact that Christ from scripture requests a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy is what has always made Christianity rather a controversial faith: attractive to the populace, but because of its natural unconventionality needing to be contained. In the fifties it was controlled via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Highest Within Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the steadfast resistance regarding Trump emerge during the previous year. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the initiative that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired electorate to participate in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags throughout each rally and requests to the best parts in US history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by relationship to the finest in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by relationship to that which renders it special and wonderful, which is the example of Jesus. In neither case does it imply feigning the most negative of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it means both modesty and belief, a combination that genuine American Christians should be comfortable with.
