The Trump phenomenon's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the US president commenced revealing everyone his plans for a lavish reception room two times larger than the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing to build it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to international aid amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study projected his petroleum strategies would kill an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have imagined – independently wrecking significant portions of the White House in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of multiple the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' into 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the chief executive attempt to overturn the old idea regarding democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations a near majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Essentially, they turned a figure of compassion into a figure of hostility who endorses precisely the cruelties that he criticized in biblical teachings; this has happened more gradually, over decades as opposed to months, however it is still unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and given that the quickly increasing segment within America could have minimal awareness of him because they identify as skeptics or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically not the story of a mighty king appearing; conversely, a baby is born to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to evade undercover officers. The infant develops in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his message is about love for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to offer the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a means to teach the assailant; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your jacket you must offer him your sweater also.
The apparent and clear fact that Christ of the gospels advocates for a form of extreme compassion focused on the needy has consistently rendered the Christian faith somewhat of a controversial faith: appealing to the masses, but owing to its inherent radicalness requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was controlled via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become inspired to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has been substantial consolation to help build the initiative that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged voters to participate in numbers in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities of American history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you welcome them and welcome him or not?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by relationship to the best in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it suggest feigning the worst of both America and religious tradition never occurred; it signifies both meekness and belief, a mixture that genuine national faithful should be comfortable with.
