The Trump movement's most illuminating and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the American president commenced revealing the public his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions of the White House and then began independently demolishing the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and growing, and this week an analysis projected his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have attempted – truly, no other president would have imagined – solo demolishing large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which maintain dealings with public institutions.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' into 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – among senior generations a near majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed over the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we grew up with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into a symbol of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, across decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my upbringing, because theoretically the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans could have minimal awareness about him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of great price in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the account of a mighty king appearing; conversely, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Christ's response to hostility is to offer the opposite cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to instruct the assailant; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever a person pilfers your outer garment you must offer them your pullover as well.
The evident and direct truth that Christ of the gospels requests a form of profound affection concentrated on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christian religion somewhat of a scandalous religion: engaging for the general public, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be controlled. In the 1950s it was contained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Finest Within Us
So I have been encouraged to observe the determined opposition against Trump arise in this past year. It has been substantial consolation to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated electorate to turn out in numbers in the off-year elections. We must have to maintain it, and with identical determination, with American flags during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or not?
The nation is most protected, in other words, through connection to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is most protected by relationship to elements that cause it to be special and beautiful, particularly the pattern of Christ. In both situations does it imply acting as if the most damaging about the nation and religious tradition never occurred; it means both meekness and faith, a combination that genuine American Christians should embrace.
