The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and defining instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of a few weeks, the US president began displaying all observers his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of casualties due to his slashing to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study predicted his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have attempted – genuinely, no former commander would have conceived – independently wrecking major areas of the presidential residence in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of numerous the richest Americans, the majority of whom have business with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' to 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept regarding democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts close to half – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they transformed an image of affection into a figure of hostility who endorses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more gradually, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting through similar means, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans could have minimal awareness of him as they consider themselves atheists or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the story of an authoritative monarch arising; instead, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape secret police. The infant develops in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, especially for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to aggression is to turn the additional cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a method to instruct the assailant; his method regarding offenses states that when a person pilfers your coat you should give him your sweater also.
The obvious and direct truth that Christ from scripture requests a type of profound affection focused on the needy has perpetually caused Christianity something of a scandalous religion: appealing to the general public, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained by dilution – Protestantism was so prevalent that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Finest Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has been great solace to participate in developing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged voters to participate in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the highest about American history, similar to Christianity is optimally secured through connection to what makes it distinctive and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest pretending the worst of both America and Christianity did not happen; it represents both meekness and belief, a mixture that serious American Christians should embrace.
