The Trump phenomenon's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the US president started showing the public his plans for a gilded ballroom two times larger of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths resulting from his reductions to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and recently an analysis forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – really, no former commander would have conceived – solo demolishing large sections of the White House to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of multiple America's wealthiest, the majority of whom 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 president try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed across decades as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we were raised with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of compassion into a symbol of animosity who blesses exactly the harshness that he denounced in scripture; this change developed more slowly, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disturbing through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus within Christian belief, and given that the rapidly expanding group among Americans could have minimal awareness of him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with different religions; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in the Christian story.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to avoid undercover officers. The child matures in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his teaching focuses on affection for others, specifically for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a way to educate the assailant; his crime policy is that if a person pilfers your jacket you ought to provide them your pullover also.
The evident and clear reality that Christ of the gospels calls for a kind of extreme compassion focused on the needy has perpetually caused the Christian faith rather a controversial faith: engaging for the populace, but due to its inherent radicalness needing to be contained. In the 1950s it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so prevalent that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Finest Among Us
Hence I have become inspired to see the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has provided substantial consolation to assist in constructing the campaign that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged voters to turn out in numbers in the off-year elections. We must have to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners at every demonstration and requests to the best parts within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by relationship to the finest within national tradition, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to that which renders it unique and beautiful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In neither case does it mean acting as if the worst of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a blend that genuine American Christians should embrace.
