The Trump movement's most telling and characteristic instances – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the US president started showing everyone his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing to construct it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of deaths resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and increasing, and this week an analysis predicted his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have attempted – genuinely, no former commander would have contemplated – solo demolishing significant portions of the presidential residence to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of numerous the richest Americans, almost all of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the Earth' into 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the chief executive try to upend the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations close to half – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they converted a persona of affection into an icon of hate who approves precisely the cruelties that he condemned in scripture; this change developed more slowly, across decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disturbing in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my upbringing, because theoretically Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and given that the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense about him since they are atheists or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of a mighty king appearing; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to evade covert authorities. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his message is about love for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to turn the other cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a way to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing is that if a person pilfers your jacket you ought to provide the person your additional clothing also.
The obvious and straightforward fact that the Jesus of the gospels advocates for a type of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy is what has always made the Christian faith something of a controversial faith: engaging for the general public, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be controlled. During the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestantism was so dominant that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Highest of Us
Hence I have become encouraged to observe the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop in this past year. It has been substantial consolation to assist in constructing the initiative that has protested openly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged citizens to participate in significant amounts during minor elections. We shall require to continue it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by reference to the finest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended through connection to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it suggest acting as if the most damaging about the nation and religious tradition did not happen; it signifies both humility and conviction, a mixture that committed national faithful ought to accept.
