The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. During the period of several weeks, the American president began displaying all observers his designs for a lavish reception room twice the size than the White House and then began independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and increasing, and presently research projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – really, no other president would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of some of the richest Americans, almost all of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' toward 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion about democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations close to half – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we learned about into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of affection into a figure of animosity who endorses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my upbringing, since in theory Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans might have little sense about him as they consider themselves non-believers or uncertain individuals or nones. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; however I believe that exist valuable insights of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly absolutely not the story of a mighty king emerging; conversely, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The infant develops in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his message is about love for others, specifically for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, shown by providing food and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a way to instruct the aggressor; his method regarding offenses states that when someone steals your jacket you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and clear truth that the Jesus of the gospels calls for a kind of extreme compassion centered on the impoverished is what has always made Christian religion somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the masses, but due to its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Finest of Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the determined opposition against Trump emerge during the previous year. It has been great solace to assist in constructing the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to participate in significant amounts in interim political contests. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and requests to the best parts 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 relationship to the finest in US heritage, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to that which renders it unique and beautiful, specifically the model of the Savior. In neither case does it mean feigning the most negative about the nation and religious tradition did not happen; it represents both meekness and faith, a blend that committed US believers should embrace.
