The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the US president commenced revealing all observers his intentions for an ornate dance hall two times larger than the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of casualties due to his slashing to foreign assistance is 600,000 and growing, and recently an analysis predicted his fossil fuel policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have dared – truly, no other president would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the executive mansion to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of numerous the richest Americans, almost all of whom have business with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the old idea of democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there is one large group among Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Essentially, they transformed an image of love into a figure of animosity who endorses precisely the cruelties that he criticized in scripture; this change developed more gradually, over decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ that I grew up with, as conceptually Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans could have minimal awareness regarding him as they consider themselves non-believers or doubters or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably definitely not the account of a mighty king emerging; conversely, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to evade covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for other people, specifically for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a means to educate the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing is that if someone steals your outer garment you ought to provide them your pullover also.
The obvious and clear reality that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a type of profound affection concentrated on the impoverished is what has always made the Christian faith somewhat of a scandalous religion: engaging for the masses, but owing to its natural unconventionality requiring to be controlled. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become heartened to see the steadfast resistance regarding Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has provided substantial consolation to help build the initiative that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired citizens to turn out in numbers in interim political contests. We shall require to persist with it, and with identical determination, with American flags during all protests and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you receive him and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, essentially, by relationship to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is optimally secured through connection to elements that cause it to be special and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In all circumstances does it imply feigning the most negative of both America and Christianity never occurred; it means both meekness and conviction, a mixture that serious American Christians should be comfortable with.
