The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining moments – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of a few weeks, the US president started showing the public his intentions for a lavish reception room two times larger of the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to construct it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of casualties resulting from his reductions to international aid amounts to 600,000 and rising, and recently an analysis forecast his energy policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have dared – truly, no previous leader would have conceived – independently wrecking large sections of the executive mansion to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom have business with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations close to half – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they converted a persona of affection into a symbol of hostility who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, across decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my childhood, since in theory the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding about him as they consider themselves atheists or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the account of a powerful ruler emerging; instead, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his message is about love for other people, especially for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. The Savior's reaction to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a means to teach the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever a person pilfers your coat you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The apparent and direct fact that Christ in biblical accounts advocates for a type of profound affection concentrated on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity something of a controversial faith: appealing to the masses, but due to its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest of Us
Hence I have become inspired to see the determined opposition regarding Trump emerge in this past year. It has been substantial consolation to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated electorate to show up in numbers in interim political contests. We shall require to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners during all protests and appeals to the best parts of American history.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you welcome them and receive them or not?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by reference to the best about American history, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to what makes it special and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest acting as if the worst of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it represents both meekness and conviction, a blend that serious US believers should be comfortable with.
