The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the American president commenced revealing the public his intentions for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of fatalities from his cuts to USAID stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently an analysis predicted his petroleum strategies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have risked – really, no previous leader would have imagined – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the White House to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of multiple the richest Americans, the majority of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' into 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the president attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment of Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations close to half – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into an icon of hate who blesses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more slowly, through multiple decades instead of months, however it is still disturbing via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans may possess limited understanding about him because they identify as skeptics or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the story of a mighty king emerging; instead, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to avoid undercover officers. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his message concerns compassion for others, especially for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, shown by providing food and protecting. Jesus' answer to aggression is to turn the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a way to instruct the attacker; his method regarding offenses states that when an individual takes your coat you ought to provide the person your additional clothing also.
The apparent and clear truth that the Jesus of the gospels requests a kind of profound affection centered on the poor has consistently rendered the Christian faith rather a provocative belief system: attractive to the general public, but due to its inherent radicalness demanding to be controlled. In the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Best Among Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the persistent defiance to Trump emerge during the previous year. It has served as substantial consolation to help build the movement that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated electorate to show up in numbers in interim political contests. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags at every demonstration and calls to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you receive him and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, essentially, through connection to the finest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured through connection to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In both situations does it imply pretending the worst about the nation and Christianity did not happen; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a mixture that genuine American Christians ought to accept.
