The Trump movement's most telling and defining instances – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the nation's leader started showing all observers his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the existing assessment of fatalities due to his slashing to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and recently an analysis projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have dared – really, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the executive mansion to build a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the planet' toward 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the president try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we were raised with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they transformed an image of compassion into a figure of hate who approves precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this change developed more slowly, across decades as opposed to months, however it is still disconcerting in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and since the fastest-growing cadre of Americans might have little sense about him as they consider themselves non-believers or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of great price in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of an authoritative monarch emerging; conversely, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to avoid undercover officers. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine is about love for other people, especially for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, shown by providing food and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to offer the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to educate the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever someone steals your coat you must offer the person your additional clothing also.
The obvious and clear reality that the Savior from scripture calls for a kind of extreme compassion centered on the poor has perpetually caused Christian religion something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but owing to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become inspired to see the determined opposition regarding Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has been significant comfort to help build the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired electorate to participate in numbers during minor elections. We shall require to continue it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags during all protests and appeals to the best parts within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you receive him and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, to put it differently, through connection to the highest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected by reference to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In both situations does it imply pretending the worst about the nation and Christian faith never occurred; it signifies both meekness and faith, a combination that serious national faithful ought to accept.
