The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. In the course of several weeks, the American president commenced revealing everyone his intentions for a lavish reception room two times larger compared to the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently research predicted his fossil fuel policies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have dared – really, no other president would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the White House in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' to 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the leader try to upend the old idea regarding democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment within America who should not find it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed over the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of compassion into an icon of animosity who approves specifically the brutality that he criticized in biblical teachings; this has happened more slowly, across decades rather than months, yet it remains unsettling via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior from my childhood, since in theory the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and since the rapidly expanding group among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him because they identify as non-believers or doubters or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with different religions; however I believe that exist valuable insights of great price within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably not the account of a mighty king emerging; conversely, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to avoid covert authorities. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching is about love for others, especially for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to hostility is to offer the other cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the assailant; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever a person pilfers your jacket you ought to provide them your pullover too.
The obvious and straightforward reality that Christ in biblical accounts calls for a kind of extreme compassion centered on the needy has perpetually caused Christianity rather a controversial faith: engaging for the general public, but because of its intrinsic extremism demanding to be restrained. In the 1950s it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest of Us
So I have been inspired to see the determined opposition to Trump arise during the previous year. It has been great solace to help build the campaign that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to participate in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags during all protests and calls to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you welcome them and welcome him or not?
The nation is most protected, essentially, by reference to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by relationship to what makes it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it imply pretending the most negative regarding America and Christian faith never occurred; it means both humility and belief, a mixture that committed US believers should be comfortable with.
