The Trump phenomenon's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. During the period of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing everyone his designs for a lavish reception room twice the size compared to the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to build it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of fatalities due to his slashing to USAID amounts to 600,000 and rising, and recently research projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have risked – really, no other president would have imagined – solo demolishing large sections of the executive mansion to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the world' toward 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there is one large group of Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they turned a figure of affection into a figure of hate who approves specifically the brutality that he denounced in biblical teachings; this has happened at a slower pace, through multiple decades rather than months, however it is still disconcerting through similar means, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Christ that I grew up with, because theoretically Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding about him because they identify as non-believers or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is decidedly absolutely not the story of a powerful ruler appearing; rather, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to escape secret police. The infant develops in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Christ's response to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a way to teach the aggressor; his method regarding offenses states that when a person pilfers your outer garment you must offer the person your additional clothing also.
The evident and clear truth that the Jesus from scripture advocates for a kind of extreme compassion centered on the needy has perpetually caused Christian religion rather a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but owing to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be restrained. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestantism was so widespread that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become heartened to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has served as significant comfort to assist in constructing the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged citizens to turn out in numbers in interim political contests. We shall require to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the finest aspects of American history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you welcome them and embrace them or not?
America is best defended, essentially, through connection to the finest about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by reference to what makes it unique and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In both situations does it imply pretending the most negative regarding America and Christianity did not happen; it represents both modesty and conviction, a combination that committed American Christians should embrace.
