The Trump movement's most revealing and characteristic occasions – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the nation's leader started showing the public his designs for an ornate dance hall two times larger compared to the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance is 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have dared – truly, no previous leader would have contemplated – independently wrecking large sections of the White House in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which have business with the government.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the president try to upend the old idea about democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we learned about into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of affection into a figure of hate who blesses exactly the harshness that he condemned in biblical teachings; this change developed at a slower pace, across decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disturbing through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Christ that I grew up with, as conceptually Christ is the focus within Christian belief, and because the rapidly expanding group among Americans might have little sense of him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that there are pearls of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically definitely not the account of a mighty king arising; rather, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching focuses on affection for others, especially for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, shown by providing food and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to present the opposite cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if a person pilfers your coat you must offer him your sweater as well.
The apparent and clear truth that the Jesus in biblical accounts calls for a type of radical love focused on the poor has consistently rendered Christianity rather a provocative belief system: attractive to the general public, but owing to its inherent radicalness requiring to be controlled. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Finest of Us
So I have been inspired to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump develop during the previous year. It has provided substantial consolation to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged citizens to participate in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to maintain it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners at every demonstration and requests to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by reference to the best in US heritage, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to what makes it special and wonderful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In both situations does it mean feigning the most negative regarding America and religious tradition never occurred; it represents both modesty and belief, a mixture that genuine national faithful should embrace.
