The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the American president commenced revealing all observers his intentions for an ornate dance hall two times larger compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the eastern section to construct it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the existing assessment of fatalities resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and rising, and this week a study projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have attempted – really, no previous leader would have conceived – independently wrecking significant portions of the executive mansion to build a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of numerous the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which have business with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president try to upend the old idea regarding democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations a near majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we were raised with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into a symbol of hate who blesses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more slowly, across decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Christ from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and given that the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him as they consider themselves skeptics or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically definitely not the story of a mighty king emerging; conversely, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to avoid covert authorities. The infant develops in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his message is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and housing. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to turn the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a method to instruct the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your outer garment you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The apparent and clear truth that the Jesus of the gospels requests a type of extreme compassion focused on the poor is what has always made Christian religion something of a controversial faith: appealing to the general public, but because of its inherent radicalness demanding to be controlled. During the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
Hence I have become inspired to see the determined opposition to Trump develop in this past year. It has been substantial consolation to help build the initiative that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged citizens to show up in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners during all protests and calls to the best parts in US history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or not?
The nation is most protected, essentially, through connection to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is most protected by reference to what makes it special and wonderful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In both situations does it suggest acting as if the most negative regarding America and Christianity never occurred; it signifies both meekness and belief, a combination that genuine US believers ought to accept.
