The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing everyone his intentions for a gilded ballroom two times larger than the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to USAID amounts to 600,000 and growing, and this week a study projected his energy policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have risked – truly, no former commander would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the executive mansion to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which have business with federal agencies.
We went from 'the humble will receive the world' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader try to upend the established notion regarding democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into an icon of hostility who endorses specifically the brutality that he criticized in the Gospel; this change developed at a slower pace, over decades instead of months, however it is still disconcerting through similar means, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and because the fastest-growing cadre among Americans could have minimal awareness about him since they are atheists or agnostics or nones. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably not the story of an authoritative monarch emerging; conversely, a baby is born to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching concerns compassion for others, especially for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to violence is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a way to instruct the aggressor; his crime policy is that if a person pilfers your coat you must offer them your pullover too.
The obvious and direct reality that the Savior of the gospels requests a type of profound affection centered on the needy has perpetually caused Christian religion somewhat of a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but due to its natural unconventionality needing to be contained. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Best Among Us
Hence I have become encouraged to witness the persistent defiance against Trump arise during the previous year. It has provided significant comfort to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in significant amounts during minor elections. We must have to persist with it, and in the same spirit, with American flags during all protests and requests to the best parts in US history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and receive them or not?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by relationship to the highest in US heritage, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by reference to elements that cause it to be distinctive and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Christ. In neither case does it mean pretending the most negative regarding America and religious tradition did not happen; it means both meekness and conviction, a mixture that committed American Christians should embrace.
