The Trump movement's most illuminating and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of multiple weeks, the American president started showing everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom twice the size than the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and presently research projected his fossil fuel policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have attempted – really, no previous leader would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the presidential residence to build a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of multiple America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the planet' into 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the president try to upend the old idea regarding democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of affection into a symbol of animosity who blesses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in the Gospel; this change developed more gradually, through multiple decades instead of months, yet it remains disturbing via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my childhood, because theoretically Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans could have minimal awareness of him since they are atheists or agnostics or nones. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly definitely not the story of a mighty king emerging; instead, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to escape covert authorities. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for other people, specifically for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and protecting. Jesus' answer to violence is to present the other cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a means to educate the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing states that when an individual takes your outer garment you ought to provide the person your additional clothing too.
The obvious and clear truth that the Savior from scripture requests a type of radical love centered on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christian religion something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained via weakening – Protestantism was so dominant that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Within Us
Hence I have become encouraged to see the steadfast resistance to Trump arise during the previous year. It has provided great solace to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated voters to turn out in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags at every demonstration and calls to the best parts within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and receive them or refuse?
America is best defended, essentially, by relationship to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to what makes it special and beautiful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In all circumstances does it suggest pretending the worst of both America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a mixture that genuine US believers should be comfortable with.
