The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president started showing all observers his designs for an ornate dance hall two times larger of the White House and then began independently demolishing the eastern section to construct it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the present calculation of casualties from his cuts to international aid is 600,000 and rising, and this week research projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have dared – genuinely, no previous leader would have imagined – unilaterally destroying major areas of the presidential residence in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple the richest Americans, nearly all of which maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We went from 'the humble will receive the Earth' into 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the leader try to upend the old idea regarding democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed over the years while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into a symbol of hate who endorses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in the Gospel; this change developed at a slower pace, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disturbing via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and because the fastest-growing cadre of Americans might have little sense about him since they are atheists or agnostics or nones. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; however I believe that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly absolutely not the story of a mighty king arising; instead, a baby is born to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to escape secret police. The child matures in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his message is about love for other people, specifically for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever an individual takes your jacket you must offer him your sweater as well.
The evident and clear truth that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a form of radical love centered on the poor is what has always made the Christian faith somewhat of a controversial faith: engaging for the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be controlled. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
So I have been encouraged to witness the determined opposition to Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has provided great solace to help build the initiative that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged voters to participate in large quantities in interim political contests. We shall require to continue it, and with identical determination, with American flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you welcome them and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, by relationship to the best within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by reference to elements that cause it to be special and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In both situations does it suggest acting as if the most damaging about the nation and Christianity was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a blend that committed US believers should be comfortable with.
