The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president started showing the public his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of deaths resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and increasing, and presently research projected his energy policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have attempted – truly, no previous leader would have conceived – independently wrecking large sections of the executive mansion to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of multiple America's wealthiest, almost all of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the world' toward 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations a near majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we grew up with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into an icon of animosity who blesses exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this change developed at a slower pace, through multiple decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disturbing through similar means, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my upbringing, because theoretically Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and since the rapidly expanding group within America might have little sense of him as they consider themselves skeptics or uncertain individuals or nones. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that exist valuable insights of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the narrative of a mighty king arising; rather, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for others, especially for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a method to instruct the aggressor; his crime policy is that if someone steals your coat you must offer the person your additional clothing too.
The obvious and straightforward reality that the Savior of the gospels requests a form of extreme compassion concentrated on the poor has consistently rendered the Christian faith somewhat of a scandalous religion: engaging for the populace, but due to its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Highest of Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has been substantial consolation to help build the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired voters to turn out in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners during all protests and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you receive him and embrace them or not?
America is best defended, in other words, by relationship to the highest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is most protected by reference to what makes it distinctive and magnificent, which is the example of Christ. In both situations does it suggest acting as if the worst regarding America and Christian faith did not happen; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a combination that serious US believers should embrace.
