The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president started showing everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then began independently demolishing the East Wing to construct it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to international aid is 600,000 and rising, and presently an analysis predicted his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No other president would have risked – genuinely, no previous leader would have contemplated – solo demolishing major areas of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of multiple America's wealthiest, almost all of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' into 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there is one large group among Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts close to half – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed over the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. At its most basic, they transformed an image of affection into an icon of hate who blesses exactly the harshness that he denounced in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more slowly, through multiple decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disturbing through similar means, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, as conceptually Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and since the quickly increasing segment within America could have minimal awareness about him because they identify as skeptics or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably definitely not the story of an authoritative monarch emerging; conversely, a child comes into the world to homeless 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 doctrine focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. Christ's response to hostility is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to instruct the aggressor; his method regarding offenses states that when someone steals your jacket you ought to provide them your pullover also.
The evident and clear truth that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a kind of extreme compassion centered on the poor has perpetually caused Christian religion something of a scandalous religion: appealing to the masses, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be controlled. During the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestantism was so dominant that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Highest of Us
Hence I have become heartened to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has provided substantial consolation to participate in developing the movement that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to turn out in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners during all protests and calls to the finest aspects of American history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or reject?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by reference to the finest within national tradition, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, specifically the model of Christ. In neither case does it mean feigning the worst regarding America and religious tradition never occurred; it represents both humility and belief, a mixture that genuine American Christians ought to accept.
