The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the US president began displaying the public his designs for a lavish reception room twice the size of the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing to erect it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of casualties due to his slashing to international aid amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and this week research projected his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have risked – really, no other president would have contemplated – solo demolishing significant portions of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which have business with public institutions.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' toward 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the president try to upend the old idea regarding democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment within America who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Essentially, they transformed an image of love into a figure of animosity who approves specifically the brutality that he denounced in the Gospel; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, across decades instead of months, however it is still disturbing in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, because theoretically Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and because the rapidly expanding group among Americans could have minimal awareness about him because they identify as non-believers or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of a mighty king arising; rather, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to another nation to evade covert authorities. The infant develops in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine focuses on affection for other people, especially for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Christ's response to violence is to offer the other cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a way to instruct the aggressor; his crime policy states that when someone steals your outer garment you should give them your pullover also.
The evident and direct reality that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a form of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christianity something of a provocative belief system: engaging for the populace, but because of its inherent radicalness requiring to be controlled. In the fifties it was restrained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to witness the steadfast resistance regarding Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has served as substantial consolation to participate in developing the campaign that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to participate in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners at every demonstration and calls to the highest qualities of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you receive him and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, essentially, through connection to the highest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected through connection to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Christ. In neither case does it imply pretending the most damaging of both America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it represents both meekness and belief, a combination that committed national faithful should be comfortable with.
