The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president started showing the public his plans for an ornate dance hall two times larger than the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the eastern section to construct it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of fatalities resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and rising, and presently a study projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have dared – truly, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the presidential residence to build a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of the richest Americans, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the chief executive attempt to overturn the old idea about democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed over the years as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we learned about into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Essentially, they converted a persona of compassion into a figure of animosity who approves precisely the cruelties that he criticized in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, across decades rather than months, however it is still unsettling via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior from my upbringing, since in theory Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and because the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him since they are non-believers or doubters or spiritual independents. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; however I believe that there are pearls of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is decidedly definitely not the account of a mighty king appearing; conversely, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his message concerns compassion for other people, especially for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. The Savior's reaction to violence is to present the other cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a means to educate the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever a person pilfers your coat you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and straightforward fact that the Jesus from scripture calls for a form of extreme compassion focused on the poor has consistently rendered the Christian faith something of a scandalous religion: appealing to the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. During the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the initiative that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged citizens to turn out in numbers in the off-year elections. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners throughout each rally and appeals to the best parts of American history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or reject?
America is best defended, to put it differently, through connection to the best about American history, similar to Christianity is most protected by reference to elements that cause it to be distinctive and beautiful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest pretending the most damaging regarding America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it signifies both humility and belief, a mixture that committed American Christians should embrace.
