The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and defining moments – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing all observers his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions than the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID amounts to 600,000 and growing, and recently an analysis projected his petroleum strategies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have dared – really, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking significant portions of the executive mansion to build a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of numerous the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which have business with public institutions.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' toward 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into a figure of animosity who blesses specifically the brutality that he condemned in biblical teachings; this change developed more slowly, over decades rather than months, however it is still disturbing via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically Christ is the focus within Christian belief, and because the quickly increasing segment within America might have little sense about him since they are non-believers or doubters or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the story of a mighty king appearing; instead, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a different country to avoid secret police. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Christ's response to aggression is to present the other cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the aggressor; his crime policy states that when a person pilfers your outer garment you must offer him your sweater also.
The obvious and clear truth that Christ in biblical accounts advocates for a type of extreme compassion centered on the impoverished is what has always made the Christian faith something of a provocative belief system: engaging for the populace, but due to its natural unconventionality demanding to be controlled. During the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – The Protestant faith was so widespread that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Finest Among Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the steadfast resistance to Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has served as great solace to assist in constructing the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged citizens to participate in significant amounts during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and with identical determination, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the finest aspects in US history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
America is best defended, to put it differently, through connection to the finest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is best defended through connection to elements that cause it to be distinctive and wonderful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In all circumstances does it suggest feigning the worst of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both humility and conviction, a combination that serious national faithful should embrace.
