The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the US president started showing all observers his intentions for a lavish reception room two times larger of the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of fatalities due to his slashing to USAID amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study forecast his petroleum strategies would kill another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have dared – truly, no previous leader would have imagined – independently wrecking large sections of the executive mansion to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, almost all of whom have business with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the chief executive attempt to overturn the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group of Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we learned about into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they transformed an image of compassion into a figure of hostility who endorses specifically the brutality that he criticized in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, through multiple decades instead of months, however it is still disturbing via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Savior from my upbringing, since in theory Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and since the fastest-growing cadre within America could have minimal awareness of him since they are non-believers or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably not the story of a mighty king appearing; conversely, an infant arrives to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape covert authorities. The infant develops in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a way to teach the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing is that if someone steals your outer garment you should give him your sweater as well.
The evident and direct truth that the Savior from scripture advocates for a type of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished has consistently rendered Christian religion something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the general public, but because of its inherent radicalness demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was controlled by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Highest Within Us
So I have been heartened to observe the determined opposition regarding Trump arise in this past year. It has served as great solace to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated electorate to turn out in large quantities in the off-year elections. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals 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 by reference to what makes it special and magnificent, specifically the model of the Savior. In all circumstances does it mean pretending the most negative about the nation and Christian faith did not happen; it means both modesty and faith, a combination that serious US believers ought to accept.
