The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic occasions – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the American president commenced revealing all observers his intentions for a lavish reception room twice the size than the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the eastern section to construct it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties resulting from his reductions to international aid amounts to 600,000 and rising, and this week a study projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have risked – genuinely, no previous leader would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the executive mansion in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of numerous the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which conduct transactions with public institutions.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president try to upend the established notion about democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group within America who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of love into a figure of hostility who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, over decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my upbringing, because theoretically Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the rapidly expanding group within America could have minimal awareness of him since they are atheists or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with different religions; but I do think that exist valuable insights of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to evade undercover officers. The infant develops in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his message focuses on affection for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and protecting. Jesus' answer to hostility is to present the other cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a way to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing is that if an individual takes your outer garment you must offer them your pullover also.
The evident and straightforward reality that the Jesus of the gospels requests a kind of radical love concentrated on the poor has consistently rendered Christianity somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism needing to be controlled. During the 1950s it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Finest Among Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to observe the persistent defiance against Trump arise during the previous year. It has served as substantial consolation to help build the initiative that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired citizens to participate in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We must have to continue it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags during all protests and requests to the highest qualities in US history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you welcome them and receive them or reject?
America is best defended, essentially, through connection to the best within national tradition, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to elements that cause it to be distinctive and wonderful, which is the example of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest pretending the most negative regarding America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it represents both humility and conviction, a mixture that serious US believers should be comfortable with.
