The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the American president began displaying the public his intentions for a lavish reception room double the dimensions of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to erect it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID amounts to 600,000 and growing, and this week a study forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have dared – truly, no other president would have contemplated – solo demolishing large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of numerous the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the planet' toward 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the chief executive attempt to overturn the old idea about democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have observed across decades as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of love into a symbol of animosity who blesses specifically the brutality that he condemned in the Gospel; this change developed at a slower pace, through multiple decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, as conceptually the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and because the quickly increasing segment within America might have little sense about him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the narrative of a powerful ruler arising; conversely, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to evade undercover officers. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for others, especially for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and protecting. Christ's response to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a method to instruct the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing states that when a person pilfers your outer garment you should give him your sweater too.
The apparent and clear truth that Christ of the gospels requests a form of profound affection centered on the needy has perpetually caused Christian religion rather a controversial faith: attractive to the general public, but due to its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. During the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest of 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 participate in developing the initiative that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated citizens to participate in numbers in interim political contests. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, essentially, by reference to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to that which renders it unique and beautiful, which is the example of Christ. In neither case does it suggest pretending the most damaging about the nation and religious tradition was nonexistent; it represents both humility and faith, a blend that genuine American Christians should embrace.
