The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. In the course of multiple weeks, the American president began displaying the public his plans for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing to construct it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the present calculation of fatalities from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and growing, and this week a study forecast his petroleum strategies would kill another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – genuinely, no previous leader would have imagined – independently wrecking large sections of the White House to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' toward 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have observed across decades as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we were raised with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into a figure of hostility who blesses specifically the brutality that he criticized in the Gospel; this has happened at a slower pace, through multiple decades instead of months, yet it remains unsettling through similar means, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus 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 nones. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of a powerful ruler arising; conversely, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to evade covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for other people, particularly for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, shown by providing food and protecting. Jesus' answer to hostility is to turn the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his method regarding offenses states that when an individual takes your outer garment you ought to provide the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and clear fact that the Jesus from scripture requests a type of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy is what has always made the Christian faith somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the populace, but because of its natural unconventionality needing to be controlled. In the fifties it was controlled by dilution – The Protestant faith was so widespread that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Finest Among Us
So I have been encouraged to observe the steadfast resistance against Trump arise during the previous year. It has been significant comfort to participate in developing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged voters to turn out in large quantities in interim political contests. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you welcome them and receive them or reject?
The nation is most protected, essentially, by relationship to the finest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended through connection to what makes it distinctive and magnificent, which is the example of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest acting as if the most damaging regarding America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a mixture that serious US believers should be comfortable with.
