The Trump phenomenon's most telling and defining moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of a few weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing the public his intentions for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions than the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing to build it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to USAID stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently research projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have attempted – genuinely, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking large sections of the executive mansion to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the world' toward 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the chief executive try to upend the established notion of democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have observed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we were raised with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of affection into an icon of animosity who blesses specifically the brutality that he denounced in the Gospel; this change developed more gradually, over decades instead of months, yet it remains disturbing through similar means, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Christ from my upbringing, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the quickly increasing segment among Americans may possess limited understanding about him as they consider themselves non-believers or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; rather, a baby is born to displaced parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to evade secret police. The infant develops in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his message concerns compassion for others, specifically for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Jesus' answer to aggression is to offer the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your coat you should give them your pullover also.
The apparent and direct reality that the Jesus of the gospels advocates for a form of radical love centered on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity somewhat of a controversial faith: engaging for the general public, but because of its inherent radicalness requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was controlled via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become inspired to see the steadfast resistance to Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has served as significant comfort to assist in constructing the initiative that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated citizens to turn out in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags throughout each rally and appeals to the highest qualities of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by relationship to the best in US heritage, similar to Christianity is optimally secured through connection to elements that cause it to be unique and wonderful, which is the example of Jesus. In neither case does it mean pretending the most damaging of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it represents both humility and conviction, a mixture that genuine national faithful should embrace.
