The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive occasions – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of a few weeks, the US president started showing the public his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to erect it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the present calculation of fatalities resulting from his reductions to international aid is 600,000 and growing, and recently research forecast his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have dared – really, no former commander would have contemplated – independently wrecking significant portions of the White House to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple the richest Americans, the majority of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the world' into 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there is one large group among Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we were raised with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into a symbol of animosity who blesses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, through multiple decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disturbing via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the fastest-growing cadre within America may possess limited understanding about him because they identify as skeptics or agnostics or nones. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with different religions; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the narrative of a powerful ruler emerging; rather, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The infant develops in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his message concerns compassion for fellow humans, especially for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a way to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing states that when a person pilfers your outer garment you should give him your sweater too.
The obvious and direct truth that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a form of profound affection centered on the poor has consistently rendered the Christian faith somewhat of a scandalous religion: attractive to the general public, but due to its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. In the fifties it was restrained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
So I have been inspired to see the steadfast resistance against Trump develop during the previous year. It has served as substantial consolation to help build the movement that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired citizens to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners throughout each rally and requests to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or reject?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by reference to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured through connection to that which renders it special and magnificent, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In both situations does it suggest acting as if the most damaging regarding America and Christianity never occurred; it represents both modesty and belief, a combination that genuine US believers should embrace.
