The Trump movement's most telling and distinctive occasions – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the US president began displaying everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions than the White House and then began independently demolishing the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and rising, and presently a study projected his energy policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have attempted – really, no other president would have imagined – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the White House in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of numerous the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom have business with the government.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the world' into 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the chief executive attempt to overturn the old idea regarding democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there is one large group of Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we grew up with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they turned a figure of affection into a symbol of animosity who endorses specifically the brutality that he denounced in scripture; this has happened at a slower pace, through multiple decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group within America may possess limited understanding about him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that exist valuable insights of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the narrative of a mighty king appearing; instead, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to another nation to evade secret police. The baby grows up in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his doctrine focuses on affection for other people, specifically for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. The Savior's reaction to violence is to offer the additional cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a means to educate the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever someone steals your outer garment you must offer them your pullover also.
The apparent and clear truth that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a type of extreme compassion centered on the needy has consistently rendered Christianity somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but due to its natural unconventionality demanding to be restrained. In the fifties it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Best Among Us
So I have been heartened to witness the persistent defiance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has been substantial consolation to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged electorate to show up in large quantities in interim political contests. We will need to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags throughout each rally and appeals to the highest qualities of American history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you welcome them and welcome him or not?
America is best defended, essentially, by relationship to the finest in US heritage, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it mean acting as if the worst of both America and religious tradition did not happen; it signifies both modesty and belief, a blend that serious US believers should be comfortable with.
