The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and distinctive moments – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the US president commenced revealing all observers his plans for a gilded ballroom two times larger of the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the eastern section to build it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the present calculation of deaths from his cuts to international aid amounts to 600,000 and rising, and recently an analysis projected his fossil fuel policies would kill another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have dared – really, no other president would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, almost all of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the world' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the chief executive try to upend the established notion of democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they turned a figure of compassion into a figure of hate who blesses exactly the harshness that he denounced in scripture; this change developed more slowly, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my upbringing, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or nones. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically not the account of a powerful ruler emerging; rather, a baby is born to displaced parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for other people, specifically for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Christ's response to aggression is to turn the other cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a means to teach the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing states that when a person pilfers your coat you ought to provide him your sweater too.
The apparent and straightforward fact that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a kind of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity somewhat of a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism requiring to be controlled. In the fifties it was controlled via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Finest of Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to observe the determined opposition regarding Trump emerge during the previous year. It has served as significant comfort to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to show up in large quantities during minor elections. We shall require to continue it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners throughout each rally and calls to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you receive him and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by relationship to the finest about American history, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In neither case does it mean acting as if the most negative regarding America and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both humility and conviction, a blend that genuine US believers ought to accept.
