The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and distinctive moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of a few weeks, the US president began displaying the public his designs for a lavish reception room twice the size of the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the current estimate of fatalities from his cuts to international aid is 600,000 and growing, and this week a study forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have attempted – genuinely, no previous leader would have contemplated – independently wrecking large sections of the presidential residence to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple the richest Americans, nearly all of which have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the world' toward 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the president try to upend the old idea of democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there is one large group among Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations close to half – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed across decades as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Essentially, they turned a figure of love into an icon of animosity who approves precisely the cruelties that he denounced in biblical teachings; this change developed more slowly, over decades rather than months, however it is still disconcerting via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, since in theory the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and given that the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him since they are skeptics or doubters or nones. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that exist valuable insights of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably not the story of a mighty king appearing; rather, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to escape secret police. The infant develops in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for others, specifically for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and housing. Christ's response to hostility is to turn the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a method to instruct the assailant; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your coat you should give him your sweater too.
The apparent and direct fact that the Jesus in biblical accounts advocates for a kind of radical love focused on the poor is what has always made Christian religion somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the general public, but owing to its natural unconventionality demanding to be controlled. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Best of Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the persistent defiance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has been substantial consolation to assist in constructing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in significant amounts in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners throughout each rally and calls to the finest aspects in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, essentially, through connection to the finest in US heritage, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to elements that cause it to be distinctive and magnificent, which is the example of Christ. In all circumstances does it mean feigning the most negative regarding America and Christian faith did not happen; it means both humility and faith, a combination that serious American Christians should embrace.
