The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining moments – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the American president started showing everyone his designs for a gilded ballroom twice the size than the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance is 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study forecast his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – truly, no former commander would have conceived – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the presidential residence in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of multiple the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom have business with the government.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' into 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader try to upend the old idea regarding democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – among senior generations close to half – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they converted a persona of compassion into a symbol of hostility who blesses exactly the harshness that he criticized in the Gospel; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, through multiple decades rather than months, yet it remains disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my upbringing, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans might have little sense regarding him as they consider themselves atheists or agnostics or spiritual independents. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; however I believe that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly not the account of an authoritative monarch appearing; instead, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his message concerns compassion for fellow humans, especially for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your outer garment you must offer him your sweater too.
The obvious and clear reality that the Savior from scripture advocates for a type of radical love focused on the poor has consistently rendered Christian religion something of a controversial faith: attractive to the general public, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be controlled. During the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Best of Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the determined opposition regarding Trump arise during the previous year. It has served as significant comfort to assist in constructing the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged voters to turn out in large quantities in interim political contests. We must have to maintain it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags throughout each rally and calls to the best parts of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, essentially, by relationship to the best within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to that which renders it unique and wonderful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In neither case does it imply pretending the worst regarding America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a combination that genuine US believers ought to accept.
