The Trump movement's most telling and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the American president commenced revealing all observers his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size than the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to construct it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and recently a study predicted his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – really, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing significant portions of the White House to build a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which conduct transactions with public institutions.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the chief executive try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we learned about into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into a symbol of hostility who approves precisely the cruelties that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred more gradually, through multiple decades instead of months, however it is still unsettling via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior that I grew up with, as conceptually the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and given that the rapidly expanding group among Americans might have little sense of him as they consider themselves non-believers or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the account of a mighty king appearing; conversely, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to escape secret police. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his message is about love for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to aggression is to turn the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to educate the aggressor; his crime policy is that if a person pilfers your coat you should give him your sweater as well.
The obvious and straightforward fact that Christ in biblical accounts advocates for a form of profound affection centered on the poor has perpetually caused the Christian faith somewhat of a scandalous religion: attractive to the general public, but due to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be controlled. During the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
So I have been heartened to see the persistent defiance against Trump develop in this past year. It has been great solace to participate in developing the movement that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We must have to persist with it, and in the same spirit, with American flags during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by relationship to the highest about American history, similar to Christianity is best defended by reference to what makes it unique and beautiful, specifically the model of the Savior. In all circumstances does it imply pretending the worst of both America and Christianity did not happen; it represents both humility and conviction, a combination that serious US believers should be comfortable with.
