The Trump phenomenon's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the US president began displaying everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions than the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of casualties resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and growing, and this week research projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have risked – truly, no other president would have imagined – independently wrecking significant portions of the presidential residence to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the leader try to upend the old idea about democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who should not find it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations close to half – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched across decades as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we grew up with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of love into an icon of animosity who blesses specifically the brutality that he criticized in scripture; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, however it is still unsettling through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and given that the rapidly expanding group among Americans could have minimal awareness regarding him since they are non-believers or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the story of a powerful ruler arising; instead, a baby is born to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to avoid covert authorities. The infant develops in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching concerns compassion for other people, specifically for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to hostility is to offer the additional cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a means to educate the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever an individual takes your coat you ought to provide them your pullover as well.
The obvious and clear reality that the Jesus of the gospels requests a type of radical love centered on the needy has perpetually caused Christianity something of a controversial faith: engaging for the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be controlled. During the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Highest of Us
Hence I have become encouraged to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump arise in this past year. It has served as substantial consolation to assist in constructing the initiative that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged electorate to participate in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you receive him and embrace them or not?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by reference to the best about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by relationship to elements that cause it to be distinctive and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest pretending the most damaging about the nation and Christianity never occurred; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a mixture that committed American Christians should be comfortable with.
