The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and characteristic instances – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. In the course of several weeks, the US president started showing the public his intentions for a lavish reception room twice the size of the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of deaths due to his slashing to USAID amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study predicted his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking large sections of the White House in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of numerous America's wealthiest, nearly all of which conduct transactions with the government.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the leader attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations a near majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into a figure of hate who blesses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, over decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my upbringing, since in theory the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and because the quickly increasing segment within America may possess limited understanding of him as they consider themselves atheists or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the narrative of a powerful ruler emerging; instead, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to evade secret police. The child matures in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his message concerns compassion for other people, specifically for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. Christ's response to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a means to instruct the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever someone steals your outer garment you should give him your sweater also.
The obvious and clear reality that the Jesus in biblical accounts advocates for a form of profound affection focused on the impoverished has perpetually caused the Christian faith somewhat of a scandalous religion: appealing to the masses, but because of its natural unconventionality demanding to be controlled. In the fifties it was restrained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Best Among Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop during the previous year. It has been significant comfort to help build the initiative that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged electorate to participate in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, in other words, through connection to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is most protected by relationship to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In both situations does it suggest acting as if the most negative of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both meekness and conviction, a combination that serious American Christians should embrace.
