The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining instances – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of several weeks, the US president started showing the public his plans for a lavish reception room twice the size compared to the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study projected his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have dared – really, no previous leader would have imagined – independently wrecking major areas of the presidential residence to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the president try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who wouldn't consider it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics close to half – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed over the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into a symbol of animosity who approves precisely the cruelties that he denounced in the Gospel; this change developed more gradually, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Savior that I grew up with, since in theory Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and because the quickly increasing segment of Americans could have minimal awareness regarding him since they are skeptics or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of great price in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the story of a powerful ruler emerging; rather, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to evade undercover officers. The child matures in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his message is about love for other people, specifically for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and housing. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to turn the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a way to teach the assailant; his crime policy indicates that whenever a person pilfers your coat you must offer them your pullover as well.
The obvious and straightforward fact that the Jesus from scripture requests a form of profound affection concentrated on the impoverished has consistently rendered the Christian faith something of a controversial faith: engaging for the masses, but owing to its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. During the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become inspired to see the persistent defiance to Trump arise in this past year. It has served as substantial consolation to participate in developing the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired citizens to show up in numbers in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the highest qualities of American history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by relationship to the finest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to what makes it special and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In all circumstances does it imply feigning the most damaging regarding America and Christianity did not happen; it represents both humility and faith, a blend that serious national faithful should be comfortable with.
