The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and distinctive occasions – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president started showing everyone his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of fatalities due to his slashing to foreign assistance is 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have dared – truly, no previous leader would have conceived – solo demolishing large sections of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the chief executive try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of affection into a symbol of hate who blesses specifically the brutality that he condemned in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, through multiple decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my upbringing, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and because the rapidly expanding group within America could have minimal awareness about him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically definitely not the story of a mighty king appearing; conversely, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to escape secret police. The infant develops in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, specifically for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, shown by providing food and sheltering. Christ's response to violence is to offer the other cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a means to instruct the assailant; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever an individual takes your jacket you ought to provide the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and direct fact that Christ from scripture calls for a type of extreme compassion concentrated on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christianity rather a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but owing to its natural unconventionality requiring to be controlled. During the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Highest Within Us
So I have been heartened to witness the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop in this past year. It has provided great solace to participate in developing the campaign that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to participate in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags throughout each rally and calls to the finest aspects of American history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is most protected by reference to that which renders it unique and magnificent, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it imply pretending the most negative regarding America and religious tradition did not happen; it represents both meekness and belief, a blend that genuine US believers should embrace.
