The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic occasions – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of multiple weeks, the nation's leader started showing the public his plans for a gilded ballroom twice the size than the White House and then began independently demolishing the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the present calculation of deaths from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and recently a study predicted his energy policies would kill another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – genuinely, no other president would have conceived – independently wrecking major areas of the executive mansion to build a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept about democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – among senior generations close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed over the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we were raised with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into an icon of hate who blesses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this change developed more gradually, across decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless unsettling via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Christ from my childhood, because theoretically Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the quickly increasing segment among Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or nones. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically not the account of a mighty king emerging; instead, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to another nation to escape covert authorities. 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 practical compassion, shown by providing food and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a means to educate the attacker; his method regarding offenses states that when a person pilfers your jacket you ought to provide him your sweater also.
The obvious and direct truth that Christ in biblical accounts advocates for a type of profound affection focused on the impoverished has perpetually caused the Christian faith something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the general public, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. In the 1950s it was controlled via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge during the previous year. It has been great solace to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired citizens to show up in large quantities in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, essentially, by reference to the highest about American history, similar to Christianity is most protected by reference to elements that cause it to be distinctive and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In neither case does it mean acting as if the most negative of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it means both meekness and belief, a blend that committed American Christians should be comfortable with.
