The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. In the course of a few weeks, the nation's leader started showing all observers his intentions for a gilded ballroom two times larger compared to the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the eastern section to construct it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the existing assessment of fatalities due to his slashing to international aid amounts to 600,000 and growing, and this week a study forecast his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – truly, no other president would have imagined – unilaterally destroying large sections of the presidential residence to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of multiple the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the world' toward 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the chief executive attempt to overturn the traditional concept regarding democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Essentially, they converted a persona of compassion into an icon of hostility who blesses exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, over decades rather than months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Christ that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus within Christian belief, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as skeptics or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that exist valuable insights of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically not the account of an authoritative monarch arising; instead, a baby is born to displaced parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to evade secret police. The child matures in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, specifically for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Jesus' answer to violence is to offer the opposite cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a method to educate the assailant; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your coat you must offer them your pullover too.
The obvious and direct truth that Christ in biblical accounts requests a form of extreme compassion centered on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christian religion rather a controversial faith: appealing to the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Highest of Us
So I have been encouraged to see the steadfast resistance regarding Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has been substantial consolation to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired citizens to participate in numbers in the off-year elections. We will need to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners throughout each rally and requests to the best parts within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by reference to the best about American history, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, which is the example of Christ. In both situations does it suggest pretending the worst about the nation and religious tradition never occurred; it means both meekness and faith, a blend that genuine American Christians should embrace.
