Trumpism's most telling and defining moments – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of several weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing all observers his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of casualties due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently an analysis forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have attempted – really, no previous leader would have conceived – independently wrecking large sections of the White House to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which maintain dealings with the government.
We went from 'the humble will receive the planet' into 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the leader try to upend the established notion about democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – among senior generations close to half – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we learned about into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Essentially, they converted a persona of affection into an icon of hate who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred more slowly, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, as conceptually the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and because the rapidly expanding group among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him as they consider themselves atheists or doubters or nones. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with different religions; but I do think that exist valuable insights of great price within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably definitely not the story of a powerful ruler appearing; conversely, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape secret police. The child matures in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Christ's response to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a method to teach the attacker; his method regarding offenses states that when an individual takes your jacket you must offer them your pullover too.
The evident and clear reality that Christ in biblical accounts requests a kind of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christianity rather a scandalous religion: attractive to the masses, but due to its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. In the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Best Within Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to witness the persistent defiance against Trump develop in this past year. It has been significant comfort to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated electorate to show up in large quantities in the off-year elections. We will need to maintain it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you receive him and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it unique and wonderful, specifically the model of the Savior. In neither case does it suggest feigning the most damaging of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it means both modesty and faith, a combination that serious American Christians ought to accept.
