The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and characteristic occasions – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing all observers his plans for a lavish reception room double the dimensions compared to the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to build it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of fatalities due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and recently a study predicted his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have conceived – independently wrecking large sections of the White House to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of some of the richest Americans, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who should not find it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations a near majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed over the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we grew up with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they transformed an image of affection into a symbol of hate who blesses precisely the cruelties that he criticized in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, through multiple decades rather than months, however it is still disconcerting via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Christ from my upbringing, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as non-believers or doubters or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the narrative of a mighty king emerging; instead, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to escape covert authorities. The infant develops in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his teaching is about love for others, particularly for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to educate the attacker; his crime policy is that if someone steals your coat you must offer the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and clear truth that the Jesus from scripture calls for a kind of radical love concentrated on the needy has perpetually caused the Christian faith somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the populace, but due to its natural unconventionality needing to be restrained. During the 1950s it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so prevalent that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Finest of Us
Hence I have become inspired to observe the determined opposition regarding Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has served as great solace to participate in developing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated citizens to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags throughout each rally and appeals to the highest qualities of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by reference to the highest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by reference to what makes it distinctive and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In all circumstances does it imply acting as if the most negative of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it means both humility and faith, a blend that serious American Christians should embrace.
