The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic instances – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of several weeks, the American president commenced revealing the public his designs for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of fatalities from his cuts to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and rising, and presently research forecast his petroleum strategies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have risked – really, no former commander would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying large sections of the White House to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous the richest Americans, almost all of whom have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the world' to 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the leader try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations almost a majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we learned about into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of love into an icon of hate who approves specifically the brutality that he criticized in biblical teachings; this has happened more gradually, through multiple decades rather than months, yet it remains disconcerting via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus from my upbringing, as conceptually Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the fastest-growing cadre within America might have little sense regarding him since they are non-believers or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly absolutely not the story of an authoritative monarch emerging; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to avoid covert authorities. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching focuses on affection for fellow humans, particularly for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Christ's response to violence is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever a person pilfers your jacket you must offer them your pullover as well.
The apparent and straightforward truth that the Jesus from scripture calls for a kind of radical love concentrated on the needy is what has always made Christian religion something of a scandalous religion: attractive to the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Best of Us
So I have been encouraged to witness the determined opposition to Trump emerge during the previous year. It has served as significant comfort to participate in developing the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired citizens to participate in large quantities in interim political contests. We must have to persist with it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts of American history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, in other words, by relationship to the best about American history, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by reference to what makes it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it mean acting as if the most damaging of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it represents both humility and faith, a mixture that genuine US believers ought to accept.
