The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing the public his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and this week a study forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have attempted – really, no previous leader would have imagined – unilaterally destroying large sections of the executive mansion to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which have business with the government.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the world' to 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the president seek to颠覆 the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us – among senior generations a near majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed over the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we were raised with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they transformed an image of affection into a symbol of hostility who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in scripture; this change developed more slowly, over decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, as conceptually Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group within America may possess limited understanding regarding him because they identify as skeptics or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably not the story of a mighty king arising; instead, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to evade undercover officers. The child matures in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Jesus' answer to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a means to instruct the aggressor; his method regarding offenses is that if an individual takes your jacket you ought to provide the person your additional clothing also.
The evident and clear fact that the Jesus from scripture calls for a type of extreme compassion centered on the needy has consistently rendered the Christian faith rather a provocative belief system: appealing to the populace, but because of its natural unconventionality requiring to be restrained. During the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Best of Us
Hence I have become heartened to see the persistent defiance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has been great solace to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged electorate to show up in numbers in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags throughout each rally and requests to the finest aspects of American history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, by relationship to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be unique and wonderful, which is the example of Christ. In all circumstances does it imply acting as if the most damaging of both America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it means both humility and belief, a blend that committed American Christians ought to accept.
