The Trump phenomenon's most telling and defining moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. During the period of several weeks, the American president commenced revealing everyone his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the existing assessment of casualties resulting from his reductions to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and recently research forecast his energy policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – truly, no previous leader would have imagined – independently wrecking significant portions of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' to 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the president try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there is one large group within America who should not find it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched across decades as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they converted a persona of love into an icon of animosity who blesses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, across decades rather than months, yet it remains disconcerting through similar means, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and given that the rapidly expanding group of Americans could have minimal awareness of him because they identify as skeptics or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of great price within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably not the narrative of a mighty king emerging; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to evade covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his doctrine is about love for others, specifically for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to turn the additional cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a way to teach the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing is that if someone steals your outer garment you ought to provide them your pullover also.
The obvious and clear reality that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a kind of profound affection centered on the poor is what has always made Christian religion rather a scandalous religion: attractive to the populace, but due to its natural unconventionality requiring to be controlled. In the 1950s it was contained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so widespread that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest of Us
So I have been inspired to observe the steadfast resistance regarding Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated electorate to turn out in large quantities during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the best parts of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
The nation is most protected, in other words, through connection to the finest in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by relationship to what makes it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of the Savior. In both situations does it suggest acting as if the most damaging about the nation and religious tradition was nonexistent; it means both humility and faith, a combination that serious American Christians ought to accept.
