The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president began displaying everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions than the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of fatalities resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and rising, and this week a study projected his fossil fuel policies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have attempted – truly, no previous leader would have contemplated – independently wrecking significant portions of the presidential residence in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of numerous America's wealthiest, almost all of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the chief executive try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there is one large group of Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – among senior generations a near majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they turned a figure of compassion into a symbol of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he condemned in biblical teachings; this has happened at a slower pace, through multiple decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior from my childhood, because theoretically Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the rapidly expanding group within America may possess limited understanding of him as they consider themselves skeptics or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that there are pearls of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the narrative of a mighty king arising; conversely, a baby is born to displaced parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his doctrine is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Christ's response to violence is to present the additional cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a way to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing is that if a person pilfers your coat you ought to provide the person your additional clothing also.
The evident and straightforward reality that Christ of the gospels advocates for a type of profound affection centered on the needy is what has always made Christianity rather a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but owing to its natural unconventionality requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Highest of Us
Hence I have become encouraged to see the persistent defiance regarding Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as substantial consolation to participate in developing the campaign that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired citizens to participate in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners during all protests and calls to the best parts in US history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you welcome them and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, by reference to the highest about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured through connection to that which renders it special and wonderful, specifically the model of Christ. In all circumstances does it imply acting as if the worst of both America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it means both meekness and conviction, a blend that serious American Christians should be comfortable with.
