The Trump movement's most illuminating and characteristic occasions – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president began displaying the public his designs for a lavish reception room two times larger than the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to erect it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the existing assessment of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and rising, and this week a study projected his energy policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have risked – really, no previous leader would have contemplated – independently wrecking significant portions of the presidential residence to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of numerous the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which have business with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the planet' into 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the chief executive try to upend the old idea regarding democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of love into a symbol of hate who endorses exactly the harshness that he criticized in the Gospel; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, yet it remains disconcerting through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ that I grew up with, as conceptually Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the rapidly expanding group within America might have little sense regarding him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or nones. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of great price in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably not the story of an authoritative monarch appearing; instead, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to evade secret police. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his teaching focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Jesus' answer to violence is to offer the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the aggressor; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever a person pilfers your coat you should give him your sweater too.
The evident and straightforward reality that the Jesus from scripture requests a kind of extreme compassion centered on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christianity rather a controversial faith: attractive to the masses, but due to its natural unconventionality needing to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Finest Within Us
Hence I have become heartened to see the persistent defiance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as great solace to help build the initiative that has protested openly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to participate in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags 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 accept these individuals and welcome him or not?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by reference to the finest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Christ. In both situations does it mean acting as if the most negative regarding America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it means both modesty and faith, a blend that serious US believers should be comfortable with.
