The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and distinctive occasions β not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing β occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the American president started showing everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing to build it.
He has done things countless times more severe β the existing assessment of deaths resulting from his reductions to international aid amounts to 600,000 and rising, and recently research predicted his energy policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked β really, no former commander would have conceived β solo demolishing significant portions of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the leader seek toι’ θ¦ the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there is one large group of Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. This includes individuals like us β within elder demographics a near majority β who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into a symbol of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he criticized in biblical teachings; this change developed at a slower pace, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disturbing through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Jesus from my upbringing, because theoretically Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly absolutely not the narrative of a mighty king appearing; rather, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to avoid undercover officers. The child matures in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his teaching concerns compassion for others, specifically for the disadvantaged β not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to hostility is to turn the other cheek β not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a method to instruct the aggressor; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever a person pilfers your jacket you must offer them your pullover too.
The obvious and straightforward reality that the Jesus of the gospels requests a kind of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christian religion something of a scandalous religion: engaging for the masses, but owing to its inherent radicalness requiring to be restrained. During the 1950s it was controlled via weakening β Protestantism was so dominant that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Best of Us
So I have been heartened to see the persistent defiance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the campaign 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 continue it, and with identical determination, with American flags throughout each rally and appeals to the finest aspects of American history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you welcome them and receive them or not?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the finest within national tradition, just as Christianity is optimally secured by reference to elements that cause it to be unique and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Christ. In neither case does it imply pretending the most damaging about the nation and Christianity did not happen; it represents both humility and belief, a mixture that genuine national faithful ought to accept.
