The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and defining moments – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the US president began displaying the public his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions than the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the eastern section to build it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and growing, and this week an analysis predicted his energy policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have risked – really, no former commander would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying major areas of the presidential residence to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of some of the richest Americans, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' to 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the leader seek to颠覆 the old idea of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics close to half – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they turned a figure of affection into a figure of hostility who approves precisely the cruelties that he denounced in biblical teachings; this change developed more slowly, through multiple decades as opposed to months, however it is still disturbing through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Savior from my childhood, as conceptually Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him as they consider themselves non-believers or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that there are pearls of great price in the Christian story.
It is emphatically definitely not the story of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade secret police. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine is about love for others, specifically for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a means to instruct the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing is that if someone steals your outer garment you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The obvious and clear reality that Christ in biblical accounts calls for a type of radical love centered on the poor is what has always made Christian religion somewhat of a scandalous religion: engaging for the masses, but due to its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so prevalent that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Best Among Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop in this past year. It has been significant comfort to participate in developing the campaign that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired electorate to turn out in large quantities in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags during all protests and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, essentially, by relationship to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is best defended by reference to what makes it distinctive and beautiful, specifically the model of Christ. In both situations does it suggest pretending the most negative about the nation and Christian faith was nonexistent; it represents both modesty and conviction, a combination that serious American Christians should be comfortable with.
