The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining occasions – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing all observers his intentions for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions compared to the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to construct it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and growing, and recently a study projected his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have risked – really, no former commander would have contemplated – solo demolishing major areas of the White House to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which have business with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the old idea regarding democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Essentially, they transformed an image of love into a figure of hostility who blesses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this change developed more slowly, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disturbing through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior that I grew up with, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the rapidly expanding group among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly absolutely not the account of an authoritative monarch emerging; instead, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to another nation to escape covert authorities. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching focuses on affection for others, particularly for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a way to instruct the aggressor; his crime policy states that when a person pilfers your outer garment you must offer the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and direct truth that the Savior of the gospels requests a kind of radical love concentrated on the poor has perpetually caused Christianity something of a provocative belief system: engaging for the populace, but due to its natural unconventionality requiring to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Finest Among Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the determined opposition to Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to participate in developing the movement that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged electorate to participate in numbers in the off-year elections. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and requests to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or reject?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by reference to the finest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured through connection to elements that cause it to be unique and magnificent, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it mean feigning the most negative regarding America and Christianity never occurred; it represents both meekness and conviction, a combination that serious American Christians ought to accept.
