The Trump movement's most illuminating and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of several weeks, the US president began displaying everyone his plans for a lavish reception room twice the size compared to the White House and then began independently demolishing the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of casualties due to his slashing to USAID stands at 600,000 and increasing, and recently an analysis predicted his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have attempted – really, no previous leader would have conceived – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' toward 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the president try to upend the established notion of democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics close to half – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we were raised with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they converted a persona of compassion into a figure of hostility who approves exactly the harshness that he denounced in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more gradually, through multiple decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior from my upbringing, since in theory Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the quickly increasing segment among Americans might have little sense regarding him since they are non-believers or uncertain individuals or nones. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the account of a powerful ruler arising; rather, 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 covert authorities. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to present the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a means to instruct the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if an individual takes your outer garment you should give him your sweater as well.
The apparent and straightforward reality that Christ of the gospels advocates for a form of profound affection centered on the poor has consistently rendered Christianity something of a provocative belief system: engaging for the general public, but owing to its natural unconventionality requiring to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Best Among Us
Hence I have become inspired to see the steadfast resistance against Trump develop during the previous year. It has provided great solace to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to show up in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the finest aspects in US history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, essentially, by reference to the best in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by relationship to what makes it special and wonderful, specifically the model of Christ. In neither case does it mean acting as if the most damaging of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it represents both meekness and belief, a mixture that committed US believers should embrace.
