Trumpism's most illuminating and distinctive instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of several weeks, the US president started showing the public his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing portion to build it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of casualties due to his slashing to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and growing, and presently an analysis forecast his fossil fuel policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have attempted – really, no former commander would have imagined – independently wrecking major areas of the White House in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of numerous America's wealthiest, nearly all of which have business with federal agencies.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who should not find it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts close to half – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of affection into a figure of animosity who endorses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more slowly, over decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, as conceptually Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group within America might have little sense about him because they identify as atheists or doubters or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of a mighty king arising; conversely, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to escape secret police. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his message concerns compassion for fellow humans, specifically for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a method to educate the assailant; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever an individual takes your coat you must offer him your sweater too.
The apparent and clear fact that Christ in biblical accounts advocates for a kind of profound affection focused on the needy has consistently rendered Christianity rather a scandalous religion: attractive to the populace, but due to its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the steadfast resistance regarding Trump emerge during the previous year. It has served as great solace to assist in constructing the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated citizens to show up in numbers in the off-year elections. We must have to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags at every demonstration and requests to the finest aspects in US history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you receive him and receive them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, through connection to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be special and wonderful, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it mean feigning the worst of both America and Christianity never occurred; it means both meekness and conviction, a blend that serious American Christians should embrace.
