The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining occasions – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president started showing all observers his plans for a gilded ballroom two times larger of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and growing, and recently research projected his energy policies would kill another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking large sections of the White House to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the planet' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president try to upend the established notion of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations a near majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Essentially, they turned a figure of love into a figure of hostility who blesses exactly the harshness that he criticized in scripture; this transformation occurred more gradually, through multiple decades rather than months, yet it remains unsettling via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Christ that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the fastest-growing cadre of Americans may possess limited understanding about him since they are atheists or doubters or spiritual independents. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of great price in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably not the account of a mighty king appearing; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his doctrine is about love for other people, specifically for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and housing. Jesus' answer to hostility is to offer the other cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a way to instruct the aggressor; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever a person pilfers your jacket you ought to provide the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and clear fact that the Savior from scripture advocates for a type of extreme compassion centered on the needy has perpetually caused Christian religion rather a controversial faith: attractive to the populace, but owing to its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Best of Us
Hence I have become encouraged to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump arise during the previous year. It has served as significant comfort to help build the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged electorate to turn out in numbers in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and with identical determination, with American flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities of American history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, in other words, by relationship to the best about American history, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to what makes it distinctive and beautiful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In both situations does it suggest acting as if the most negative of both America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it represents both humility and belief, a combination that committed national faithful should embrace.
