The Trump movement's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of a few weeks, the nation's leader started showing everyone his plans for a lavish reception room twice the size of the White House and then began independently demolishing the eastern section to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of casualties resulting from his reductions to international aid stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently a study forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have risked – really, no previous leader would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying large sections of the presidential residence in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of some of the richest Americans, almost all of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the chief executive try to upend the old idea about democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group of Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed over the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we learned about into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into a symbol of animosity who endorses specifically the brutality that he denounced in the Gospel; this has happened more gradually, across decades rather than months, yet it remains disconcerting via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior that I grew up with, as conceptually the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and given that the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him because they identify as skeptics or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that exist valuable insights of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly definitely not the account of an authoritative monarch arising; conversely, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his teaching focuses on affection for other people, especially for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to hostility is to present the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a method to teach the assailant; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever someone steals your jacket you must offer him your sweater too.
The apparent and clear truth that the Jesus of the gospels requests a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy has consistently rendered the Christian faith something of a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. In the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Finest Within Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the persistent defiance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as substantial consolation to participate in developing the campaign that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated citizens to show up in significant amounts in interim political contests. We shall require to continue it, and with identical determination, with American flags at every demonstration and requests to the best parts of American history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you receive him and welcome him or not?
The nation is most protected, essentially, through connection to the best within national tradition, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to what makes it special and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In neither case does it mean feigning the most damaging about the nation and religious tradition never occurred; it represents both humility and conviction, a blend that genuine US believers should embrace.
