The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and distinctive instances – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. 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 then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the existing assessment of fatalities resulting from his reductions to international aid amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study predicted his petroleum strategies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – really, no other president would have imagined – independently wrecking large sections of the presidential residence in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the planet' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the chief executive attempt to overturn the old idea of democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there is one large group among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they turned a figure of affection into a figure of hostility who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in biblical teachings; this change developed at a slower pace, over decades rather than months, however it is still disturbing in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the rapidly expanding group among Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as skeptics or uncertain individuals or nones. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with different religions; but I do think that there are pearls of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of an authoritative monarch emerging; rather, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his message focuses on affection for fellow humans, especially for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a means to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing states that when an individual takes your jacket you should give them your pullover as well.
The apparent and clear truth that the Savior of the gospels requests a form of profound affection focused on the needy is what has always made Christianity somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness requiring to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Finest of Us
Hence I have become encouraged to observe the persistent defiance against Trump develop in this past year. It has been great solace to assist in constructing the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired electorate to participate in significant amounts during minor elections. We shall require to persist with it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by reference to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is most protected by reference to that which renders it special and beautiful, specifically the model of Jesus. In all circumstances does it suggest feigning the most negative of both America and religious tradition never occurred; it means both humility and faith, a blend that serious national faithful ought to accept.
