The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing all observers his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the eastern section to erect it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to foreign assistance is 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study forecast his petroleum strategies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have risked – truly, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of multiple America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We went from 'the humble will receive the planet' toward 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the president try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics close to half – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed over the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they converted a persona of affection into an icon of animosity who blesses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in the Gospel; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, however it is still unsettling via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior that I grew up with, as conceptually the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding about him because they identify as atheists or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the account of a mighty king arising; conversely, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to evade undercover officers. The child matures in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his doctrine is about love for other people, specifically for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and sheltering. Christ's response to hostility is to turn the additional cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a way to instruct the assailant; his crime policy states that when someone steals your coat you ought to provide the person your additional clothing also.
The evident and straightforward fact that the Savior in biblical accounts calls for a type of extreme compassion focused on the poor has consistently rendered Christian religion something of a scandalous religion: attractive to the populace, but owing to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be controlled. In the 1950s it was contained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Highest of Us
So I have been heartened to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump develop in this past year. It has served as significant comfort to help build the movement that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated electorate to turn out in numbers in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities in US history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by reference to the finest in US heritage, just as Christianity is optimally secured by reference to that which renders it distinctive and magnificent, particularly the pattern of Christ. In all circumstances does it suggest acting as if the most negative regarding America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it represents both humility and faith, a combination that committed US believers should embrace.
