The Trump phenomenon's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing the public his plans for a lavish reception room two times larger than the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of fatalities from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and presently a study projected his energy policies would kill another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No other president would have attempted – genuinely, no previous leader would have conceived – unilaterally destroying major areas of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which conduct transactions with public institutions.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the world' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they turned a figure of love into a symbol of hostility who endorses specifically the brutality that he criticized in biblical teachings; this change developed more slowly, across decades rather than months, however it is still disconcerting via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Christ from my upbringing, as conceptually Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group within America could have minimal awareness about him because they identify as non-believers or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue 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 decidedly definitely not the narrative of a mighty king arising; conversely, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to another nation to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his doctrine focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. Jesus' answer to hostility is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to instruct the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your outer garment you must offer them your pullover as well.
The evident and clear fact that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a form of extreme compassion focused on the needy is what has always made Christianity something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the populace, but due to its inherent radicalness requiring to be restrained. In the fifties it was controlled through watering down – Protestantism was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
So I have been encouraged to observe the persistent defiance to Trump arise during the previous year. It has been great solace to assist in constructing the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged citizens to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and with identical determination, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by reference to the finest about American history, similar to Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it special and beautiful, specifically the model of Christ. In neither case does it imply acting as if the most damaging of both America and religious tradition did not happen; it means both modesty and faith, a mixture that serious national faithful ought to accept.
