Trumpism's most illuminating and distinctive occasions – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president started showing everyone his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and presently an analysis predicted his fossil fuel policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have risked – truly, no former commander would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the presidential residence to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with federal agencies.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' into 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the president try to upend the old idea of democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations close to half – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we grew up with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into a symbol of animosity who approves precisely the cruelties that he criticized in the Gospel; this change developed more slowly, through multiple decades instead of months, yet it remains disturbing via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and given that the quickly increasing segment among Americans could have minimal awareness of him as they consider themselves non-believers or doubters or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with different religions; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of great price in the Christian story.
It is emphatically absolutely not the account of a mighty king emerging; conversely, a baby is born to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade undercover officers. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his message is about love for others, especially for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to present the other cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to instruct the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing states that when someone steals your coat you ought to provide the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and clear truth that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a type of radical love focused on the poor has perpetually caused the Christian faith something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the populace, but owing to its inherent radicalness needing to be contained. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Best Among Us
Hence I have become inspired to see the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has been great solace to help build the movement that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated electorate to participate in numbers in interim political contests. We will need to maintain it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you receive him and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, through connection to the best in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected by reference to what makes it special and magnificent, which is the example of Christ. In both situations does it mean pretending the most damaging regarding America and Christianity never occurred; it means both humility and belief, a mixture that serious American Christians should embrace.
