The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. In the course of multiple weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing the public his intentions for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions compared to the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the eastern section to build it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of fatalities from his cuts to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and rising, and presently research forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have attempted – really, no other president would have conceived – independently wrecking significant portions of the presidential residence in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous the richest Americans, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' toward 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the president try to upend the old idea about democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there is one large group among Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – among senior generations close to half – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they turned a figure of love into an icon of animosity who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, through multiple decades instead of months, however it is still disconcerting in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Jesus that I grew up with, since in theory Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and because the fastest-growing cadre within America might have little sense regarding him since they are skeptics or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the account of a powerful ruler appearing; conversely, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape undercover officers. The infant develops in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his message focuses on affection for other people, specifically for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and housing. Jesus' answer to violence is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a method to instruct the attacker; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever someone steals your outer garment you ought to provide him your sweater as well.
The evident and direct truth that the Jesus in biblical accounts advocates for a kind of profound affection concentrated on the impoverished has consistently rendered the Christian faith something of a scandalous religion: attractive to the populace, but because of its natural unconventionality demanding to be restrained. During the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Best Within Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to see the steadfast resistance to Trump arise during the previous year. It has been substantial consolation to participate in developing the campaign that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired voters to participate in significant amounts in interim political contests. We shall require to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags throughout each rally and requests to the highest qualities in US history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or reject?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by relationship to the highest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended through connection to that which renders it unique and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In neither case does it imply acting as if the most negative regarding America and Christianity did not happen; it means both humility and faith, a combination that serious US believers ought to accept.
