The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the US president started showing all observers his designs for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions than the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing to construct it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to USAID amounts to 600,000 and rising, and recently a study forecast his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have attempted – genuinely, no previous leader would have conceived – independently wrecking major areas of the presidential residence to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of numerous the richest Americans, almost all of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept regarding democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who wouldn't consider it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations almost a majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we learned about into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Essentially, they turned a figure of compassion into a symbol of hostility who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more gradually, over decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disturbing through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior from my upbringing, because theoretically Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense regarding him as they consider themselves non-believers or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; but I do think that there are pearls of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the account of an authoritative monarch emerging; conversely, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape secret police. The infant develops in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for other people, specifically for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the opposite cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to educate the assailant; his method regarding offenses states that when someone steals your coat you should give the person your additional clothing as well.
The evident and direct truth that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a type of profound affection concentrated on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christian religion something of a controversial faith: engaging for the populace, but due to its inherent radicalness needing to be controlled. In the fifties it was controlled via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
So I have been encouraged to see the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge during the previous year. It has served as great solace to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated citizens to participate in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners during all protests and requests to the best parts in US history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or not?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by reference to the best in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to what makes it unique and magnificent, which is the example of Christ. In both situations does it mean pretending the worst regarding America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it signifies both humility and conviction, a combination that committed American Christians should be comfortable with.
