The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of several weeks, the US president started showing all observers his plans for a lavish reception room double the dimensions of the White House and then began solo dismantling the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – really, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking major areas of the presidential residence to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of numerous the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which maintain dealings with the government.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' toward 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the leader try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group of Americans who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Essentially, they transformed an image of compassion into an icon of hostility who blesses exactly the harshness that he criticized in the Gospel; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting through similar means, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, as conceptually the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and given that the quickly increasing segment within America may possess limited understanding of him as they consider themselves skeptics or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that there are pearls of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; rather, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to evade covert authorities. The child matures in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and housing. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to instruct the attacker; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your outer garment you ought to provide him your sweater as well.
The apparent and clear fact that the Savior from scripture requests a form of profound affection focused on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity rather a scandalous religion: attractive to the general public, but owing to its natural unconventionality needing to be controlled. In the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – Protestantism was so widespread that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the determined opposition regarding Trump emerge during the previous year. It has provided substantial consolation to assist in constructing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired citizens to show up in significant amounts in interim political contests. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and receive them or not?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest within national tradition, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to elements that cause it to be distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it mean feigning the worst about the nation and Christian faith was nonexistent; it means both meekness and belief, a mixture that genuine US believers should be comfortable with.
