The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the American president began displaying everyone his plans for a lavish reception room double the dimensions of the White House and then began independently demolishing the East Wing to construct it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of deaths resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance is 600,000 and growing, and recently a study forecast his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have imagined – unilaterally destroying major areas of the executive mansion in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, almost all of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the president attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who should not find it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations a near majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we were raised with into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into a symbol of hostility who approves precisely the cruelties that he criticized in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, across decades instead of months, yet it remains disturbing in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior that I grew up with, since in theory Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and given that the quickly increasing segment within America might have little sense regarding him as they consider themselves atheists or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically definitely not the story of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to evade covert authorities. The child matures in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his teaching is about love for other people, especially for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to hostility is to offer the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a method to educate the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever an individual takes your jacket you must offer them your pullover as well.
The apparent and straightforward fact that the Jesus from scripture advocates for a type of extreme compassion centered on the poor has consistently rendered Christian religion somewhat of a provocative belief system: attractive to the general public, but owing to its inherent radicalness demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was controlled via weakening – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the steadfast resistance against Trump arise during the previous year. It has been significant comfort to assist in constructing the campaign that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated electorate to show up in significant amounts in interim political contests. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags during all protests and requests to the highest qualities in US history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you welcome them and receive them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by relationship to the highest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be special and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In all circumstances does it mean acting as if the most damaging of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it represents both meekness and faith, a combination that serious national faithful ought to accept.
