The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing everyone his intentions for a lavish reception room two times larger than the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the eastern section to build it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and growing, and this week an analysis predicted his petroleum strategies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have risked – really, no previous leader would have conceived – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the presidential residence to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the planet' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the president try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there is one large group among Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics close to half – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we were raised with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they transformed an image of love into a figure of hostility who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, across decades rather than months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my childhood, as conceptually Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding about him because they identify as atheists or doubters or nones. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that there are pearls of great price in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the narrative of a mighty king arising; conversely, a baby is born to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to avoid secret police. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine is about love for fellow humans, especially for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to present the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a way to teach the assailant; his method regarding offenses states that when a person pilfers your coat you ought to provide him your sweater as well.
The obvious and direct fact that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a kind of profound affection focused on the poor has perpetually caused the Christian faith rather a scandalous religion: engaging for the general public, but owing to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be contained. In the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Finest of Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to see the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop during the previous year. It has served as great solace to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to participate in large quantities in the off-year elections. We will need to persist with it, and in the same spirit, with American flags during all protests and requests to the best parts within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, in other words, through connection to the best about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by reference to what makes it distinctive and beautiful, specifically the model of Jesus. In both situations does it mean pretending the most negative of both America and religious tradition never occurred; it means both meekness and conviction, a mixture that committed US believers should embrace.
