The Trump movement's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the nation's leader began displaying all observers his intentions for a lavish reception room twice the size 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 present calculation of casualties resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and increasing, and presently research projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have risked – really, no other president would have imagined – unilaterally destroying large sections of the executive mansion to build a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of numerous America's wealthiest, the majority of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We went from 'the humble will receive the Earth' into 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the president try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed over the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. At its most basic, they turned a figure of love into an icon of hate who endorses exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, across decades instead of months, yet it remains unsettling via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group within America may possess limited understanding of him as they consider themselves atheists or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of a mighty king arising; instead, a baby is born to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to escape covert authorities. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and housing. Christ's response to hostility is to turn the opposite cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing states that when a person pilfers your coat you should give the person your additional clothing as well.
The evident and direct fact that the Jesus from scripture calls for a kind of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Highest Within Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump arise in this past year. It has served as great solace to participate in developing the movement that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated citizens to show up in numbers in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags at every demonstration and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you receive him and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by reference to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is best defended through connection to that which renders it special and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In all circumstances does it suggest pretending the most damaging regarding America and Christianity was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a combination that serious American Christians should be comfortable with.
