The Trump movement's most revealing and distinctive instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the American president started showing the public his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size compared to the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing to erect it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the present calculation of casualties from his cuts to international aid amounts to 600,000 and growing, and recently research predicted his energy policies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – genuinely, no former commander would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of multiple the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the chief executive attempt to overturn the traditional concept about democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we grew up with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they converted a persona of affection into an icon of animosity who endorses exactly the harshness that he criticized in biblical teachings; this has happened at a slower pace, over decades rather than months, however it is still disconcerting through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my upbringing, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans may possess limited understanding about him as they consider themselves skeptics or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that there are pearls of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably definitely not the narrative of a powerful ruler arising; conversely, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to escape secret police. The infant develops in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his doctrine focuses on affection for others, specifically for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to offer the other cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the assailant; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your outer garment you must offer him your sweater too.
The apparent and direct reality that Christ from scripture calls for a form of extreme compassion centered on the needy has perpetually caused Christianity something of a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but owing to its natural unconventionality needing to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Best Among Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to observe the determined opposition regarding Trump emerge during the previous year. It has served as great solace to help build the movement that has protested openly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged citizens to turn out in numbers in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and with identical determination, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the best parts within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you welcome them and welcome him or not?
America is best defended, essentially, by reference to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is optimally secured through connection to that which renders it distinctive and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In both situations does it imply pretending the most damaging about the nation and Christianity never occurred; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a mixture that committed US believers should be comfortable with.
