The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive instances – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. In the course of several weeks, the American president started showing the public his plans for a lavish reception room two times larger than the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to erect it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the present calculation of casualties from his cuts to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and rising, and presently a study forecast his energy policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – genuinely, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with the government.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the world' to 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who should not find it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations a near majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we were raised with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Essentially, they converted a persona of compassion into an icon of hostility who approves exactly the harshness that he denounced in the Gospel; this change developed at a slower pace, over decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disturbing through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my upbringing, as conceptually the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and because the fastest-growing cadre within America may possess limited understanding regarding him because they identify as skeptics or agnostics or nones. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; however I believe that there are pearls of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is decidedly definitely not the story of an authoritative monarch emerging; rather, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a different country to evade undercover officers. The child matures in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his message focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, shown by providing food and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a method to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever someone steals your outer garment you must offer them your pullover also.
The evident and clear truth that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a form of radical love focused on the impoverished has consistently rendered Christian religion somewhat of a provocative belief system: attractive to the general public, but because of its natural unconventionality needing to be controlled. In the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestantism was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Within Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to witness the persistent defiance against Trump emerge during the previous year. It has served as significant comfort to assist in constructing the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated electorate to show up in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners at every demonstration and requests to the best parts in US history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or not?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the finest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by reference to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, specifically the model of Jesus. In all circumstances does it imply acting as if the most damaging regarding America and Christian faith did not happen; it means both humility and conviction, a mixture that serious US believers should be comfortable with.
