The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic occasions – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the American president began displaying the public his designs for a lavish reception room double the dimensions compared to the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the eastern section to construct it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of fatalities from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and growing, and recently research predicted his petroleum strategies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have risked – really, no former commander would have contemplated – solo demolishing major areas of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which maintain dealings with public institutions.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed over the years while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we learned about into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Essentially, they transformed an image of compassion into a figure of hostility who blesses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in the Gospel; this has happened more gradually, through multiple decades as opposed to months, however it is still disturbing through similar means, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, because theoretically Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the quickly increasing segment of Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as atheists or doubters or nones. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; but I do think that there are pearls of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically not the story of a mighty king emerging; conversely, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to avoid undercover officers. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for other people, especially for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a means to instruct the assailant; his crime policy states that when an individual takes your coat you should give him your sweater as well.
The apparent and straightforward reality that Christ from scripture advocates for a kind of radical love focused on the poor has perpetually caused Christian religion something of a controversial faith: attractive to the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to observe the persistent defiance against Trump emerge during the previous year. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated voters to participate in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We shall require to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags during all protests and appeals to the best parts within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to elements that cause it to be distinctive and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Christ. In neither case does it mean feigning the worst of both America and Christianity never occurred; it means both meekness and conviction, a combination that genuine American Christians ought to accept.
