Trumpism's most revealing and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of several weeks, the US president began displaying all observers his plans for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing to construct it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the existing assessment of deaths from his cuts to international aid is 600,000 and rising, and this week research predicted his energy policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have attempted – really, no previous leader would have conceived – solo demolishing major areas of the White House to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' toward 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the president attempt to overturn the established notion about democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there is one large group within America who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics close to half – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we learned about into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Essentially, they transformed an image of love into a figure of hate who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in scripture; this has happened more gradually, through multiple decades rather than months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, because theoretically Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense regarding him because they identify as atheists or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that exist valuable insights of great price in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically definitely not the account of an authoritative monarch emerging; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to avoid covert authorities. The child matures in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching is about love for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and housing. Christ's response to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his method regarding offenses states that when an individual takes your outer garment you ought to provide the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and direct fact that the Savior from scripture advocates for a form of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy has consistently rendered Christianity rather a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be restrained. In the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – The Protestant faith was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest of Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the determined opposition to Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has been significant comfort to participate in developing the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired voters to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We shall require to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by reference to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to what makes it unique and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In both situations does it mean acting as if the worst regarding America and Christianity never occurred; it signifies both meekness and belief, a blend that genuine national faithful should embrace.
