The Trump movement's most illuminating and defining instances – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of several weeks, the US president commenced revealing everyone his designs for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing to construct it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths from his cuts to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and rising, and recently research forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – truly, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying large sections of the White House in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept regarding democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us – among senior generations close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they turned a figure of compassion into a symbol of animosity who approves precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this transformation occurred more slowly, over decades as opposed to months, however it is still unsettling through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Christ from my upbringing, as conceptually Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and because the rapidly expanding group within America may possess limited understanding of him as they consider themselves skeptics or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly not the narrative of a mighty king appearing; rather, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to avoid covert authorities. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his message is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the assailant; his crime policy is that if a person pilfers your coat you ought to provide them your pullover as well.
The evident and clear reality that the Jesus from scripture advocates for a form of radical love centered on the needy has perpetually caused Christian religion somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the general public, but because of its natural unconventionality demanding to be controlled. In the 1950s it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Finest Among Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to observe the steadfast resistance regarding Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has been substantial consolation to help build the campaign that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to turn out in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts in US history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you welcome them and welcome him or not?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by reference to the highest in US heritage, similar to Christianity is most protected by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest feigning the most negative of both America and religious tradition never occurred; it represents both humility and faith, a mixture that serious US believers should be comfortable with.
