The Trump movement's most revealing and distinctive instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the nation's leader started showing everyone his plans for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing to build it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and increasing, and presently research forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have risked – genuinely, no previous leader would have imagined – independently wrecking large sections of the presidential residence to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of multiple the richest Americans, nearly all of which have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the world' into 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we grew up with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. At its most basic, they converted a persona of love into an icon of hate who blesses specifically the brutality that he condemned in scripture; this change developed more slowly, over decades rather than months, yet it remains disturbing in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Savior that I grew up with, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and because the quickly increasing segment among Americans may possess limited understanding about him since they are atheists or uncertain individuals or nones. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of great price in the Christian story.
It is emphatically definitely not the narrative of a powerful ruler arising; rather, a baby is born to displaced parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to escape undercover officers. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his message concerns compassion for other people, particularly for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Christ's response to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his method regarding offenses states that when someone steals your outer garment you should give him your sweater also.
The obvious and straightforward reality that the Jesus in biblical accounts advocates for a type of extreme compassion centered on the impoverished is what has always made the Christian faith something of a controversial faith: attractive to the masses, but due to its inherent radicalness needing to be controlled. During the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Highest Within Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to witness the steadfast resistance regarding Trump emerge during the previous year. It has provided substantial consolation to participate in developing the initiative that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated citizens to turn out in numbers in the off-year elections. We shall require to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags during all protests and calls to the best parts of American history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by relationship to the highest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to that which renders it unique and beautiful, specifically the model of Christ. In both situations does it imply pretending the worst about the nation and Christian faith did not happen; it means both humility and faith, a blend that serious American Christians should be comfortable with.
