Trumpism's most telling and defining moments – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of several weeks, the nation's leader began displaying all observers his plans for an ornate dance hall two times larger than the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties due to his slashing to foreign assistance is 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study predicted his energy policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have dared – really, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing large sections of the executive mansion to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the world' to 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the president try to upend the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics close to half – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they transformed an image of affection into an icon of hate who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in scripture; this change developed more gradually, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains unsettling through similar means, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, because theoretically Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group among Americans might have little sense about him since they are atheists or agnostics or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably not the narrative of a mighty king arising; conversely, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to evade undercover officers. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for other people, specifically for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Christ's response to hostility is to turn the other cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to educate the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever someone steals your coat you must offer them your pullover too.
The apparent and direct truth that Christ from scripture requests a form of radical love focused on the poor is what has always made Christianity rather a controversial faith: engaging for the masses, but due to its inherent radicalness requiring to be restrained. In the fifties it was controlled by dilution – Protestantism was so widespread that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Finest of Us
So I have been heartened to witness the steadfast resistance regarding Trump arise during the previous year. It has served as substantial consolation to assist in constructing the movement that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated citizens to turn out in large quantities in the off-year elections. We will need to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners at every demonstration and calls to the highest qualities of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, through connection to the finest within national tradition, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it unique and wonderful, which is the example of the Savior. In both situations does it suggest pretending the most negative of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it signifies both modesty and conviction, a blend that committed national faithful ought to accept.
