The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic occasions – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. During the period of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing all observers his intentions for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions than the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to construct it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and rising, and this week research projected his energy policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have risked – truly, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the executive mansion to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of numerous America's wealthiest, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the world' toward 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the president try to upend the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they converted a persona of affection into an icon of hostility who approves precisely the cruelties that he criticized in scripture; this has happened more slowly, across decades instead of months, however it is still unsettling through similar means, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Savior from my upbringing, since in theory Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and because the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense about him because they identify as atheists or doubters or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the account of a mighty king arising; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to avoid covert authorities. The infant develops in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, especially for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Jesus' answer to aggression is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever an individual takes your outer garment you ought to provide the person your additional clothing too.
The apparent and straightforward fact that the Jesus in biblical accounts advocates for a type of profound affection focused on the poor has perpetually caused Christian religion rather a scandalous religion: appealing to the populace, but due to its inherent radicalness demanding to be controlled. In the fifties it was restrained via weakening – Protestantism was so widespread that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to witness the determined opposition to Trump emerge in this past year. It has been great solace to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated electorate to show up in numbers during minor elections. We must have to continue it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags throughout each rally and appeals to the best parts in US history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you welcome them and receive them or not?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by reference to the best about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured through connection to elements that cause it to be special and wonderful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In both situations does it mean feigning the most damaging of both America and religious tradition never occurred; it means both humility and conviction, a combination that serious US believers should embrace.
