The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. During the period of several weeks, the American president began displaying the public his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and growing, and presently a study predicted his petroleum strategies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have dared – genuinely, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking major areas of the White House to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which have business with the government.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the world' into 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the chief executive try to upend the established notion of democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment within America who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into an icon of animosity who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in biblical teachings; this change developed more slowly, over decades rather than months, however it is still disturbing in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my upbringing, because theoretically the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and since the fastest-growing cadre within America might have little sense about him since they are non-believers or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that there are pearls of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly absolutely not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; rather, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his message focuses on affection for others, specifically for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a means to teach the assailant; his crime policy states that when an individual takes your coat you must offer them your pullover as well.
The obvious and direct truth that Christ from scripture calls for a form of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity somewhat of a scandalous religion: attractive to the general public, but owing to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be contained. During the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – Protestantism was so widespread that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to see the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has served as significant comfort to help build the campaign that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated electorate to show up in numbers during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags during all protests and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, through connection to the best about American history, similar to Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it special and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it mean feigning the most negative regarding America and Christian faith did not happen; it means both meekness and belief, a combination that genuine national faithful ought to accept.
