The Trump movement's most revealing and distinctive instances – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president began displaying the public his plans for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions compared to the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing to construct it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the present calculation of fatalities from his cuts to international aid stands at 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study projected his energy policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have dared – genuinely, no previous leader would have conceived – solo demolishing large sections of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of multiple the richest Americans, nearly all of which have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the planet' toward 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the president try to upend the established notion of democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. That is those of us – within elder demographics close to half – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we were raised with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of love into a figure of animosity who endorses specifically the brutality that he denounced in scripture; this transformation occurred more gradually, over decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless unsettling through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the fastest-growing cadre within America might have little sense about him because they identify as skeptics or uncertain individuals or nones. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically definitely not the account of a powerful ruler emerging; conversely, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his teaching is about love for other people, specifically for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a way to teach the aggressor; his crime policy is that if a person pilfers your jacket you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The obvious and straightforward truth that the Savior from scripture calls for a form of extreme compassion centered on the poor has consistently rendered the Christian faith something of a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the determined opposition to Trump develop in this past year. It has served as significant comfort to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged voters to turn out in significant amounts in interim political contests. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags throughout each rally and requests to the best parts within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or not?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, through connection to the finest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it suggest acting as if the most negative regarding America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it represents both humility and faith, a mixture that genuine American Christians ought to accept.
