The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing the public his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to USAID stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently a study predicted his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have attempted – truly, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing large sections of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple the richest Americans, almost all of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader try to upend the established notion of democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there is one large group among Americans who should not find 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 as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we grew up with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into a symbol of hate who approves specifically the brutality that he denounced in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more gradually, across decades rather than months, however it is still disturbing in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, as conceptually Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and since the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding about him since they are skeptics or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably definitely not the narrative of a powerful ruler arising; instead, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to evade undercover officers. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his message focuses on affection for other people, specifically for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and protecting. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a method to instruct the assailant; his crime policy indicates that whenever an individual takes your jacket you must offer the person your additional clothing also.
The apparent and direct fact that Christ in biblical accounts calls for a form of extreme compassion centered on the needy is what has always made Christian religion somewhat of a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but owing to its natural unconventionality requiring to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so dominant that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump arise during the previous year. It has provided great solace to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to show up in numbers during minor elections. We must have to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags during all protests and calls to the finest aspects of American history.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by reference to the finest in US heritage, just as Christianity is optimally secured by reference to that which renders it unique and beautiful, specifically the model of Christ. In all circumstances does it imply acting as if the most negative about the nation and Christian faith did not happen; it means both modesty and conviction, a mixture that genuine American Christians should be comfortable with.
