The Trump movement's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing all observers his intentions for a lavish reception room two times larger of the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of deaths resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have attempted – genuinely, no other president would have imagined – independently wrecking significant portions of the executive mansion in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' toward 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the president try to upend the established notion regarding democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who should not find it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics close to half – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they turned a figure of affection into a symbol of animosity who blesses specifically the brutality that he criticized in scripture; this change developed at a slower pace, over decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Christ that I grew up with, because theoretically Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the rapidly expanding group of Americans might have little sense of him because they identify as atheists or doubters or spiritual independents. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the story of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to escape undercover officers. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his message concerns compassion for fellow humans, specifically for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, shown by providing food and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to offer the other cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing states that when someone steals your jacket you must offer the person your additional clothing also.
The apparent and straightforward truth that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a type of extreme compassion centered on the impoverished is what has always made the Christian faith rather a scandalous religion: attractive to the general public, but because of its intrinsic extremism requiring to be restrained. In the 1950s it was controlled via weakening – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Best Among Us
Hence I have become inspired to observe the persistent defiance against Trump arise during the previous year. It has provided great solace to help build the campaign that has protested openly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged citizens to turn out in large quantities in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags throughout each rally and appeals to the best parts in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, to put it differently, through connection to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to what makes it distinctive and magnificent, specifically the model of the Savior. In all circumstances does it mean acting as if the worst of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it represents both modesty and conviction, a mixture that serious US believers should embrace.
