The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing everyone his designs for an ornate dance hall two times larger compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the present calculation of casualties from his cuts to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and growing, and this week a study forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have dared – genuinely, no previous leader would have conceived – solo demolishing major areas of the executive mansion in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of numerous the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the president try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who should not find it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts close to half – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they transformed an image of compassion into a symbol of animosity who blesses exactly the harshness that he criticized in biblical teachings; this has happened more slowly, over decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disturbing through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and given that the fastest-growing cadre within America might have little sense of him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of an authoritative monarch arising; rather, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to escape secret police. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching concerns compassion for other people, particularly for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and housing. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to instruct the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing is that if someone steals your jacket you ought to provide the person your additional clothing too.
The obvious and direct reality that the Jesus in biblical accounts advocates for a form of radical love focused on the needy has consistently rendered the Christian faith something of a scandalous religion: attractive to the populace, but owing to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be controlled. In the fifties it was restrained via weakening – Protestantism was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Best Among Us
Hence I have become inspired to witness the determined opposition to Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged electorate to show up in numbers during minor elections. We shall require to maintain it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners throughout each rally and requests to the best parts in US history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, essentially, through connection to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is optimally secured by reference to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In all circumstances does it mean acting as if the most damaging of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it signifies both meekness and faith, a blend that serious American Christians should be comfortable with.
