The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of a few weeks, the American president started showing everyone his intentions for a lavish reception room two times larger of the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of casualties due to his slashing to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and recently a study forecast his energy policies would kill another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have attempted – truly, no other president would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House to build a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of numerous the richest Americans, the majority of whom have business with the government.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' toward 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the president seek to颠覆 the traditional concept of democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Essentially, they turned a figure of compassion into a figure of animosity who approves precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this has happened at a slower pace, through multiple decades rather than months, yet it remains disconcerting through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and given that the fastest-growing cadre of Americans might have little sense about him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the account of a mighty king arising; rather, a baby is born to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The child matures in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and housing. Jesus' answer to violence is to offer the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your jacket you must offer the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and direct reality that Christ of the gospels advocates for a kind of radical love concentrated on the poor is what has always made Christian religion something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism demanding to be controlled. During the 1950s it was contained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Highest Within Us
Hence I have become heartened to witness the determined opposition to Trump develop during the previous year. It has provided great solace to help build the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated electorate to turn out in numbers in the off-year elections. We must have to continue it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags during all protests and requests to the best parts within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or reject?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, through connection to the highest about American history, similar to Christianity is best defended through connection to that which renders it distinctive and magnificent, which is the example of Christ. In neither case does it mean acting as if the worst about the nation and Christian faith did not happen; it signifies both modesty and faith, a mixture that genuine US believers ought to accept.
