The Trump movement's most illuminating and defining instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – emerged earlier this harvest season. During the period of a few weeks, the American president commenced revealing all observers his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to build it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the present calculation of deaths from his cuts to international aid is 600,000 and growing, and recently research predicted his energy policies would kill 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have risked – really, no former commander would have conceived – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which conduct transactions with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they turned a figure of love into a figure of hate who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disturbing in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding of him as they consider themselves atheists or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably definitely not the account of an authoritative monarch emerging; conversely, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to avoid secret police. The baby grows up in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his message concerns compassion for fellow humans, specifically for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a way to instruct the attacker; his method regarding offenses states that when someone steals your jacket you must offer him your sweater as well.
The apparent and clear truth that the Savior in biblical accounts requests a kind of profound affection centered on the poor has consistently rendered Christian religion something of a scandalous religion: appealing to the general public, but because of its intrinsic extremism demanding to be restrained. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to observe the steadfast resistance against Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the initiative that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged electorate to show up in significant amounts in interim political contests. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags throughout each rally and calls to the finest aspects in US history.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, essentially, by reference to the best about American history, just as Christianity is most protected by reference to that which renders it special and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it imply feigning the most damaging about the nation and Christianity never occurred; it signifies both meekness and belief, a blend that committed national faithful should embrace.
