The Trump phenomenon's most telling and defining instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the US president began displaying the public his designs for a gilded ballroom twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of casualties due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently research forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have attempted – genuinely, no previous leader would have contemplated – solo demolishing large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of multiple America's wealthiest, the majority of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the president attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into an icon of hate who approves exactly the harshness that he denounced in scripture; this transformation occurred more gradually, across decades rather than months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior from my childhood, as conceptually the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans may possess limited understanding about him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or nones. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly absolutely not the narrative of a mighty king emerging; instead, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to evade secret police. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his message is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to violence is to turn the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to teach the aggressor; his method regarding offenses states that when someone steals your outer garment you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The apparent and clear truth that the Jesus in biblical accounts requests a type of radical love centered on the impoverished has perpetually caused the Christian faith something of a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but owing to its intrinsic extremism needing to be restrained. In the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Best of Us
Hence I have become encouraged to witness the determined opposition to Trump arise in this past year. It has served as great solace to help build the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged electorate to show up in numbers during minor elections. We shall require to persist with it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners at every demonstration and requests to the highest qualities in US history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you welcome them and welcome him or reject?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by reference to the finest about American history, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to elements that cause it to be unique and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Christ. In both situations does it imply acting as if the most damaging of both America and religious tradition never occurred; it signifies both humility and conviction, a blend that committed US believers should be comfortable with.
