The Trump movement's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. In the course of a few weeks, the nation's leader started showing everyone his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size compared to the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing to build it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the current estimate of fatalities from his cuts to foreign assistance is 600,000 and growing, and this week a study projected his fossil fuel policies would kill another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have attempted – truly, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing major areas of the White House to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of numerous the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the world' into 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations close to half – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we were raised with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of affection into a figure of hate who blesses specifically the brutality that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, over decades instead of months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior from my upbringing, as conceptually Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and because the rapidly expanding group within America may possess limited understanding about him because they identify as non-believers or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with different religions; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly absolutely not the story of a powerful ruler arising; rather, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to avoid covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his message concerns compassion for others, especially for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and protecting. Christ's response to violence is to turn the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to instruct the aggressor; his method regarding offenses is that if an individual takes your outer garment you ought to provide him your sweater as well.
The obvious and direct fact that the Savior from scripture advocates for a type of radical love focused on the impoverished has consistently rendered Christian religion rather a controversial faith: engaging for the masses, but due to its inherent radicalness requiring to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained through watering down – Protestantism was so dominant that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Finest of Us
So I have been inspired to observe the persistent defiance against Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to help build the campaign that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to participate in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We shall require to maintain it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners during all protests and calls to the best parts of American history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you receive him and embrace them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by relationship to the highest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended through connection to what makes it distinctive and beautiful, specifically the model of the Savior. In both situations does it mean feigning the most damaging of both America and Christianity never occurred; it means both modesty and belief, a combination that committed US believers should be comfortable with.
