The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and distinctive moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing the public his plans for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of fatalities due to his slashing to international aid amounts to 600,000 and rising, and presently an analysis predicted his petroleum strategies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have risked – really, no other president would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying major areas of the presidential residence in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous America's wealthiest, the majority of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We went from 'the humble will receive the planet' into 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the leader try to upend the established notion regarding democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – among senior generations close to half – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into an icon of animosity who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this has happened more slowly, through multiple decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Jesus that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the quickly increasing segment within America might have little sense regarding him since they are non-believers or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically absolutely not the narrative of a powerful ruler arising; rather, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to avoid covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his message concerns compassion for others, specifically for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to turn the additional cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a way to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever someone steals your outer garment you ought to provide the person your additional clothing as well.
The obvious and direct fact that the Jesus in biblical accounts calls for a kind of extreme compassion focused on the needy is what has always made the Christian faith something of a provocative belief system: attractive to the populace, but due to its inherent radicalness requiring to be restrained. During the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
So I have been heartened to observe the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has provided substantial consolation to assist in constructing the initiative that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired voters to show up in large quantities in the off-year elections. We will need to persist with it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags during all protests and requests to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, by reference to the finest in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to elements that cause it to be special and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In both situations does it mean acting as if the most negative regarding America and Christian faith did not happen; it represents both meekness and belief, a combination that serious national faithful should embrace.
