The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president began displaying everyone his designs for a lavish reception room double the dimensions of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of fatalities resulting from his reductions to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and presently an analysis predicted his energy policies would kill 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No other president would have dared – really, no previous leader would have contemplated – solo demolishing significant portions of the presidential residence in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of some of America's wealthiest, almost all of whom have business with public institutions.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there is one large group among Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched across decades as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we learned about into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. At its most basic, they turned a figure of love into a figure of animosity who blesses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this change developed more slowly, over decades instead of months, however it is still disturbing via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and given that the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him since they are atheists or doubters or nones. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that there are pearls of great price in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to evade undercover officers. The child matures in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his message is about love for other people, specifically for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and housing. Christ's response to hostility is to present the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a way to instruct the attacker; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever an individual takes your coat you must offer them your pullover as well.
The apparent and straightforward truth that the Jesus in biblical accounts calls for a form of extreme compassion centered on the poor is what has always made Christianity something of a controversial faith: attractive to the general public, but because of its intrinsic extremism demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Highest Within Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to see the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop during the previous year. It has served as great solace to assist in constructing the campaign that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you receive him and receive them or reject?
America is best defended, essentially, through connection to the highest about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by reference to what makes it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In all circumstances does it mean pretending the worst of both America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it signifies both modesty and faith, a mixture that committed American Christians should embrace.
