Trumpism's most illuminating and distinctive occasions – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of multiple weeks, the nation's leader started showing all observers his plans for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions than the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and recently research projected his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have attempted – really, no former commander would have conceived – independently wrecking large sections of the White House to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of numerous the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' to 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there is one large group among Americans who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they turned a figure of love into a figure of animosity who approves specifically the brutality that he criticized in the Gospel; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disturbing through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ from my upbringing, as conceptually Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group within America might have little sense regarding him since they are skeptics or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the story of a powerful ruler arising; conversely, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade undercover officers. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his teaching focuses on affection for fellow humans, especially for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Jesus' answer to aggression is to turn the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to instruct the assailant; his method regarding offenses states that when an individual takes your jacket you should give them your pullover as well.
The evident and clear reality that the Savior of the gospels calls for a form of extreme compassion focused on the poor has perpetually caused the Christian faith rather a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be controlled. In the fifties it was restrained through watering down – Protestantism was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Finest of Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to see the determined opposition against Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as great solace to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated electorate to participate in numbers during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners during all protests and calls to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you receive him and receive them or not?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the finest about American history, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by reference to that which renders it unique and magnificent, which is the example of Christ. In both situations does it suggest pretending the most negative about the nation and Christianity did not happen; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a blend that serious American Christians should embrace.
