The Trump phenomenon's most telling and distinctive occasions – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the American president started showing all observers his plans for an ornate dance hall two times larger than the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the present calculation of deaths due to his slashing to international aid is 600,000 and rising, and recently research projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have risked – really, no other president would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the executive mansion to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of numerous the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the president seek to颠覆 the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed over the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Essentially, they turned a figure of affection into an icon of animosity who blesses specifically the brutality that he criticized in the Gospel; this change developed more slowly, across decades rather than months, however it is still disturbing through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Savior that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus within Christian belief, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans could have minimal awareness regarding him because they identify as atheists or doubters or nones. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of an authoritative monarch appearing; instead, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to avoid covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his message concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, shown by providing food and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the additional cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a way to teach the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your jacket you must offer them your pullover too.
The obvious and straightforward fact that the Jesus from scripture advocates for a type of radical love concentrated on the poor is what has always made Christianity rather a provocative belief system: attractive to the general public, but due to its inherent radicalness demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was controlled through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Highest of Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to see the steadfast resistance against Trump develop in this past year. 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 show up in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you welcome them and receive them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, through connection to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is most protected by reference to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In neither case does it mean feigning the most damaging about the nation and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both modesty and faith, a blend that committed national faithful ought to accept.
