Trumpism's most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the US president began displaying the public his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size than the White House and then began independently demolishing the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of fatalities due to his slashing to USAID is 600,000 and increasing, and this week research forecast his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have dared – truly, no former commander would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the White House in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of multiple the richest Americans, almost all of whom have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' into 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the president try to upend the old idea of democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment within America who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics close to half – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched across decades as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we learned about into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of affection into an icon of hostility who blesses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, across decades as opposed to months, yet it remains unsettling through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, since in theory Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and given that the rapidly expanding group within America may possess limited understanding about him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; however I believe that there are pearls of great price in the Christian story.
It is decidedly definitely not the account of an authoritative monarch emerging; instead, an infant arrives to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to escape secret police. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his teaching is about love for fellow humans, especially for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and protecting. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever an individual takes your outer garment you must offer him your sweater as well.
The obvious and straightforward reality that the Jesus of the gospels advocates for a type of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished is what has always made the Christian faith rather a controversial faith: attractive to the masses, but due to its natural unconventionality needing to be contained. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestantism was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest of Us
So I have been heartened to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump develop during the previous year. It has been great solace to assist in constructing the initiative that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged citizens to show up in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags during all protests and calls to the finest aspects in US history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you receive him and welcome him or not?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by relationship to the best about American history, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to what makes it unique and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In both situations does it suggest pretending the most negative regarding America and Christianity never occurred; it signifies both modesty and belief, a mixture that committed US believers should embrace.
