The Trump movement's most revealing and distinctive occasions – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to erect it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of casualties resulting from his reductions to international aid amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have dared – really, no other president would have imagined – independently wrecking significant portions of the White House in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of some of the richest Americans, almost all of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the leader try to upend the established notion about democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we learned about into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of love into a symbol of hate who endorses specifically the brutality that he criticized in scripture; this change developed more gradually, through multiple decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disturbing via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the quickly increasing segment among Americans could have minimal awareness about him because they identify as atheists or doubters or spiritual independents. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably definitely not the story of a powerful ruler arising; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a different country to evade undercover officers. The child matures in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his message is about love for fellow humans, especially for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Jesus' answer to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a method to instruct the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever a person pilfers your coat you should give him your sweater too.
The apparent and clear fact that the Jesus in biblical accounts advocates for a type of radical love concentrated on the needy is what has always made the Christian faith something of a scandalous religion: appealing to the populace, but because of its inherent radicalness requiring to be restrained. During the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Highest of Us
So I have been heartened to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has provided substantial consolation to assist in constructing the initiative that has protested openly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to turn out in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and welcome him or not?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by reference to the highest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected by relationship to what makes it unique and beautiful, which is the example of Christ. In all circumstances does it suggest acting as if the most negative regarding America and Christianity was nonexistent; it means both modesty and conviction, a mixture that committed American Christians ought to accept.
