The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of a few weeks, the nation's leader began displaying the public his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size than the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID is 600,000 and increasing, and this week an analysis forecast his fossil fuel policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have attempted – really, no former commander would have conceived – solo demolishing large sections of the White House to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous the richest Americans, the majority of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the world' to 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion about democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group of Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed over the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we were raised with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of affection into an icon of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this change developed more slowly, over decades instead of months, however it is still unsettling via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Savior from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and since the quickly increasing segment of Americans could have minimal awareness of him since they are skeptics or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly absolutely not the account of an authoritative monarch arising; conversely, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to avoid undercover officers. The child matures in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his teaching focuses on affection for fellow humans, particularly for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Christ's response to aggression is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a way to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever an individual takes your coat you must offer the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and direct reality that the Savior of the gospels calls for a form of profound affection focused on the poor has perpetually caused Christian religion somewhat of a controversial faith: appealing to the general public, but owing to its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. In the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so prevalent that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Best of Us
So I have been encouraged to see the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as substantial consolation to help build the movement that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in numbers during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the best parts in US history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and receive them or not?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by relationship to the finest about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected by reference to elements that cause it to be special and magnificent, which is the example of the Savior. In both situations does it suggest feigning the most negative of both America and Christianity did not happen; it means both humility and faith, a combination that serious national faithful should be comfortable with.
