The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. During the period of multiple weeks, the US president started showing everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions than the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of fatalities due to his slashing to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and recently an analysis predicted his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have dared – really, no previous leader would have contemplated – independently wrecking significant portions of the presidential residence to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of numerous America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the leader try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it entirely new. That is those of us – among senior generations a near majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we were raised with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of affection into a figure of hate who blesses specifically the brutality that he denounced in biblical teachings; this change developed more slowly, over decades as opposed to months, however it is still disturbing through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior from my childhood, as conceptually Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the rapidly expanding group among Americans could have minimal awareness of him since they are atheists or doubters or nones. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that there are pearls of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of a mighty king appearing; instead, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to escape secret police. The baby grows up in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his message is about love for other people, especially for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Jesus' answer to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a way to teach the attacker; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your coat you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and straightforward truth that the Jesus of the gospels requests a type of radical love focused on the needy is what has always made Christianity rather a provocative belief system: appealing to the general public, but because of its natural unconventionality demanding to be controlled. In the fifties it was controlled through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Best Within Us
So I have been heartened to witness the determined opposition against Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as substantial consolation to participate in developing the campaign that has protested openly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged citizens to turn out in significant amounts in interim political contests. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners at every demonstration and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or not?
America is best defended, in other words, by relationship to the finest about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended through connection to what makes it special and wonderful, which is the example of Christ. In neither case does it suggest pretending the worst regarding America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it means both meekness and faith, a blend that serious American Christians ought to accept.
