The Trump movement's most telling and defining occasions – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president started showing the public his designs for a lavish reception room two times larger than the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties due to his slashing to USAID amounts to 600,000 and growing, and this week a study forecast his energy policies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have dared – really, no previous leader would have imagined – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the presidential residence in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of numerous America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the world' to 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the leader seek to颠覆 the traditional concept of democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they transformed an image of affection into a symbol of hostility who blesses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more gradually, through multiple decades as opposed to months, however it is still unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, as conceptually the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense of him as they consider themselves non-believers or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the account of a mighty king emerging; conversely, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to evade secret police. The baby grows up in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his message is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and protecting. Christ's response to violence is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his method regarding offenses is that if a person pilfers your coat you should give him your sweater as well.
The evident and clear reality that Christ from scripture requests a kind of radical love focused on the impoverished has consistently rendered the Christian faith somewhat of a scandalous religion: appealing to the general public, but because of its inherent radicalness demanding to be controlled. In the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Best of Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to see the persistent defiance against Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to help build the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired citizens to participate in numbers in the off-year elections. We must have to continue it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners during all protests and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the finest within national tradition, just as Christianity is optimally secured by reference to elements that cause it to be distinctive and wonderful, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it suggest pretending the most negative about the nation and Christian faith was nonexistent; it represents both modesty and conviction, a combination that genuine national faithful should be comfortable with.
