Trumpism's most telling and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president commenced revealing the public his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size compared to the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of deaths resulting from his reductions to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and this week research projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have dared – really, no previous leader would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying large sections of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of numerous the richest Americans, the majority of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' into 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept about democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we learned about into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of affection into an icon of animosity who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this has happened more slowly, through multiple decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless unsettling through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my upbringing, because theoretically Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and since the quickly increasing segment within America may possess limited understanding of him as they consider themselves skeptics or doubters or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that there are pearls of great price in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly definitely not the account of a powerful ruler arising; conversely, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to avoid secret police. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his doctrine is about love for other people, specifically for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, shown by providing food and protecting. Jesus' answer to violence is to turn the additional cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a method to instruct the attacker; his crime policy states that when someone steals your coat you ought to provide the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and clear reality that the Jesus from scripture requests a type of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy is what has always made Christianity rather a scandalous religion: attractive to the masses, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be controlled. During the 1950s it was contained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to see the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as substantial consolation to participate in developing the initiative that has protested openly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated electorate to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities in US history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or not?
America is best defended, essentially, by relationship to the finest about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by relationship to what makes it unique and wonderful, specifically the model of the Savior. In all circumstances does it imply feigning the most damaging of both America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it means both humility and belief, a combination that serious American Christians ought to accept.
