The Trump movement's most telling and defining occasions – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president began displaying all observers his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to erect it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and rising, and presently a study forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have risked – really, no former commander would have imagined – independently wrecking large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, almost all of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched across decades as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we were raised with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they turned a figure of compassion into an icon of animosity who blesses exactly the harshness that he condemned in scripture; this has happened more gradually, through multiple decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, as conceptually Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans might have little sense of him because they identify as atheists or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of an authoritative monarch appearing; conversely, an infant arrives to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to evade undercover officers. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching focuses on affection for others, specifically for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a method to teach the attacker; his crime policy states that when an individual takes your jacket you ought to provide the person your additional clothing too.
The apparent and direct truth that the Savior in biblical accounts calls for a form of radical love centered on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity something of a controversial faith: attractive to the populace, but due to its inherent radicalness requiring to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Highest of Us
So I have been heartened to see the steadfast resistance regarding Trump emerge during the previous year. It has been substantial consolation to participate in developing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged citizens to show up in large quantities in interim political contests. We shall require to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners at every demonstration and appeals to the finest aspects in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or not?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by relationship to the highest in US heritage, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by reference to what makes it special and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it mean pretending the most negative about the nation and Christianity did not happen; it signifies both meekness and belief, a mixture that committed US believers should be comfortable with.
