The Trump movement's most illuminating and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. During the period of multiple weeks, the nation's leader began displaying the public his plans for a gilded ballroom two times larger than the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and this week research projected his energy policies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have dared – truly, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the White House to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the world' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the president try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we grew up with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into a figure of hate who blesses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in biblical teachings; this change developed more gradually, over decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, as conceptually Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans might have little sense about him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of great price within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably not the story of an authoritative monarch appearing; rather, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his message concerns compassion for other people, especially for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to educate the aggressor; his crime policy states that when a person pilfers your outer garment you ought to provide the person your additional clothing also.
The obvious and straightforward fact that Christ in biblical accounts advocates for a form of extreme compassion concentrated on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christian religion somewhat of a scandalous religion: engaging for the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was contained via weakening – Protestantism was so widespread that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Highest Among Us
So I have been heartened to witness the persistent defiance against Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has served as significant comfort to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated voters to turn out in large quantities in interim political contests. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you receive him and welcome him or not?
America is best defended, essentially, by relationship to the highest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by reference to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, specifically the model of Christ. In both situations does it imply acting as if the most negative regarding America and religious tradition did not happen; it means both meekness and conviction, a mixture that genuine American Christians should embrace.
