Trumpism's most telling and characteristic instances – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president commenced revealing everyone his intentions for a lavish reception room double the dimensions of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of deaths from his cuts to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and this week research projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have risked – genuinely, no previous leader would have contemplated – solo demolishing significant portions of the presidential residence in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the planet' into 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the leader attempt to overturn the old idea of democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there is one large group among Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we grew up with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into a symbol of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he condemned in scripture; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disturbing in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, because theoretically the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and since the rapidly expanding group among Americans could have minimal awareness about him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the account of a mighty king emerging; instead, a baby is born to displaced parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to avoid secret police. The child matures in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his message is about love for others, specifically for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to present the other cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to instruct the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever someone steals your coat you should give the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and direct truth that Christ of the gospels advocates for a kind of radical love centered on the poor has consistently rendered Christianity something of a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but owing to its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. In the fifties it was controlled by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Finest Within Us
So I have been inspired to witness the determined opposition against Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has served as great solace to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired voters to show up in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to maintain it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the best parts of American history.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you receive him and receive them or not?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, by relationship to the highest about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected through connection to what makes it unique and magnificent, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it mean feigning the most damaging of both America and Christianity never occurred; it means both humility and conviction, a combination that serious US believers should embrace.
