The Trump phenomenon's most telling and defining occasions – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of several weeks, the American president commenced revealing the public his plans for a lavish reception room twice the size compared to the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing to erect it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to foreign assistance is 600,000 and increasing, and presently research forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying major areas of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which have business with federal agencies.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the world' to 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the leader attempt to overturn the established notion about democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched across decades while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of compassion into an icon of hate who blesses specifically the brutality that he condemned in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more gradually, over decades rather than months, yet it remains unsettling via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him because they identify as skeptics or uncertain individuals or nones. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that exist valuable insights of great price in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the account of a mighty king arising; instead, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The child matures in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his message is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, shown by providing food and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to violence is to offer the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a way to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing states that when an individual takes your outer garment you ought to provide the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and straightforward reality that the Savior from scripture advocates for a form of extreme compassion concentrated on the poor is what has always made Christian religion something of a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Highest Within Us
So I have been inspired to witness the persistent defiance to Trump arise during the previous year. It has served as great solace to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged voters to participate in numbers in the off-year elections. We must have to maintain it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags during all protests and requests to the best parts in US history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
America is best defended, to put it differently, through connection to the best about American history, similar to Christianity is most protected by reference to what makes it distinctive and beautiful, specifically the model of the Savior. In both situations does it suggest feigning the most damaging regarding America and religious tradition never occurred; it signifies both modesty and conviction, a combination that serious national faithful should embrace.
