The Trump movement's most illuminating and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of several weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing all observers his plans for a lavish reception room two times larger than the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing to erect it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to international aid amounts to 600,000 and rising, and presently research predicted his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – really, no former commander would have imagined – independently wrecking significant portions of the executive mansion to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of numerous the richest Americans, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' into 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the chief executive try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment within America who should not find it entirely new. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed over the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we learned about into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Essentially, they converted a persona of compassion into a symbol of animosity who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, across decades instead of months, yet it remains disconcerting through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the fastest-growing cadre within America might have little sense regarding him as they consider themselves skeptics or doubters or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; however I believe that exist valuable insights of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably not the account of a powerful ruler appearing; conversely, a baby is born to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, especially for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to hostility is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his crime policy is that if someone steals your outer garment you should give them your pullover too.
The evident and direct reality that the Savior of the gospels requests a type of profound affection focused on the poor has consistently rendered the Christian faith somewhat of a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but because of its intrinsic extremism requiring to be restrained. In the 1950s it was contained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to see the persistent defiance against Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has been substantial consolation to help build the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged citizens to participate in numbers in interim political contests. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or reject?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to that which renders it special and beautiful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In all circumstances does it mean feigning the most damaging of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it means both modesty and conviction, a blend that genuine American Christians ought to accept.
