The Trump phenomenon's most telling and characteristic instances – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of a few weeks, the nation's leader began displaying everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of fatalities resulting from his reductions to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study projected his fossil fuel policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have dared – genuinely, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking major areas of the presidential residence to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of the richest Americans, the majority of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the world' into 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we were raised with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of compassion into a symbol of hate who approves precisely the cruelties that he criticized in biblical teachings; this has happened more gradually, across decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Jesus from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and since the quickly increasing segment of Americans might have little sense of him since they are atheists or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably definitely not the story of a powerful ruler emerging; instead, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to avoid undercover officers. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his message focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to violence is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a way to instruct the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing is that if a person pilfers your jacket you ought to provide them your pullover too.
The obvious and direct fact that the Savior in biblical accounts calls for a type of radical love concentrated on the impoverished has consistently rendered the Christian faith rather a scandalous religion: engaging for the general public, but because of its natural unconventionality needing to be controlled. During the 1950s it was controlled via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Highest Among Us
So I have been encouraged to see the persistent defiance against Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to participate in developing the movement that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired voters to participate in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners during all protests and calls to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you welcome them and receive them or refuse?
America is best defended, essentially, by reference to the highest about American history, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to what makes it unique and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it mean pretending the most negative of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both modesty and belief, a blend that committed national faithful ought to accept.
