The Trump movement's most telling and defining instances – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing the public his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size than the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of fatalities due to his slashing to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have risked – genuinely, no former commander would have contemplated – solo demolishing major areas of the presidential residence to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the chief executive try to upend the old idea regarding democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there is one large group of Americans who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Essentially, they turned a figure of compassion into a symbol of hate who endorses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred more slowly, over decades instead of months, yet it remains disturbing through similar means, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically Christ is the focus within Christian belief, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense about him since they are non-believers or agnostics or nones. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically not the account of a mighty king arising; conversely, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade undercover officers. The child matures in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his doctrine concerns compassion for others, especially for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and housing. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to present the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a method to educate the assailant; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your jacket you ought to provide the person your additional clothing as well.
The evident and straightforward fact that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a form of radical love centered on the impoverished is what has always made Christian religion rather a provocative belief system: attractive to the populace, but because of its natural unconventionality needing to be contained. During the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Best of Us
So I have been inspired to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump develop in this past year. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the movement that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged voters to show up in numbers in the off-year elections. We must have to persist with it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners at every demonstration and requests to the best parts in US history.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, through connection to the highest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to that which renders it special and magnificent, which is the example of Jesus. In all circumstances does it mean acting as if the most negative of both America and Christianity never occurred; it signifies both modesty and belief, a combination that committed US believers should be comfortable with.
