The Trump movement's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the American president started showing everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the present calculation of fatalities resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and growing, and recently an analysis forecast his fossil fuel policies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – truly, no other president would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the presidential residence to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of numerous the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which maintain dealings with the government.
We went from 'the humble will receive the Earth' to 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the president attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we were raised with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they converted a persona of affection into a figure of hate who endorses specifically the brutality that he denounced in scripture; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Jesus that I grew up with, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the fastest-growing cadre among Americans could have minimal awareness of him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the account of an authoritative monarch emerging; rather, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to avoid covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching focuses on affection for fellow humans, especially for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, shown by providing food and housing. Christ's response to violence is to turn the additional cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing states that when someone steals your coat you ought to provide him your sweater as well.
The apparent and straightforward truth that the Jesus from scripture calls for a type of extreme compassion centered on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christian religion somewhat of a scandalous religion: appealing to the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism demanding to be restrained. In the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – Protestantism was so dominant that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
So I have been encouraged to witness the persistent defiance against Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to help build the movement that has protested openly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged electorate to participate in significant amounts in interim political contests. We will need to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the best parts within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or not?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by reference to the best in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected by relationship to elements that cause it to be distinctive and wonderful, which is the example of Christ. In all circumstances does it imply pretending the worst about the nation and Christianity did not happen; it signifies both meekness and belief, a mixture that committed national faithful should be comfortable with.
