The Trump movement's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. In the course of multiple weeks, the nation's leader began displaying the public his intentions for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions of the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the present calculation of casualties due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and growing, and this week a study predicted his energy policies would kill another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have risked – really, no other president would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group among Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations close to half – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they transformed an image of love into a symbol of hate who endorses exactly the harshness that he criticized in scripture; this change developed more slowly, through multiple decades as opposed to months, however it is still disturbing through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior from my upbringing, since in theory Christ is the focus within Christian belief, and because the rapidly expanding group within America may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as non-believers or agnostics or nones. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that exist valuable insights of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; conversely, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for others, specifically for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to teach the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing states that when an individual takes your coat you ought to provide him your sweater as well.
The apparent and straightforward truth that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a form of radical love focused on the poor has consistently rendered Christian religion somewhat of a scandalous religion: appealing to the populace, but owing to its natural unconventionality needing to be controlled. In the 1950s it was contained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Highest of Us
So I have been heartened to observe the determined opposition regarding Trump develop during the previous year. It has been great solace to help build the initiative that has protested openly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged citizens to participate in large quantities in interim political contests. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags during all protests and calls to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you receive him and receive them or reject?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, through connection to the finest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended through connection to elements that cause it to be distinctive and wonderful, which is the example of Jesus. In neither case does it mean feigning the most negative of both America and Christianity never occurred; it means both meekness and belief, a combination that serious American Christians should embrace.
