The Trump movement's most telling and defining moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. During the period of several weeks, the nation's leader began displaying all observers his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the current estimate of fatalities due to his slashing to international aid amounts to 600,000 and growing, and this week a study projected his energy policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – truly, no other president would have contemplated – solo demolishing major areas of the White House to build a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of multiple the richest Americans, the majority of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept regarding democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics a near majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched across decades while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Essentially, they transformed an image of love into a figure of hate who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this transformation occurred more gradually, through multiple decades instead of months, however it is still unsettling in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Christ that I grew up with, as conceptually the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding about him because they identify as atheists or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically definitely not the narrative of a mighty king arising; conversely, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to evade covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his message is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and protecting. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to turn the other cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a method to instruct the aggressor; his crime policy indicates that whenever someone steals your coat you ought to provide him your sweater too.
The apparent and direct truth that the Savior in biblical accounts requests a kind of extreme compassion focused on the needy has perpetually caused Christianity something of a scandalous religion: attractive to the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to help build the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged electorate to show up in significant amounts during minor elections. We must have to persist with it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts in US history.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you welcome them and welcome him or reject?
America is best defended, essentially, through connection to the finest in US heritage, similar to Christianity is most protected by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, which is the example of Christ. In both situations does it imply pretending the most damaging regarding America and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both modesty and belief, a combination that genuine American Christians should be comfortable with.
