The Trump movement's most telling and defining instances – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing all observers his intentions for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions of the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to build it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to USAID stands at 600,000 and growing, and this week research predicted his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have dared – really, no previous leader would have imagined – unilaterally destroying large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which maintain dealings with the government.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics a near majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed over 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 affection into an icon of hate who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this transformation occurred more slowly, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains unsettling via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, because theoretically Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and since the fastest-growing cadre of Americans might have little sense regarding him because they identify as atheists or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of great price in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the account of a mighty king emerging; rather, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to escape secret police. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine is about love for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Jesus' answer to hostility is to turn the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a means to educate the assailant; his method regarding offenses states that when someone steals your outer garment you must offer the person your additional clothing also.
The obvious and straightforward reality that the Savior of the gospels requests a type of radical love centered on the needy has perpetually caused the Christian faith something of a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but owing to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was contained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Finest Among Us
Hence I have become inspired to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump arise in this past year. It has been significant comfort to assist in constructing the movement that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged citizens to turn out in large quantities in interim political contests. We must have to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners throughout each rally and appeals to the finest aspects in US history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you receive him and welcome him or not?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, by reference to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is most protected by relationship to what makes it special and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In both situations does it mean pretending the most negative of both America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it means both meekness and conviction, a combination that serious American Christians should embrace.
