The Trump movement's most illuminating and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the American president commenced revealing everyone his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and then began solo dismantling the eastern section to construct it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the present calculation of fatalities from his cuts to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and rising, and this week a study projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – truly, no previous leader would have conceived – unilaterally destroying large sections of the White House to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom have business with the government.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the Earth' into 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the chief executive try to upend the old idea of democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment within America who might not perceive it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we were raised with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they transformed an image of love into an icon of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he criticized in scripture; this change developed at a slower pace, over decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my childhood, as conceptually Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and since the rapidly expanding group among Americans might have little sense about him because they identify as skeptics or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; but I do think that there are pearls of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically not the narrative of a mighty king arising; instead, a baby is born to homeless parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade undercover officers. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, especially for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Christ's response to hostility is to present the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a method to instruct the assailant; his method regarding offenses is that if an individual takes your jacket you should give them your pullover as well.
The evident and straightforward reality that Christ from scripture requests a type of profound affection focused on the poor has perpetually caused Christianity something of a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but because of its natural unconventionality needing to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
Hence I have become heartened to see the determined opposition regarding Trump arise during the previous year. It has served as great solace to help build the initiative that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to show up in large quantities during minor elections. We shall require to persist with it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or reject?
America is best defended, in other words, by relationship to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In both situations does it imply acting as if the worst about the nation and Christian faith was nonexistent; it represents both modesty and faith, a mixture that genuine national faithful ought to accept.
