Trumpism's most telling and defining moments – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of a few weeks, the American president began displaying all observers his designs for a gilded ballroom two times larger of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study predicted his petroleum strategies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have dared – genuinely, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader seek to颠覆 the established notion of democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there is one large group of Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed over the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into a symbol of hate who endorses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, across decades rather than months, however it is still disturbing via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior that I grew up with, because theoretically the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group among Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as skeptics or doubters or spiritual independents. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically not the account of an authoritative monarch emerging; conversely, a baby is born to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to offer the other cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his method regarding offenses is that if a person pilfers your outer garment you should give him your sweater too.
The obvious and clear fact that the Savior in biblical accounts requests a kind of radical love concentrated on the needy is what has always made Christianity something of a scandalous religion: engaging for the general public, but because of its natural unconventionality demanding to be controlled. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so prevalent that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Highest of Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has been substantial consolation to assist in constructing the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired electorate to turn out in large quantities during minor elections. We shall require to persist with it, and with identical determination, with American flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts of American history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or not?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, by relationship to the highest about American history, just as Christianity is best defended by relationship to that which renders it special and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In neither case does it suggest pretending the worst of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it means both humility and faith, a combination that committed national faithful should be comfortable with.
