The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and distinctive occasions – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president started showing the public his plans for a lavish reception room double the dimensions of the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of casualties resulting from his reductions to international aid amounts to 600,000 and growing, and recently a study forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have dared – really, no former commander would have conceived – independently wrecking significant portions of the executive mansion to build a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' toward 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader try to upend the established notion regarding democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there is one large group of Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we learned about into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of compassion into an icon of hostility who approves precisely the cruelties that he criticized in the Gospel; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, however it is still unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Jesus from my upbringing, since in theory the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and since the rapidly expanding group within America might have little sense of him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the account of an authoritative monarch emerging; rather, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to escape secret police. The infant develops in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his teaching focuses on affection for other people, specifically for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and protecting. The Savior's reaction to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to educate the assailant; his crime policy is that if someone steals your coat you should give them your pullover also.
The evident and direct fact that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a kind of extreme compassion focused on the needy is what has always made Christian religion rather a scandalous religion: engaging for the general public, but due to its natural unconventionality requiring to be restrained. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Best Among Us
So I have been encouraged to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has been substantial consolation to help build the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated electorate to participate in numbers during minor elections. We shall require to maintain it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners throughout each rally and requests to the best parts of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the best within national tradition, just as Christianity is optimally secured through connection to what makes it unique and magnificent, which is the example of Jesus. In neither case does it imply pretending the worst regarding America and Christian faith never occurred; it means both meekness and conviction, a mixture that committed American Christians should embrace.
