The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the US president began displaying everyone his intentions for a lavish reception room double the dimensions than the White House and then began independently demolishing the eastern section to construct it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the current estimate of deaths from his cuts to USAID stands at 600,000 and rising, and this week an analysis forecast his fossil fuel policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – truly, no former commander would have conceived – independently wrecking large sections of the White House in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of multiple the richest Americans, the majority of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of love into a figure of hate who endorses precisely the cruelties that he criticized in scripture; this change developed more slowly, over decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, as conceptually Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him since they are non-believers or doubters or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the account of a powerful ruler emerging; rather, an infant arrives to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to escape undercover officers. The child matures in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his doctrine concerns compassion for others, especially for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, shown by providing food and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to present the other cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the aggressor; his method regarding offenses states that when an individual takes your jacket you must offer him your sweater as well.
The apparent and straightforward reality that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a form of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished has consistently rendered Christianity somewhat of a scandalous religion: engaging for the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. During the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
Hence I have become heartened to witness the determined opposition against Trump arise in this past year. It has been substantial consolation to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged citizens to turn out in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to maintain it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners during all protests and requests to the best parts in US history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by reference to the best about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In all circumstances does it mean acting as if the most damaging regarding America and Christianity never occurred; it means both humility and faith, a combination that genuine American Christians should embrace.
