The Trump phenomenon's most telling and defining instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the American president began displaying the public his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of casualties due to his slashing to USAID stands at 600,000 and rising, and presently research predicted his energy policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have risked – really, no other president would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the executive mansion to build a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, nearly all of which have business with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the leader try to upend the established notion about democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. At its most basic, they converted a persona of love into a symbol of hostility who endorses specifically the brutality that he criticized in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, over decades instead of months, yet it remains disconcerting through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, as conceptually Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him because they identify as skeptics or uncertain individuals or nones. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of great price in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the story of a powerful ruler emerging; rather, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to avoid covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his doctrine concerns compassion for other people, specifically for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a way to teach the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing is that if a person pilfers your jacket you must offer the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and clear fact that Christ in biblical accounts calls for a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy is what has always made Christianity rather a controversial faith: appealing to the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
So I have been encouraged to observe the persistent defiance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as great solace to participate in developing the movement that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired electorate to participate in significant amounts during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags throughout each rally and requests to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you welcome them and receive them or reject?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by reference to the highest about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected by reference to what makes it special and beautiful, specifically the model of Christ. In neither case does it imply feigning the worst of both America and Christianity never occurred; it represents both humility and faith, a blend that genuine national faithful ought to accept.
