The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of several weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing the public his intentions for a lavish reception room two times larger compared to the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of deaths from his cuts to USAID stands at 600,000 and growing, and this week research projected his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have risked – genuinely, no previous leader would have conceived – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the White House to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the world' into 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched across decades as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we were raised with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Essentially, they turned a figure of love into an icon of animosity who approves specifically the brutality that he criticized in scripture; this change developed more slowly, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my childhood, as conceptually Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the fastest-growing cadre of Americans may possess limited understanding about him because they identify as atheists or doubters or nones. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that exist valuable insights of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the story of a mighty king appearing; instead, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to evade secret police. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his doctrine is about love for others, especially for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his crime policy states that when a person pilfers your coat you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The apparent and straightforward reality that the Jesus from scripture requests a type of radical love centered on the needy has consistently rendered the Christian faith rather a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but due to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be controlled. In the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – Protestantism was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Finest Within Us
So I have been encouraged to observe the determined opposition against Trump develop in this past year. It has provided significant comfort to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired electorate to participate in numbers in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the best parts in US history.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and welcome him or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by reference to the highest about American history, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it unique and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest pretending the worst regarding America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it means both meekness and belief, a blend that genuine national faithful should be comfortable with.
