The Trump phenomenon's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the nation's leader began displaying everyone his designs for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to build it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to USAID stands at 600,000 and growing, and recently a study projected his energy policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have attempted – really, no former commander would have imagined – unilaterally destroying major areas of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of some of the richest Americans, the majority of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the world' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the chief executive seek to颠覆 the traditional concept regarding democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations close to half – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of compassion into an icon of animosity who blesses exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this has happened more slowly, over decades as opposed to months, however it is still unsettling through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, as conceptually Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and given that the fastest-growing cadre of Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as skeptics or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably not the story of a powerful ruler emerging; conversely, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to escape covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his teaching focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to violence is to offer the additional cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a method to teach the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your outer garment you must offer him your sweater also.
The evident and direct reality that the Savior from scripture calls for a kind of radical love focused on the poor has consistently rendered Christian religion somewhat of a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but owing to its inherent radicalness requiring to be controlled. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest of Us
So I have been inspired to observe the persistent defiance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as significant comfort to help build the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We shall require to persist with it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags during all protests and calls to the best parts within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, essentially, by relationship to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, which is the example of Jesus. In both situations does it imply feigning the most negative about the nation and religious tradition did not happen; it represents both modesty and conviction, a mixture that genuine national faithful should be comfortable with.
