The Trump movement's most telling and defining moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. In the course of a few weeks, the US president started showing the public his intentions for a lavish reception room twice the size than the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of casualties resulting from his reductions to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and recently research projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have attempted – truly, no previous leader would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the executive mansion to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the world' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the leader seek to颠覆 the established notion about democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched across decades as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of compassion into a figure of hostility who blesses specifically the brutality that he criticized in scripture; this has happened at a slower pace, through multiple decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disturbing via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Savior that I grew up with, as conceptually the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and because the quickly increasing segment of Americans might have little sense of him because they identify as non-believers or doubters or nones. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the account of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to avoid covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his teaching is about love for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Christ's response to hostility is to turn the additional cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing is that if a person pilfers your coat you should give him your sweater also.
The obvious and straightforward fact that the Savior of the gospels requests a form of radical love centered on the impoverished has consistently rendered Christianity somewhat of a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be controlled. In the 1950s it was controlled via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to witness the persistent defiance to Trump develop in this past year. It has been significant comfort to participate in developing the campaign that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to show up in numbers during minor elections. We must have to persist with it, and in the same spirit, with American flags during all protests and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you welcome them and welcome him or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by reference to elements that cause it to be distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest feigning the most negative of both America and religious tradition did not happen; it signifies both meekness and faith, a mixture that genuine American Christians should embrace.
