The Trump movement's most telling and distinctive moments – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the American president started showing all observers his intentions for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions of the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing to erect it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to international aid amounts to 600,000 and rising, and this week an analysis predicted his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have dared – truly, no former commander would have contemplated – independently wrecking large sections of the executive mansion to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed over the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we learned about into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they converted a persona of compassion into an icon of hate who blesses specifically the brutality that he criticized in biblical teachings; this change developed at a slower pace, through multiple decades rather than months, however it is still unsettling through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense regarding him as they consider themselves skeptics or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably definitely not the account of a powerful ruler appearing; rather, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to evade secret police. The child matures in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his message focuses on affection for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and housing. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to present the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever a person pilfers your jacket you ought to provide him your sweater also.
The obvious and clear reality that the Savior of the gospels calls for a kind of radical love centered on the needy has perpetually caused Christianity rather a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but owing to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be controlled. In the fifties it was restrained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Highest Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the persistent defiance against Trump emerge during the previous year. It has been great solace to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags during all protests and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by relationship to the best about American history, just as Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to elements that cause it to be special and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In all circumstances does it mean acting as if the worst of both America and religious tradition did not happen; it means both humility and conviction, a combination that serious national faithful should be comfortable with.
