The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive occasions – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the US president started showing the public his intentions for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions of the White House and then began solo dismantling the eastern section to construct it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of fatalities from his cuts to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and rising, and this week research predicted his fossil fuel policies would kill another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have risked – truly, no previous leader would have conceived – independently wrecking significant portions of the White House in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of numerous America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the world' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the president try to upend the established notion regarding democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts close to half – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we were raised with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they transformed an image of compassion into a figure of hostility who blesses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in biblical teachings; this has happened more slowly, across decades instead of months, yet it remains disconcerting in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Christ from my upbringing, because theoretically Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and since the fastest-growing cadre of Americans could have minimal awareness about him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with different religions; however I believe that exist valuable insights of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the story of a mighty king appearing; instead, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to escape secret police. The infant develops in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Christ's response to aggression is to present the opposite cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a method to teach the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your coat you should give him your sweater as well.
The obvious and straightforward reality that Christ of the gospels requests a kind of radical love centered on the poor has consistently rendered Christianity somewhat of a scandalous religion: appealing to the populace, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be restrained. During the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
So I have been heartened to witness the determined opposition regarding Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as great solace to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated voters to turn out in numbers in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners during all protests and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or not?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by relationship to the finest within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be special and magnificent, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In both situations does it imply acting as if the most damaging about the nation and religious tradition never occurred; it signifies both humility and conviction, a mixture that committed American Christians should be comfortable with.
