Trumpism's most revealing and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of multiple weeks, the American president commenced revealing everyone his intentions for a gilded ballroom two times larger than the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and growing, and presently a study forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No other president would have dared – really, no previous leader would have conceived – unilaterally destroying major areas of the presidential residence to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' to 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the chief executive attempt to overturn the traditional concept about democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics close to half – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into the total contrary of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they converted a persona of affection into a symbol of animosity who blesses specifically the brutality that he criticized in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, across decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disturbing in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Savior from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and given that the fastest-growing cadre among Americans could have minimal awareness of him since they are non-believers or doubters or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly not the story of an authoritative monarch appearing; instead, an infant arrives to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Christ's response to violence is to present the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a method to educate the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing is that if a person pilfers your outer garment you ought to provide the person your additional clothing also.
The apparent and clear reality that Christ of the gospels requests a type of radical love focused on the poor is what has always made Christianity rather a scandalous religion: engaging for the masses, but because of its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was controlled by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Highest of Us
Hence I have become heartened to see the steadfast resistance regarding Trump develop in this past year. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to participate in numbers during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and in the same spirit, displaying national 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 accept these individuals and welcome him or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, by relationship to the best about American history, just as Christianity is optimally secured through connection to what makes it distinctive and wonderful, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it imply acting as if the most damaging of both America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it means both modesty and faith, a combination that committed US believers should embrace.
