Trumpism's most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of a few weeks, the US president started showing everyone his designs for a lavish reception room two times larger compared to the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing to erect it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of deaths from his cuts to USAID amounts to 600,000 and rising, and recently research predicted his energy policies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying large sections of the executive mansion to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple the richest Americans, nearly all of which maintain dealings with the government.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the Earth' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept regarding democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Essentially, they turned a figure of affection into a symbol of hate who endorses exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more gradually, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, as conceptually the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and because the fastest-growing cadre among Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as skeptics or doubters or nones. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably definitely not the account of an authoritative monarch appearing; conversely, a baby is born to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to escape secret police. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his message focuses on affection for fellow humans, especially for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and housing. Jesus' answer to violence is to offer the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the assailant; his method regarding offenses states that when a person pilfers your outer garment you must offer the person your additional clothing as well.
The evident and straightforward fact that the Savior from scripture calls for a kind of radical love centered on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the general public, but due to its natural unconventionality requiring to be contained. In the fifties it was controlled by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Highest of Us
So I have been heartened to observe the determined opposition to Trump arise in this past year. It has provided substantial consolation to participate in developing the movement that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated voters to participate in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags throughout each rally and calls to the best parts in US history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the best within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by reference to that which renders it special and magnificent, particularly the pattern of Christ. In all circumstances does it mean feigning the most damaging of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it means both meekness and conviction, a combination that genuine American Christians should be comfortable with.
