The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and characteristic occasions – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. During the period of multiple weeks, the US president started showing the public his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study forecast his energy policies would kill another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing large sections of the White House in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of multiple the richest Americans, almost all of whom have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the world' into 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment of Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have observed over the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we were raised with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. At its most basic, they turned a figure of affection into a symbol of animosity who endorses exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this has happened more slowly, through multiple decades as opposed to months, however it is still disturbing via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my upbringing, as conceptually the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and because the fastest-growing cadre within America may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as non-believers or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the narrative of a powerful ruler arising; conversely, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to avoid secret police. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his message concerns compassion for other people, especially for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Christ's response to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a method to educate the assailant; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever an individual takes your coat you should give the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and straightforward truth that Christ of the gospels calls for a kind of extreme compassion focused on the poor is what has always made Christianity rather a provocative belief system: engaging for the general public, but owing to its natural unconventionality needing to be controlled. In the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – Protestantism was so prevalent that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Finest Within Us
So I have been heartened to witness the persistent defiance to Trump arise in this past year. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the movement that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired citizens to turn out in large quantities during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you welcome them and welcome him or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by reference to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In neither case does it imply pretending the most damaging about the nation and Christianity did not happen; it means both modesty and belief, a blend that serious US believers should embrace.
