Trumpism's most revealing and distinctive moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the American president started showing everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the present calculation of deaths from his cuts to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and recently research projected his energy policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have risked – really, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the executive mansion in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of numerous the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment within America who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout 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 affection into an icon of hostility who approves precisely the cruelties that he condemned in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more gradually, across decades instead of months, however it is still disconcerting in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus that I grew up with, as conceptually Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense regarding him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that there are pearls of great price in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the account of an authoritative monarch arising; instead, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to avoid covert authorities. The infant develops in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his teaching concerns compassion for others, especially for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and protecting. Christ's response to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the assailant; his method regarding offenses is that if an individual takes your jacket you must offer them your pullover too.
The evident and direct truth that the Jesus of the gospels requests a type of profound affection focused on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity something of a scandalous religion: appealing to the populace, but due to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was contained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Best Among Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to witness the persistent defiance against Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has served as great solace to help build the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged citizens to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We must have to persist with it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners during all protests and appeals to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you receive him and receive them or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the best about American history, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, which is the example of the Savior. In all circumstances does it mean feigning the most damaging about the nation and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both meekness and faith, a combination that serious US believers should be comfortable with.
