The Trump movement's most telling and distinctive moments – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the American president began displaying the public his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size than the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths from his cuts to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study projected his fossil fuel policies would kill another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have attempted – genuinely, no other president would have conceived – independently wrecking significant portions of the White House to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the planet' toward 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the president try to upend the established notion of democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who should not find it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we learned about into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. At its most basic, they transformed an image of affection into a symbol of hostility who approves exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, across decades rather than months, however it is still unsettling through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior that I grew up with, because theoretically the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans might have little sense of him since they are non-believers or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; conversely, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to avoid undercover officers. The child matures in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for other people, particularly for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to turn the additional cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a method to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing states that when a person pilfers your jacket you should give him your sweater as well.
The evident and straightforward reality that the Savior in biblical accounts requests a type of radical love focused on the needy has consistently rendered Christianity somewhat of a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but owing to its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Highest Within Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge during the previous year. It has been substantial consolation to participate in developing the movement that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged citizens to participate in numbers during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and in the same spirit, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the finest aspects of American history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and embrace them or not?
America is best defended, essentially, through connection to the highest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by reference to that which renders it special and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In all circumstances does it imply pretending the worst regarding America and religious tradition did not happen; it represents both meekness and faith, a blend that serious national faithful should embrace.
