The Trump movement's most illuminating and defining moments – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the nation's leader started showing the public his plans for a lavish reception room twice the size than the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the present calculation of casualties due to his slashing to USAID amounts to 600,000 and rising, and recently research projected his energy policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have dared – genuinely, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the White House to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which have business with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment of Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of affection into a figure of hostility who blesses exactly the harshness that he condemned in scripture; this has happened at a slower pace, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disturbing in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior from my upbringing, since in theory Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the rapidly expanding group within America might have little sense of him because they identify as non-believers or doubters or nones. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that there are pearls of great price in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly absolutely not the story of a mighty king arising; instead, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine focuses on affection for others, specifically for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, shown by providing food and sheltering. Christ's response to hostility is to turn the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his crime policy states that when an individual takes your outer garment you must offer him your sweater also.
The evident and direct reality that Christ in biblical accounts advocates for a form of radical love centered on the poor has perpetually caused the Christian faith somewhat of a provocative belief system: appealing to the general public, but owing to its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so prevalent that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Best of Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to witness the determined opposition to Trump arise during the previous year. It has provided significant comfort to assist in constructing the movement that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired voters to show up in large quantities in interim political contests. We must have to persist with it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the highest qualities of American history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or not?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the finest about American history, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be special and magnificent, which is the example of Jesus. In all circumstances does it mean pretending the worst of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it signifies both meekness and belief, a mixture that genuine national faithful ought to accept.
