The Trump movement's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of a few weeks, the American president started showing all observers his designs for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions than the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and rising, and this week an analysis predicted his energy policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have attempted – really, no former commander would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying large sections of the executive mansion to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the world' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched across decades as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they turned a figure of compassion into a figure of hate who endorses specifically the brutality that he denounced in scripture; this has happened more slowly, through multiple decades rather than months, however it is still disturbing via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ from my upbringing, as conceptually the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and given that the quickly increasing segment of Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him as they consider themselves atheists or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically absolutely not the account of a powerful ruler emerging; rather, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to another nation to evade covert authorities. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his teaching is about love for others, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to violence is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a means to teach the aggressor; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your outer garment you must offer them your pullover as well.
The apparent and clear fact that the Savior from scripture requests a kind of radical love concentrated on the poor is what has always made the Christian faith something of a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but because of its natural unconventionality requiring to be contained. During the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Highest Within Us
So I have been encouraged to witness the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop in this past year. It has served as great solace to help build the campaign that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to show up in numbers in the off-year elections. We shall require to maintain it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, by reference to the highest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is best defended by reference to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, which is the example of Christ. In both situations does it imply acting as if the worst of both America and religious tradition never occurred; it signifies both humility and faith, a mixture that committed US believers should be comfortable with.
