The Trump movement's most telling and defining instances – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. During the period of multiple weeks, the American president started showing all observers his designs for a gilded ballroom two times larger compared to the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the eastern section to build it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and increasing, and recently an analysis projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have attempted – really, no former commander would have contemplated – solo demolishing significant portions of the executive mansion to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' to 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept regarding democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there is one large group of Americans who should not find it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we learned about into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of affection into a symbol of hostility who approves specifically the brutality that he denounced in scripture; this change developed more slowly, through multiple decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting through similar means, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior from my upbringing, because theoretically the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group within America might have little sense of him as they consider themselves non-believers or uncertain individuals or nones. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that there are pearls of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of a mighty king appearing; instead, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to escape secret police. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching is about love for others, especially for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Christ's response to hostility is to turn the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever a person pilfers your coat you should give him your sweater too.
The evident and direct truth that Christ of the gospels advocates for a form of profound affection focused on the poor has consistently rendered Christian religion rather a scandalous religion: engaging for the general public, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so prevalent that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Finest Within Us
So I have been inspired to see the persistent defiance against Trump arise during the previous year. It has been significant comfort to participate in developing the campaign that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged electorate to turn out in significant amounts in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners throughout each rally and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace 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 reference to what makes it special and wonderful, which is the example of Christ. In both situations does it mean feigning the most negative of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it means both meekness and belief, a combination that serious US believers should embrace.
