Trumpism's most revealing and distinctive moments – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. In the course of multiple weeks, the nation's leader started showing everyone his intentions for a lavish reception room twice the size than the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance is 600,000 and rising, and this week an analysis projected his petroleum strategies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have risked – really, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing large sections of the White House to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom have business with the government.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the world' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the chief executive try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it entirely new. That is those of us – among senior generations a near majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we were raised with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they turned a figure of compassion into an icon of animosity who endorses exactly the harshness that he criticized in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more gradually, across decades as opposed to months, however it is still unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the rapidly expanding group of Americans could have minimal awareness of him since they are skeptics or agnostics or nones. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of a powerful ruler emerging; instead, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The infant develops in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for other people, especially for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to aggression is to offer the other cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever someone steals your outer garment you must offer the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and clear reality that Christ in biblical accounts requests a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy has consistently rendered Christianity rather a controversial faith: appealing to the general public, but due to its intrinsic extremism needing to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Best of Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to observe the persistent defiance to Trump emerge during the previous year. It has provided significant comfort to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated voters to participate in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects in US history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or reject?
The nation is most protected, essentially, by reference to the highest within national tradition, just as Christianity is most protected by reference to elements that cause it to be distinctive and beautiful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In neither case does it imply pretending the worst about the nation and Christianity was nonexistent; it means both humility and faith, a mixture that genuine US believers should be comfortable with.
