The Trump phenomenon's most telling and distinctive moments β not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening β occurred earlier this fall. During the period of several weeks, the US president started showing everyone his plans for a lavish reception room twice the size of the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad β the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to international aid is 600,000 and growing, and recently research projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have risked β truly, no former commander would have conceived β independently wrecking major areas of the White House to build a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with the government.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the president seek toι’ θ¦ the old idea about democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. That is those of us β within elder demographics close to half β who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they transformed an image of compassion into a symbol of hate who blesses exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, through multiple decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disturbing in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and since the fastest-growing cadre of Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as non-believers or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the account of a powerful ruler appearing; conversely, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a different country to evade covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his doctrine is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the disadvantaged β not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and protecting. Christ's response to hostility is to turn the other cheek β not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his method regarding offenses states that when someone steals your outer garment you should give him your sweater as well.
The evident and clear fact that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the impoverished has consistently rendered the Christian faith rather a scandalous religion: attractive to the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be restrained. During the 1950s it was restrained via weakening β Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to witness the persistent defiance to Trump emerge during the previous year. It has been significant comfort to assist in constructing the initiative that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated electorate to show up in numbers in interim political contests. We will need to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags during all protests and requests to the best parts within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you welcome them and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, in other words, 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 Christ. In both situations does it mean feigning the most damaging of both America and religious tradition did not happen; it means both meekness and faith, a mixture that genuine national faithful should embrace.
