The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and distinctive moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of several weeks, the nation's leader started showing all observers his plans for a gilded ballroom two times larger compared to the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of fatalities from his cuts to international aid amounts to 600,000 and rising, and this week an analysis predicted his energy policies would kill 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have risked – truly, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking large sections of the executive mansion to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of multiple America's wealthiest, the majority of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' into 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there is one large group of Americans who should not find it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we learned about into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into a symbol of animosity who endorses exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, through multiple decades rather than months, yet it remains disconcerting in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, since in theory the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans might have little sense regarding him as they consider themselves atheists or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the account of a mighty king emerging; conversely, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to another nation to escape undercover officers. The infant develops in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine is about love for other people, specifically for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and housing. Christ's response to violence is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a way to educate the assailant; his crime policy is that if someone steals your outer garment you ought to provide him your sweater also.
The apparent and clear reality that the Savior from scripture advocates for a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the impoverished has perpetually caused the Christian faith something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. In the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to observe the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge during the previous year. It has provided substantial consolation to participate in developing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated citizens to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We shall require to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags throughout each rally and requests to the highest qualities in US 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, essentially, by reference to the highest in US heritage, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to what makes it unique and beautiful, which is the example of the Savior. In both situations does it suggest acting as if the worst regarding America and Christianity did not happen; it means both modesty and faith, a blend that serious national faithful should be comfortable with.
