Trumpism's most illuminating and distinctive occasions – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president started showing all observers his designs for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions of the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to USAID is 600,000 and increasing, and presently research projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have attempted – genuinely, no previous leader would have conceived – unilaterally destroying large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' into 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the president attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group of Americans who wouldn't consider it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched across decades while conservative evangelical congregations 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 affection into an icon of animosity who endorses specifically the brutality that he criticized in scripture; this transformation occurred more gradually, through multiple decades rather than months, yet it remains disconcerting through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, as conceptually Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the fastest-growing cadre within America could have minimal awareness of him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or nones. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the narrative of a mighty king emerging; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The infant develops in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his doctrine is about love for other people, specifically for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to violence is to turn the opposite cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a means to educate the assailant; his method regarding offenses is that if a person pilfers your jacket you ought to provide him your sweater as well.
The apparent and direct fact that the Jesus from scripture requests a type of extreme compassion concentrated on the poor has perpetually caused the Christian faith somewhat of a controversial faith: appealing to the masses, but because of its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. In the fifties it was controlled by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Highest Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to witness the determined opposition against Trump develop during the previous year. It has been significant comfort to assist in constructing the initiative that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged citizens to show up in numbers in the off-year elections. We shall require to continue it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by reference to the highest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by reference to what makes it special and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest feigning the worst of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it means both meekness and conviction, a mixture that committed national faithful should embrace.
