The Trump movement's most revealing and distinctive moments – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of several weeks, the US president began displaying everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of deaths resulting from his reductions to USAID is 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study forecast his energy policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have dared – truly, no other president would have contemplated – independently wrecking large sections of the White House to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of multiple America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' into 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the president try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations close to half – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they transformed an image of love into an icon of hate who approves precisely the cruelties that he denounced in biblical teachings; this has happened more slowly, over decades instead of months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Savior that I grew up with, as conceptually the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans could have minimal awareness about him since they are skeptics or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of great price within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the account of a mighty king arising; instead, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to another nation to escape secret police. The infant develops in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his message is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the other cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his method regarding offenses states that when an individual takes your jacket you ought to provide him your sweater too.
The apparent and clear reality that Christ from scripture calls for a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy is what has always made Christianity somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the general public, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be contained. In the fifties it was contained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Highest Among Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the persistent defiance to Trump develop during the previous year. It has served as significant comfort to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in large quantities in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you receive him and welcome him or reject?
America is best defended, essentially, through connection to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to what makes it unique and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Christ. In all circumstances does it suggest pretending the most negative regarding America and Christianity did not happen; it represents both meekness and conviction, a blend that genuine national faithful should be comfortable with.
