Trumpism's most revealing and distinctive instances – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the US president started showing all observers his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to USAID amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and presently research forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have dared – really, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of multiple the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which conduct transactions with the government.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' into 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched across decades while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into an icon of hostility who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Christ from my upbringing, because theoretically the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding about him as they consider themselves skeptics or uncertain individuals or nones. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is decidedly definitely not the story of a mighty king arising; conversely, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his doctrine is about love for others, especially for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and protecting. Jesus' answer to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a method to instruct the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing states that when someone steals your jacket you ought to provide him your sweater also.
The apparent and clear fact that Christ of the gospels calls for a form of radical love focused on the impoverished has consistently rendered the Christian faith rather a controversial faith: engaging for the masses, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be controlled. In the 1950s it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
So I have been heartened to see the determined opposition against Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has provided substantial consolation to help build the campaign that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in numbers in the off-year elections. We must have to continue it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags during all protests and requests to the finest aspects in US history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by relationship to the highest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended through connection to that which renders it unique and wonderful, which is the example of Christ. In neither case does it suggest acting as if the worst regarding America and Christian faith did not happen; it represents both humility and conviction, a combination that serious national faithful should embrace.
