Trumpism's most revealing and defining moments – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of multiple weeks, the nation's leader started showing all observers his designs for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions compared to the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to erect it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and presently a study forecast his petroleum strategies would kill an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have risked – really, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing large sections of the executive mansion to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of multiple America's wealthiest, nearly all of which maintain dealings with public institutions.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the leader try to upend the old idea of democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched across decades as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of compassion into an icon of hostility who blesses specifically the brutality that he denounced in the Gospel; this change developed more slowly, through multiple decades instead of months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Christ from my upbringing, as conceptually Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as 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 contain precious wisdom of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably definitely not the narrative of a mighty king emerging; instead, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his doctrine focuses on affection for others, especially for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Jesus' answer to hostility is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever an individual takes your coat you should give him your sweater also.
The evident and clear reality that the Jesus from scripture advocates for a kind of radical love centered on the needy is what has always made Christianity somewhat of a scandalous religion: appealing to the masses, but due to its inherent radicalness demanding to be controlled. In the fifties it was restrained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Highest Among Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the persistent defiance to Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has served as substantial consolation to help build the initiative that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged voters to participate in large quantities during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you welcome them and receive them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by reference to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is optimally secured through connection to what makes it distinctive and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In all circumstances does it imply pretending the most negative of both America and Christianity did not happen; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a combination that serious American Christians should embrace.
