Trumpism's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of a few weeks, the US president began displaying all observers his designs for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions than the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing to construct it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently research projected his energy policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have risked – genuinely, no previous leader would have conceived – independently wrecking significant portions of the executive mansion in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of some of the richest Americans, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the world' into 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the president attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we learned about into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of compassion into an icon of hate who blesses precisely the cruelties that he criticized in scripture; this change developed more gradually, over decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disturbing via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Christ from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the fastest-growing cadre of Americans could have minimal awareness about him because they identify as non-believers or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the story of an authoritative monarch appearing; rather, a baby is born to displaced parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to avoid covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his teaching focuses on affection for other people, especially for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to turn the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a means to instruct the aggressor; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever someone steals your coat you must offer him your sweater also.
The apparent and straightforward truth that the Jesus from scripture requests a type of profound affection focused on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christianity something of a provocative belief system: attractive to the populace, but owing to its intrinsic extremism needing to be restrained. During the 1950s it was contained via weakening – Protestantism was so widespread that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has served as substantial consolation to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged electorate to turn out in numbers in the off-year elections. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners throughout each rally and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by relationship to the finest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is most protected by reference to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it imply feigning the most negative of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it means both humility and belief, a combination that serious US believers ought to accept.
