The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive instances – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing everyone his intentions for a lavish reception room twice the size than the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing to build it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and rising, and presently an analysis projected his petroleum strategies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have risked – truly, no former commander would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of multiple America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' toward 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept about democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who should not find it entirely new. That is those of us – among senior generations a near majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we grew up with into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into an icon of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, through multiple decades rather than months, however it is still disturbing through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, as conceptually Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group among Americans might have little sense of him as they consider themselves skeptics or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of a powerful ruler emerging; conversely, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The child matures in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his doctrine focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and protecting. Jesus' answer to violence is to present the other cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the aggressor; his crime policy is that if a person pilfers your jacket you must offer the person your additional clothing too.
The obvious and clear fact that Christ of the gospels advocates for a form of extreme compassion focused on the needy is what has always made Christian religion somewhat of a controversial faith: engaging for the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Best of Us
So I have been inspired to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump develop during the previous year. It has been great solace to help build the movement that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged voters to participate in large quantities in interim political contests. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, with American flags during all protests and requests to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
The nation is most protected, essentially, through connection to the finest about American history, similar to Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, which is the example of Christ. In neither case does it mean pretending the worst about the nation and religious tradition was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a mixture that genuine US believers ought to accept.
