The Trump phenomenon's most telling and defining moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of a few weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing everyone his designs for a gilded ballroom twice the size compared to the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to construct it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of fatalities resulting from his reductions to international aid stands at 600,000 and growing, and this week a study forecast his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have attempted – really, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the White House in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of numerous the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the president attempt to overturn the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have observed over the years as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we learned about into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into a figure of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he criticized in scripture; this has happened more slowly, across decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless disturbing via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ that I grew up with, as conceptually Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the quickly increasing segment within America could have minimal awareness about him as they consider themselves atheists or agnostics or nones. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that there are pearls of great price within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly absolutely not the story of a mighty king emerging; conversely, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to another nation to evade covert authorities. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his teaching focuses on affection for other people, specifically for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to hostility is to offer the opposite cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever a person pilfers your coat you should give the person your additional clothing also.
The obvious and straightforward reality that Christ of the gospels advocates for a kind of radical love focused on the needy is what has always made Christianity rather a scandalous religion: attractive to the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Finest Among Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to see the determined opposition to Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to assist in constructing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged voters to show up in numbers in interim political contests. We shall require to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and appeals to the best parts of American history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you welcome them and receive them or not?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by relationship to the best about American history, just as Christianity is most protected by reference to elements that cause it to be special and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In neither case does it mean pretending the worst regarding America and Christian faith never occurred; it means both meekness and conviction, a mixture that serious American Christians should be comfortable with.
