Trumpism's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the American president started showing the public his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing to build it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of casualties due to his slashing to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study predicted his energy policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have risked – really, no previous leader would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the White House to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of multiple the richest Americans, nearly all of which maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the world' into 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the president try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we grew up with into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Essentially, they converted a persona of affection into a symbol of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he criticized in scripture; this has happened more gradually, across decades instead of months, yet it remains disturbing in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Christ from my childhood, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the rapidly expanding group within America might have little sense of him because they identify as non-believers or agnostics or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically not the narrative of a mighty king emerging; instead, a child comes into the world to homeless parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to evade covert authorities. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his doctrine focuses on affection for others, especially for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a method to instruct the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing states that when an individual takes your jacket you must offer them your pullover too.
The obvious and direct reality that the Jesus in biblical accounts calls for a kind of extreme compassion centered on the poor is what has always made Christian religion rather a provocative belief system: appealing to the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was contained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so widespread that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Best of Us
So I have been heartened to see the determined opposition to Trump arise in this past year. It has served as substantial consolation to assist in constructing the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated electorate to participate in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners throughout each rally and requests to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you welcome them and welcome him or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, through connection to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by relationship to that which renders it unique and magnificent, specifically the model of the Savior. In all circumstances does it mean pretending the most negative regarding America and religious tradition did not happen; it represents both meekness and faith, a combination that committed American Christians should embrace.
