The Trump movement's most illuminating and defining moments – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, 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 designs for a lavish reception room double the dimensions of the White House and then began independently demolishing the East Wing to construct it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and growing, and presently an analysis forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have dared – really, no other president would have imagined – independently wrecking large sections of the presidential residence to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of multiple the richest Americans, the majority of whom have business with federal agencies.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the chief executive attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group of Americans who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched over the years as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Essentially, they turned a figure of affection into an icon of hostility who approves specifically the brutality that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, over decades as opposed to months, however it is still unsettling through similar means, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, because theoretically the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and because the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense regarding him since they are non-believers or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the narrative of a mighty king emerging; instead, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to evade undercover officers. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his message is about love for others, specifically for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and housing. Christ's response to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a way to instruct the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your coat you must offer him your sweater too.
The apparent and direct fact that the Savior from scripture requests a kind of radical love centered on the impoverished has consistently rendered the Christian faith rather a scandalous religion: appealing to the general public, but because of its natural unconventionality requiring to be restrained. In the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become encouraged to witness the persistent defiance to Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has been significant comfort to assist in constructing the campaign that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated electorate to participate in numbers in the off-year elections. We shall require to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags throughout each rally and requests to the best parts within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by relationship to the best about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by reference to that which renders it special and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In both situations does it imply feigning the most negative about the nation and Christianity was nonexistent; it represents both humility and conviction, a mixture that committed national faithful should be comfortable with.
