The Trump phenomenon's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. During the period of several weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing all observers his plans for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions compared to the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to build it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of fatalities from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – genuinely, no former commander would have conceived – unilaterally destroying large sections of the presidential residence in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of numerous America's wealthiest, almost all of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the world' into 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the traditional concept about democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment within America who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they transformed an image of compassion into an icon of animosity who endorses precisely the cruelties that he criticized in the Gospel; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, across decades instead of months, yet it remains disconcerting via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my childhood, as conceptually Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group among Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him since they are skeptics or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly absolutely not the account of a mighty king emerging; rather, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to avoid secret police. The child matures in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the assailant; his crime policy indicates that whenever someone steals your outer garment you must offer them your pullover too.
The evident and clear reality that the Jesus of the gospels advocates for a type of profound affection focused on the impoverished is what has always made Christian religion rather a scandalous religion: engaging for the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
So I have been heartened to see the persistent defiance against Trump arise in this past year. It has served as substantial consolation to assist in constructing the movement that has protested openly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged electorate to turn out in numbers in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or reject?
America is best defended, essentially, through connection to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to what makes it special and magnificent, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In both situations does it suggest feigning the worst regarding America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it represents both meekness and conviction, a mixture that genuine American Christians should embrace.
