Trumpism's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of several weeks, the nation's leader started showing all observers his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to erect it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of fatalities from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and growing, and presently a study projected his energy policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have attempted – genuinely, no former commander would have imagined – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the presidential residence to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of multiple America's wealthiest, almost all of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the chief executive attempt to overturn the old idea regarding democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment of Americans who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched across decades as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they transformed an image of compassion into a figure of hostility who blesses specifically the brutality that he condemned in biblical teachings; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, yet it remains disturbing through similar means, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Jesus from my upbringing, since in theory Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and because the quickly increasing segment within America might have little sense about him as they consider themselves non-believers or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly not the story of an authoritative monarch appearing; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to escape secret police. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his doctrine is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and protecting. The Savior's reaction to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a method to instruct the assailant; his crime policy indicates that whenever someone steals your outer garment you must offer the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and straightforward reality that the Savior of the gospels calls for a type of radical love focused on the needy has consistently rendered Christian religion somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but owing to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
So I have been encouraged to see the determined opposition regarding Trump develop in this past year. It has served as significant comfort to assist in constructing the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged electorate to show up in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags at every demonstration and requests to the best parts of American history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, to put it differently, through connection to the best in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended through connection to that which renders it unique and magnificent, specifically the model of the Savior. In both situations does it suggest feigning the worst about the nation and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both modesty and faith, a combination that genuine American Christians ought to accept.
