The Trump movement's most telling and distinctive moments – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of a few weeks, the American president began displaying everyone his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the eastern section to construct it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and recently a study projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing large sections of the presidential residence to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous America's wealthiest, nearly all of which conduct transactions with the government.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who should not find it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched across decades while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we learned about into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of compassion into a figure of animosity who blesses specifically the brutality that he denounced in biblical teachings; this has happened more gradually, through multiple decades rather than months, yet it remains disconcerting in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Savior that I grew up with, because theoretically the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and given that the quickly increasing segment within America could have minimal awareness regarding him as they consider themselves non-believers or doubters or nones. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that exist valuable insights of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the narrative of an authoritative monarch appearing; instead, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his teaching focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and protecting. Christ's response to violence is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to instruct the assailant; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your coat you ought to provide him your sweater too.
The apparent and clear reality that Christ of the gospels calls for a type of profound affection focused on the needy has perpetually caused the Christian faith something of a controversial faith: appealing to the general public, but because of its inherent radicalness requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Highest of Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as substantial consolation to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged citizens to show up in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We shall require to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags at every demonstration and calls to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you receive him and welcome him or reject?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by relationship to the best about American history, similar to Christianity is best defended by reference to that which renders it special and beautiful, which is the example of the Savior. In all circumstances does it imply feigning the most damaging of both America and religious tradition did not happen; it means both meekness and belief, a combination that committed US believers should be comfortable with.
