Trumpism's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the nation's leader began displaying the public his designs for a lavish reception room double the dimensions than the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to build it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of casualties resulting from his reductions to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and presently research forecast his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have dared – really, no other president would have imagined – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the presidential residence to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of multiple America's wealthiest, the majority of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader try to upend the old idea of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group among Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. That is those of us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we were raised with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they turned a figure of compassion into a figure of animosity who endorses exactly the harshness that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains unsettling through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus that I grew up with, since in theory the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and because the quickly increasing segment within America could have minimal awareness about him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly not the story of a powerful ruler arising; rather, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to evade secret police. The child matures in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his teaching focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a method to educate the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing states that when an individual takes your outer garment you should give them your pullover as well.
The obvious and direct reality that the Jesus from scripture advocates for a type of profound affection focused on the needy has perpetually caused Christian religion rather a provocative belief system: engaging for the general public, but because of its natural unconventionality demanding to be controlled. During the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestantism was so widespread that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Best of Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump arise in this past year. It has served as great solace to assist in constructing the initiative that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated citizens to show up in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities in US history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you welcome them and embrace them or not?
America is best defended, essentially, by reference to the finest in US heritage, similar to Christianity is optimally secured through connection to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, specifically the model of Jesus. In both situations does it mean pretending the worst about the nation and Christianity was nonexistent; it means both meekness and conviction, a combination that genuine American Christians should embrace.
