The Trump movement's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. During the period of a few weeks, the US president began displaying all observers his plans for a lavish reception room twice the size than the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing to construct it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to international aid amounts to 600,000 and rising, and this week a study predicted his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have risked – really, no previous leader would have conceived – independently wrecking significant portions of the presidential residence to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' toward 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it entirely new. That is those of us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we learned about into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. At its most basic, they turned a figure of compassion into an icon of hate who blesses exactly the harshness that he condemned in the Gospel; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades as opposed to months, however it is still disturbing via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my upbringing, since in theory Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and because the quickly increasing segment among Americans might have little sense regarding him since they are atheists or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly definitely not the narrative of a mighty king appearing; instead, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to escape undercover officers. The infant develops in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for others, especially for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to offer the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his method regarding offenses states that when an individual takes your coat you ought to provide the person your additional clothing as well.
The obvious and straightforward fact that the Savior from scripture requests a kind of extreme compassion focused on the needy has perpetually caused Christianity somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the general public, but due to its inherent radicalness needing to be contained. In the fifties it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so prevalent that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest of Us
So I have been inspired to observe the determined opposition against Trump develop in this past year. It has been great solace to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated voters to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners during all protests and appeals to the highest qualities of American history.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
America is best defended, in other words, by reference to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it mean pretending the most damaging of both America and religious tradition never occurred; it means both modesty and faith, a combination that serious American Christians ought to accept.
