The Trump phenomenon's most telling and defining instances – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the nation's leader started showing the public his plans for a gilded ballroom two times larger than the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing portion to build it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to USAID amounts to 600,000 and rising, and recently a study predicted his petroleum strategies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have dared – truly, no former commander would have contemplated – solo demolishing major areas of the presidential residence to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of numerous the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which conduct transactions with public institutions.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the world' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the president attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there is one large group within America who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched across decades as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we learned about into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they turned a figure of affection into an icon of hostility who approves exactly the harshness that he condemned in scripture; this has happened more slowly, through multiple decades instead of months, yet it remains unsettling through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Jesus from my upbringing, as conceptually the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and given that the fastest-growing cadre within America may possess limited understanding about him since they are atheists or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that there are pearls of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the narrative of a mighty king arising; instead, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a different country to evade secret police. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his doctrine concerns compassion for other people, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and housing. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever an individual takes your jacket you must offer the person your additional clothing too.
The evident and straightforward reality that the Savior of the gospels advocates for a kind of profound affection concentrated on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity rather a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but because of its natural unconventionality needing to be controlled. In the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest Among Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the determined opposition to Trump develop in this past year. It has served as great solace to help build the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated citizens to show up in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners at every demonstration and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is optimally secured through connection to what makes it distinctive and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In all circumstances does it suggest acting as if the worst of both America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and faith, a combination that genuine national faithful ought to accept.
