Trumpism's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the nation's leader began displaying everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall two times larger than the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the eastern section to erect it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of deaths resulting from his reductions to international aid stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently an analysis projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have dared – truly, no previous leader would have imagined – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the White House to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the president try to upend the established notion of democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations a near majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed across decades as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Essentially, they turned a figure of compassion into a symbol of animosity who endorses specifically the brutality that he condemned in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more slowly, across decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior from my childhood, as conceptually Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the fastest-growing cadre of Americans might have little sense of him because they identify as non-believers or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of great price in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically absolutely not the story of an authoritative monarch arising; instead, a baby is born to displaced parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to evade covert authorities. The child matures in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his message concerns compassion for other people, specifically for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the other cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a means to educate the aggressor; his method regarding offenses is that if a person pilfers your jacket you must offer the person your additional clothing as well.
The evident and direct reality that Christ of the gospels calls for a form of radical love focused on the needy is what has always made Christianity rather a scandalous religion: appealing to the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. During the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Best Within Us
So I have been encouraged to observe the determined opposition against Trump arise during the previous year. It has provided substantial consolation to participate in developing the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired voters to turn out in significant amounts during minor elections. We must have to continue it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the finest about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected through connection to elements that cause it to be special and magnificent, particularly the pattern of Christ. In neither case does it suggest feigning the most negative of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it signifies both modesty and conviction, a combination that genuine American Christians should be comfortable with.
