The Trump movement's most revealing and distinctive instances – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president started showing all observers his designs for a gilded ballroom two times larger of the White House and then began solo dismantling the eastern section to construct it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of casualties due to his slashing to foreign assistance amounts to 600,000 and growing, and recently a study projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No other president would have attempted – truly, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying large sections of the executive mansion to build a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of multiple the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which have business with public institutions.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion about democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have observed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Essentially, they transformed an image of love into a figure of animosity who approves precisely the cruelties that he condemned in the Gospel; this has happened more slowly, over decades rather than months, yet it remains disturbing via comparable methods, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ that I grew up with, because theoretically Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and because the rapidly expanding group within America might have little sense regarding him because they identify as non-believers or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the account of a mighty king arising; conversely, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to avoid covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his doctrine is about love for others, specifically for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to violence is to offer the additional cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever someone steals your outer garment you ought to provide him your sweater too.
The obvious and clear fact that the Savior of the gospels requests a form of radical love focused on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christianity somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the populace, but due to its natural unconventionality demanding to be controlled. In the fifties it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so widespread that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Finest Among Us
So I have been encouraged to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has been great solace to help build the movement that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired voters to show up in numbers during minor elections. We shall require to persist with it, and in the same spirit, with American flags throughout each rally and requests to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you receive him and embrace them or not?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, through connection to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is optimally secured through connection to elements that cause it to be special and wonderful, which is the example of Christ. In neither case does it suggest feigning the most damaging of both America and Christianity did not happen; it represents both humility and belief, a combination that committed American Christians ought to accept.
