The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of a few weeks, the American president started showing all observers his designs for a lavish reception room twice the size compared to the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to USAID stands at 600,000 and rising, and recently an analysis forecast his fossil fuel policies would kill another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – genuinely, no former commander would have contemplated – solo demolishing major areas of the executive mansion to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We went from 'the humble will receive the world' into 'the gentle will succumb of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the president try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group within America who should not find it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we were raised with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of affection into an icon of animosity who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in biblical teachings; this has happened more slowly, across decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disconcerting through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Jesus from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and because the quickly increasing segment among Americans could have minimal awareness of him as they consider themselves skeptics or doubters or nones. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly absolutely not the narrative of an authoritative monarch appearing; instead, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to avoid undercover officers. The child matures in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his doctrine is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and housing. Jesus' answer to violence is to turn the additional cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your jacket you ought to provide the person your additional clothing also.
The obvious and clear fact that the Jesus from scripture requests a kind of profound affection focused on the poor is what has always made Christianity rather a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but due to its inherent radicalness needing to be contained. In the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Finest Among Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has served as great solace to participate in developing the campaign that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged citizens to show up in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags during all protests and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you receive him and embrace them or reject?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, by reference to the finest in US heritage, just as Christianity is most protected through connection to that which renders it distinctive and magnificent, specifically the model of Jesus. In both situations does it suggest acting as if the most damaging of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both humility and conviction, a combination that committed American Christians should be comfortable with.
