Trumpism's most telling and characteristic instances – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing the public his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size than the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the eastern section to build it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths resulting from his reductions to USAID amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and recently research projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No other president would have dared – genuinely, no former commander would have imagined – independently wrecking major areas of the executive mansion to construct a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of numerous America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the president try to upend the old idea about democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there is one large group of Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched across decades as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we were raised with into the total contrary of our perception of his character. At its most basic, they converted a persona of compassion into an icon of hate who approves exactly the harshness that he denounced in scripture; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, however it is still disturbing through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
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 since they are non-believers or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that exist valuable insights of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the story of a mighty king appearing; conversely, a baby is born to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who need to rapidly escape to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching is about love for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to turn the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a way to teach the attacker; his method regarding offenses is that if an individual takes your jacket you should give him your sweater too.
The obvious and straightforward reality that Christ in biblical accounts calls for a kind of profound affection concentrated on the poor has perpetually caused Christian religion rather a controversial faith: attractive to the general public, but owing to its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. During the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Best Among Us
So I have been heartened to witness the determined opposition regarding Trump arise during the previous year. It has served as significant comfort to help build the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated electorate to turn out in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We shall require to persist with it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags throughout each rally and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, essentially, by relationship to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, which is the example of the Savior. In all circumstances does it suggest acting as if the most negative about the nation and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both modesty and conviction, a mixture that serious American Christians ought to accept.
