The Trump movement's most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. During the period of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing everyone his plans for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions compared to the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and increasing, and presently a study projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have attempted – genuinely, no previous leader would have imagined – independently wrecking large sections of the White House to build a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom have business with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the president try to upend the old idea about democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations close to half – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched over the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we learned about into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of love into a symbol of hate who blesses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, through multiple decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disturbing via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, since in theory Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and since the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding regarding him since they are non-believers or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of great price in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably definitely not the story of an authoritative monarch appearing; conversely, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for others, specifically for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. Christ's response to violence is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a method to educate the assailant; his method regarding offenses is that if someone steals your outer garment you must offer them your pullover too.
The evident and clear fact that the Jesus from scripture requests a type of radical love focused on the needy has perpetually caused Christianity rather a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but because of its natural unconventionality demanding to be restrained. During the 1950s it was contained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so widespread that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to witness the steadfast resistance against Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has provided significant comfort to assist in constructing the movement that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in numbers during minor elections. We must have to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities of American history.
We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or reject?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by relationship to the finest about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by reference to that which renders it unique and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In both situations does it suggest acting as if the worst about the nation and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both modesty and belief, a mixture that serious American Christians ought to accept.
