The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and distinctive instances – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of several weeks, the American president started showing the public his designs for a gilded ballroom twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of deaths resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and rising, and recently an analysis predicted his energy policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No other president would have dared – really, no former commander would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – among senior generations close to half – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of compassion into an icon of hostility who endorses specifically the brutality that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred more gradually, across decades rather than months, yet it remains disturbing in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus from my upbringing, since in theory the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and given that the fastest-growing cadre of Americans might have little sense about him since they are atheists or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically absolutely not the narrative of an authoritative monarch appearing; instead, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to evade secret police. The child matures in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for other people, particularly for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, shown by providing food and sheltering. Christ's response to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a means to instruct the assailant; his crime policy is that if someone steals your coat you must offer the person your additional clothing also.
The evident and straightforward truth that Christ from scripture advocates for a type of radical love centered on the impoverished has perpetually caused Christian religion somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the populace, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. In the 1950s it was contained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become inspired to see the persistent defiance regarding Trump emerge during the previous year. It has been substantial consolation to help build the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired electorate to participate in numbers during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags at every demonstration and calls to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or refuse?
America is best defended, essentially, through connection to the highest about American history, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In both situations does it imply feigning the most negative regarding America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it means both modesty and faith, a blend that genuine American Christians should be comfortable with.
