Trumpism's most illuminating and characteristic instances – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of a few weeks, the American president started showing all observers his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions than the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to construct it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of fatalities from his cuts to international aid amounts to 600,000 and rising, and this week a study projected his energy policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the White House to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the richest Americans, the majority of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We went from 'the humble will receive the Earth' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the president try to upend the old idea of democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – among senior generations a near majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we grew up with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they converted a persona of affection into a figure of hate who approves exactly the harshness that he denounced in the Gospel; this change developed more gradually, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior from my upbringing, because theoretically Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the quickly increasing segment within America might have little sense regarding him since they are skeptics or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably definitely not the narrative of an authoritative monarch appearing; conversely, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to evade covert authorities. The infant develops in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his doctrine focuses on affection for others, especially for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and housing. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to offer the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a way to teach the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing states that when someone steals your coat you ought to provide him your sweater too.
The obvious and direct fact that the Savior from scripture requests a kind of radical love focused on the needy has consistently rendered Christianity something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but owing to its inherent radicalness requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was contained via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Finest of Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to see the persistent defiance regarding Trump emerge during the previous year. It has been substantial consolation to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated citizens to participate in numbers in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners at every demonstration and calls to the finest aspects of American history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, by relationship to the best in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to what makes it special and wonderful, specifically the model of the Savior. In all circumstances does it imply pretending the most negative regarding America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it represents both meekness and belief, a blend that genuine US believers should embrace.
