The Trump movement's most illuminating and defining moments – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the American president began displaying everyone his intentions for a gilded ballroom two times larger than the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of deaths resulting from his reductions to USAID stands at 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study predicted his energy policies would kill another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No other president would have risked – truly, no former commander would have conceived – independently wrecking significant portions of the presidential residence in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of numerous the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We went from 'the humble will receive the planet' toward 'the humble will perish of cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment within America who might not perceive it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations a near majority – who were raised as conventional Protestant believers.
We have observed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we learned about into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they transformed an image of compassion into a symbol of hostility who endorses precisely the cruelties that he criticized in the Gospel; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, over decades rather than months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus from my upbringing, since in theory the Savior is the core within Christian belief, and since the fastest-growing cadre among Americans could have minimal awareness regarding him because they identify as skeptics or doubters or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with any of these traditions, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the story of a mighty king appearing; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who must quickly flee to another nation to avoid secret police. The child matures in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his doctrine focuses on affection for fellow humans, specifically for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the additional cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever someone steals your coat you ought to provide him your sweater also.
The obvious and direct truth that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a kind of radical love concentrated on the needy is what has always made Christianity something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but owing to its inherent radicalness demanding to be contained. In the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Finest Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the steadfast resistance against Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has been substantial consolation to assist in constructing the initiative that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated voters to participate in significant amounts in interim political contests. We will need to persist with it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags during all protests and calls to the finest aspects in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by reference to the best about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by reference to that which renders it unique and magnificent, particularly the pattern of Christ. In both situations does it imply pretending the most damaging regarding America and Christianity never occurred; it represents both modesty and belief, a blend that serious American Christians ought to accept.
