The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and defining occasions – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the nation's leader started showing everyone his plans for an ornate dance hall two times larger than the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the existing assessment of deaths from his cuts to USAID amounts to 600,000 and rising, and recently a study forecast his petroleum strategies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have dared – truly, no previous leader would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the leader attempt to overturn the old idea of democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics close to half – who were raised as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of affection into a figure of animosity who blesses precisely the cruelties that he criticized in the Gospel; this has happened more gradually, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disturbing in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, as conceptually Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the quickly increasing segment among Americans might have little sense regarding him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the narrative of an authoritative monarch appearing; instead, a baby is born to homeless parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to avoid undercover officers. The child matures in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his message is about love for other people, especially for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to violence is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of passive acceptance, but as a means to teach the assailant; his crime policy states that when a person pilfers your jacket you must offer the person your additional clothing as well.
The evident and clear fact that the Savior in biblical accounts requests a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the impoverished has consistently rendered the Christian faith somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but because of its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. During the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Battle for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become inspired to observe the steadfast resistance against Trump arise during the previous year. It has served as great solace to participate in developing the campaign that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated electorate to turn out in numbers in interim political contests. We will need to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you receive him and embrace them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, through connection to the highest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by reference to what makes it special and magnificent, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In neither case does it mean pretending the most damaging about the nation and religious tradition never occurred; it means both modesty and conviction, a combination that genuine US believers ought to accept.
