Trumpism's most revealing and characteristic instances – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. In the course of multiple weeks, the US president commenced revealing the public his designs for a gilded ballroom twice the size than the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the eastern section to construct it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the present calculation of fatalities resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance is 600,000 and growing, and recently an analysis forecast his fossil fuel policies would kill 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – truly, no other president would have imagined – solo demolishing large sections of the presidential residence to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of multiple the richest Americans, nearly all of which have business with the government.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the Earth' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the president try to upend the established notion about democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Essentially, they converted a persona of affection into an icon of animosity who blesses specifically the brutality that he condemned in scripture; this transformation occurred more slowly, through multiple decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Savior from my upbringing, since in theory the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and because the rapidly expanding group within America could have minimal awareness of him as they consider themselves atheists or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in the Christian story.
It is emphatically absolutely not the account of a powerful ruler arising; conversely, an infant arrives to homeless parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The baby grows up in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his doctrine is about love for fellow humans, especially for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a method to educate the assailant; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever a person pilfers your outer garment you should give them your pullover also.
The obvious and straightforward reality that Christ in biblical accounts calls for a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the poor is what has always made Christian religion rather a provocative belief system: appealing to the populace, but owing to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be controlled. In the fifties it was contained via weakening – Protestantism was so prevalent that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has provided great solace to participate in developing the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated electorate to show up in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags throughout each rally and appeals to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you welcome them and receive them or reject?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, through connection to the best within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended through connection to what makes it distinctive and magnificent, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In neither case does it imply acting as if the worst regarding America and religious tradition never occurred; it signifies both humility and conviction, a mixture that serious American Christians should embrace.
