Trumpism's most telling and characteristic occasions – 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 nation's leader started showing the public his designs for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions compared to the White House and then began independently demolishing the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the present calculation of deaths from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and recently research predicted his energy policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have attempted – truly, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, nearly all of which have business with public institutions.
We went from 'the humble will receive the Earth' toward 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president try to upend the old idea of democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment within America who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they converted a persona of affection into an icon of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he criticized in biblical teachings; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades as opposed to months, however it is still disconcerting in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and because the fastest-growing cadre among Americans could have minimal awareness of him as they consider themselves atheists or doubters or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; but I do think that exist valuable insights of great price in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the account of an authoritative monarch appearing; rather, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape covert authorities. The child matures in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his message concerns compassion for other people, especially for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and protecting. Christ's response to aggression is to offer the additional cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the aggressor; his crime policy is that if a person pilfers your coat you must offer them your pullover also.
The obvious and straightforward truth that the Savior in biblical accounts requests a kind of radical love concentrated on the poor has perpetually caused the Christian faith somewhat of a provocative belief system: attractive to the populace, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. During the 1950s it was contained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so widespread that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Best Among Us
Hence I have become heartened to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge during the previous year. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the initiative that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in large quantities in the off-year elections. We shall require to continue it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners at every demonstration and appeals to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you welcome them and embrace them or not?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by reference to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to what makes it unique and beautiful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In neither case does it imply pretending the worst of both America and religious tradition did not happen; it means both modesty and conviction, a mixture that genuine US believers ought to accept.
