The Trump phenomenon's most revealing and defining occasions – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. During the period of a few weeks, the US president started showing the public his plans for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of fatalities from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study predicted his petroleum strategies would kill an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have dared – really, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing major areas of the presidential residence to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom have business with the government.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' toward 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the leader try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we grew up with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of affection into a symbol of hate who endorses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in the Gospel; this transformation occurred more slowly, through multiple decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disturbing via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and because the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense about him because they identify as atheists or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically absolutely not the narrative of a powerful ruler arising; instead, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to escape undercover officers. The infant develops in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, specifically for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to present the other cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a method to instruct the aggressor; his method regarding offenses states that when someone steals your jacket you should give him your sweater as well.
The obvious and clear truth that Christ of the gospels calls for a form of extreme compassion concentrated on the impoverished is what has always made the Christian faith something of a controversial faith: attractive to the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism needing to be restrained. In the fifties it was controlled through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become encouraged to witness the steadfast resistance regarding Trump emerge in this past year. It has served as great solace to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged voters to show up in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags throughout each rally and calls to the best parts within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or not?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by reference to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, specifically the model of the Savior. In both situations does it imply acting as if the most negative of both America and Christianity was nonexistent; it means both modesty and faith, a combination that genuine US believers should embrace.
