The Trump movement's most illuminating and defining moments – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of several weeks, the US president began displaying the public his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then began independently demolishing the East Wing to construct it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the present calculation of fatalities resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and increasing, and presently an analysis projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have dared – really, no previous leader would have conceived – independently wrecking large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of numerous the richest Americans, nearly all of which maintain dealings with the government.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the world' to 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed across decades as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we learned about into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they turned a figure of affection into a figure of hostility who approves precisely the cruelties that he criticized in the Gospel; this change developed more slowly, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disconcerting via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and since the rapidly expanding group within America may possess limited understanding regarding him as they consider themselves atheists or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically definitely not the account of an authoritative monarch arising; rather, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to avoid covert authorities. The child matures in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his doctrine is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Jesus' answer to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of submissive tolerance, but as a means to teach the assailant; his method regarding offenses states that when someone steals your coat you should give them your pullover too.
The evident and direct truth that Christ from scripture calls for a kind of profound affection focused on the needy is what has always made Christian religion somewhat of a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be restrained. In the fifties it was contained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Struggle for the Finest of Us
Hence I have become inspired to observe the determined opposition regarding Trump arise in this past year. It has provided significant comfort to help build the movement that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged voters to turn out in significant amounts in interim political contests. We must have to maintain it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags at every demonstration and requests to the finest aspects in US history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
America is best defended, essentially, by relationship to the best within national tradition, just as Christianity is most protected by reference to elements that cause it to be special and magnificent, specifically the model of the Savior. In neither case does it suggest feigning the most damaging regarding America and religious tradition never occurred; it signifies both humility and faith, a blend that committed US believers should embrace.
