Trumpism's most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of a few weeks, the US president began displaying the public his designs for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing to construct it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of fatalities from his cuts to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and increasing, and recently research projected his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – really, no other president would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of some of America's wealthiest, nearly all of which maintain dealings with public institutions.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the Earth' into 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the chief executive try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment within America who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics close to half – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we were raised with into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Essentially, they converted a persona of compassion into a figure of hostility who blesses specifically the brutality that he criticized in scripture; this change developed more slowly, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains unsettling through similar means, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior that I grew up with, because theoretically Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and because the quickly increasing segment of Americans might have little sense about him since they are skeptics or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that there are pearls of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the story of a powerful ruler appearing; conversely, an infant arrives to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to evade covert authorities. The child matures in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for other people, especially for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. Jesus' answer to aggression is to present the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a means to instruct the assailant; his method regarding offenses is that if a person pilfers your outer garment you must offer them your pullover too.
The apparent and straightforward truth that Christ of the gospels requests a form of extreme compassion concentrated on the poor has perpetually caused Christianity rather a provocative belief system: appealing to the masses, but because of its natural unconventionality needing to be contained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Finest of Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has been significant comfort to assist in constructing the movement that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired electorate to turn out in large quantities during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners at every demonstration and requests to the finest aspects in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you receive him and welcome him or not?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, by relationship to the best in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured through connection to elements that cause it to be unique and beautiful, which is the example of the Savior. In neither case does it imply pretending the most negative regarding America and religious tradition did not happen; it represents both modesty and faith, a combination that genuine American Christians should be comfortable with.
