Trumpism's most revealing and defining occasions – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of a few weeks, the American president began displaying the public his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to international aid is 600,000 and rising, and this week an analysis forecast his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have attempted – truly, no former commander would have contemplated – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House to build a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, almost all of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' into 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the president try to upend the old idea about democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. That is those of us – among senior generations close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we were raised with into the total contrary of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they turned a figure of love into an icon of hate who approves precisely the cruelties that he condemned in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more gradually, across decades rather than months, however it is still disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Christ that I grew up with, because theoretically Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and given that the rapidly expanding group of Americans could have minimal awareness about him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or nones. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably not the account of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape undercover officers. The child matures in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his message concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and housing. Christ's response to hostility is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a method to instruct the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever a person pilfers your coat you must offer the person your additional clothing also.
The obvious and straightforward truth that Christ from scripture requests a kind of radical love focused on the poor has consistently rendered Christianity something of a provocative belief system: attractive to the general public, but owing to its natural unconventionality requiring to be controlled. In the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
So I have been heartened to observe the steadfast resistance to Trump arise during the previous year. It has been significant comfort to help build the campaign that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated voters to show up in significant amounts during minor elections. We must have to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags at every demonstration and requests to the highest qualities in US history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or reject?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to that which renders it special and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest feigning the most negative regarding America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and faith, a blend that serious American Christians should embrace.
