The Trump phenomenon's most telling and defining instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of a few weeks, the nation's leader started showing everyone his intentions for a lavish reception room double the dimensions than the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of deaths due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and this week a study predicted his energy policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – truly, no previous leader would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the presidential residence to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' into 'the gentle will succumb to cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the president attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they transformed an image of affection into an icon of animosity who approves specifically the brutality that he denounced in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, through multiple decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disturbing through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my upbringing, because theoretically Christ is the focus within Christian belief, and since the rapidly expanding group within America could have minimal awareness regarding him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or spiritual independents. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the story of a mighty king appearing; instead, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to avoid undercover officers. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for others, specifically for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the assailant; his crime policy is that if someone steals your jacket you ought to provide him your sweater also.
The obvious and straightforward reality that Christ in biblical accounts requests a type of extreme compassion centered on the needy has consistently rendered the Christian faith rather a scandalous religion: appealing to the populace, but owing to its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so prevalent that it practically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Highest of Us
Hence I have become heartened to see the steadfast resistance regarding Trump emerge over the last twelve months. It has served as significant comfort to participate in developing the movement that has protested openly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated electorate to participate in large quantities in the off-year elections. We must have to maintain it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners at every demonstration and appeals to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We're going to be asked ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or not?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, through connection to the highest within national tradition, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to elements that cause it to be distinctive and beautiful, particularly the pattern of Christ. In neither case does it mean pretending the worst of both America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it represents both meekness and belief, a combination that committed US believers ought to accept.
