The Trump movement's most illuminating and characteristic occasions – not its most significant, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of multiple weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size of the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the eastern section to erect it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the present calculation of deaths from his cuts to foreign assistance is 600,000 and growing, and recently an analysis projected his energy policies would cause deaths an additional 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have attempted – really, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the White House in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom maintain dealings with public institutions.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to observe the leader try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group within America who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched across decades as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we were raised with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they turned a figure of love into a figure of animosity who blesses precisely the cruelties that he criticized in biblical teachings; this has happened at a slower pace, through multiple decades as opposed to months, yet it remains disconcerting through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ from my upbringing, because theoretically Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and because the rapidly expanding group among Americans could have minimal awareness regarding him since they are atheists or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; but I do think that exist valuable insights of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the account of a mighty king appearing; rather, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to escape undercover officers. The infant develops in simple surroundings, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, especially for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to offer the additional cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to instruct the assailant; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever a person pilfers your jacket you ought to provide him your sweater as well.
The apparent and straightforward reality that the Jesus of the gospels requests a kind of radical love centered on the needy has consistently rendered Christian religion rather a controversial faith: attractive to the masses, but due to its natural unconventionality demanding to be restrained. In the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to witness the determined opposition against Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to help build the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to show up in significant amounts in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners at every demonstration and calls to the highest qualities of American history.
We're going to be asked ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or reject?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, through connection to the best within national tradition, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to elements that cause it to be unique and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In both situations does it mean feigning the worst of both America and religious tradition never occurred; it means both humility and conviction, a blend that genuine American Christians should be comfortable with.
