The Trump movement's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. In the course of several weeks, the American president commenced revealing everyone his intentions for a lavish reception room twice the size than the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of casualties resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance is 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study predicted his petroleum strategies would kill another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have attempted – truly, no previous leader would have imagined – independently wrecking large sections of the executive mansion in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the leader attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there is one large group within America who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. This includes individuals like us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Essentially, they converted a persona of love into a figure of hate who endorses specifically the brutality that he criticized in scripture; this transformation occurred more slowly, through multiple decades instead of months, however it is still disturbing in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
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 among Americans could have minimal awareness regarding him because they identify as skeptics or uncertain individuals or nones. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a storage space, who must quickly flee to another nation to evade covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his message is about love for fellow humans, specifically for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and protecting. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to present the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his crime policy states that when an individual takes your jacket you ought to provide the person your additional clothing also.
The obvious and direct truth that Christ in biblical accounts requests a kind of profound affection concentrated on the needy has consistently rendered Christian religion somewhat of a provocative belief system: appealing to the populace, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be controlled. In the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Best Among Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to see the steadfast resistance against Trump develop in this past year. It has provided substantial consolation to assist in constructing the movement that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in numbers in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or refuse?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, through connection to the finest within national tradition, just as Christianity is most protected by relationship to that which renders it distinctive and beautiful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In neither case does it mean feigning the most negative regarding America and Christianity did not happen; it signifies both modesty and conviction, a blend that genuine American Christians should embrace.
