The Trump movement's most illuminating and characteristic instances – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. In the course of multiple weeks, the nation's leader started showing the public his designs for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing to build it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of deaths resulting from his reductions to international aid amounts to 600,000 and growing, and this week an analysis forecast his energy policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – genuinely, no other president would have imagined – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the executive mansion in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, the majority of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the world' toward 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the chief executive attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there is one large group of Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we were raised with into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Essentially, they transformed an image of affection into a symbol of hate who endorses exactly the harshness that he criticized in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more gradually, through multiple decades instead of months, but it is nonetheless unsettling via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and since the rapidly expanding group of Americans might have little sense regarding him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with any other faith; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is unquestionably not the account of a mighty king emerging; instead, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to escape covert authorities. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his message focuses on affection for fellow humans, especially for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, shown by providing food and sheltering. Jesus' answer to hostility is to turn the other cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a means to instruct the aggressor; his crime policy is that if someone steals your outer garment you must offer him your sweater also.
The evident and direct fact that the Savior in biblical accounts calls for a kind of profound affection centered on the poor is what has always made Christian religion rather a provocative belief system: attractive to the populace, but owing to its intrinsic extremism needing to be restrained. During the 1950s it was controlled by dilution – Protestantism was so widespread that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Highest of Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to observe the persistent defiance regarding Trump emerge in this past year. It has been significant comfort to help build the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired citizens to turn out in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects of American history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you welcome them and welcome him or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by relationship to the finest within national tradition, similar to Christianity is best defended through connection to what makes it special and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In all circumstances does it imply acting as if the worst of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it means both meekness and faith, a blend that serious national faithful should embrace.
