Trumpism's most telling and characteristic instances – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – came earlier this autumn. During the period of a few weeks, the US president started showing everyone his plans for a lavish reception room twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the eastern section to build it.
He has committed acts ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and recently research projected his fossil fuel policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have attempted – really, no previous leader would have imagined – solo demolishing large sections of the White House to build a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of numerous America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the Earth' toward 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and substitute it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment within America who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they turned a figure of love into a symbol of animosity who endorses exactly the harshness that he denounced in scripture; this has happened at a slower pace, through multiple decades instead of months, however it is still unsettling via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
So let me first describe the Jesus that I grew up with, as conceptually the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and since the fastest-growing cadre of Americans could have minimal awareness regarding him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; however I believe that there are pearls of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the account of a mighty king appearing; instead, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape undercover officers. The child matures in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his doctrine is about love for others, particularly for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and housing. Christ's response to aggression is to present the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to educate the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing indicates that whenever someone steals your coat you should give the person your additional clothing as well.
The apparent and clear truth that the Jesus of the gospels requests a type of extreme compassion focused on the needy is what has always made Christian religion somewhat of a scandalous religion: appealing to the masses, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be controlled. During the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Highest Among Us
Hence I have become heartened to see the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has served as substantial consolation to participate in developing the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags during all protests and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the stranger? Did you receive him and welcome him or not?
The nation is most protected, to put it differently, through connection to the highest about American history, just as Christianity is best defended by relationship to that which renders it unique and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In neither case does it mean acting as if the worst regarding America and Christian faith did not happen; it represents both meekness and belief, a combination that committed national faithful should be comfortable with.
