Trumpism's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. 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 subsequently started independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the existing assessment of casualties resulting from his reductions to USAID amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study forecast his petroleum strategies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No former leader would have dared – genuinely, no former commander would have conceived – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the executive mansion to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of multiple the richest Americans, almost all of whom have business with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the president seek to颠覆 the old idea regarding democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there is one large group among Americans who might not perceive it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Essentially, they converted a persona of compassion into an icon of hostility who approves precisely the cruelties that he condemned in biblical teachings; this change developed more gradually, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Savior that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense regarding him as they consider themselves non-believers or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with these different approaches, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of great price in the Christian story.
It is emphatically not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who must quickly flee to another nation to avoid secret police. The infant develops in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his teaching concerns compassion for others, especially for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to turn the opposite cheek – not as an act of passive acceptance, but as a method to instruct the aggressor; his crime policy indicates that whenever a person pilfers your outer garment you should give the person your additional clothing as well.
The obvious and direct fact that Christ from scripture requests a type of extreme compassion centered on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity rather a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be restrained. In the fifties it was restrained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so widespread that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest of Us
Hence I have become encouraged to see the steadfast resistance regarding Trump arise over the last twelve months. It has provided significant comfort to participate in developing the campaign that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and likely has encouraged electorate to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and with identical determination, with American flags during all protests and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you accept these individuals and welcome him or not?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by relationship to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is best defended by relationship to that which renders it special and beautiful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it suggest acting as if the worst about the nation and Christianity did not happen; it represents both meekness and faith, a mixture that serious US believers should embrace.
