Trumpism's most illuminating and characteristic instances – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president started showing the public his designs for a lavish reception room two times larger of the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study forecast his fossil fuel policies would kill another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have attempted – truly, no former commander would have imagined – unilaterally destroying significant portions of the presidential residence in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of multiple the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president try to upend the established notion of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion within America who might not perceive it completely novel. That encompasses people such as ourselves – among senior generations a near majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed over the years as politically conservative religious groups turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of compassion into a figure of hostility who endorses exactly the harshness that he denounced in scripture; this has happened at a slower pace, over decades rather than months, yet it remains disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Savior from my childhood, because theoretically Jesus is the center of any Christian faith, and since the fastest-growing cadre within America may possess limited understanding regarding him since they are skeptics or uncertain individuals or religiously unaffiliated. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of great price within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably not the story of a powerful ruler appearing; rather, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to escape covert authorities. The child matures in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, specifically for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and housing. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to instruct the aggressor; his method regarding offenses is that if an individual takes your jacket you must offer him your sweater as well.
The obvious and straightforward truth that the Jesus from scripture calls for a type of extreme compassion centered on the needy is what has always made Christianity something of a provocative belief system: attractive to the populace, but due to its inherent radicalness needing to be contained. During the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestantism was so dominant that it basically blessed current circumstances.
A Battle for the Best Among Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to see the steadfast resistance to Trump develop during the previous year. It has provided substantial consolation to help build the movement that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to show up in numbers in the off-year elections. We will need to maintain it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you receive him and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, essentially, by reference to the best about American history, exactly as the Christian faith is most protected through connection to what makes it unique and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it imply feigning the worst about the nation and Christian faith never occurred; it means both modesty and belief, a mixture that serious national faithful should be comfortable with.
