The Trump phenomenon's most illuminating and characteristic moments – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of a few weeks, the nation's leader began displaying the public his plans for an ornate dance hall double the dimensions compared to the White House and then commenced solo dismantling the East Wing to build it.
He has done things ten thousand times worse – the existing assessment of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID is 600,000 and growing, and this week a study projected his energy policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have attempted – really, no other president would have imagined – independently wrecking significant portions of the presidential residence to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the active collaboration of some of America's wealthiest, almost all of whom conduct transactions with the government.
We went from 'the humble will receive the world' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the leader attempt to overturn the established notion regarding democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it entirely new. That is those of us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have observed over the years as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we grew up with into the complete reverse of our perception of his character. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of affection into a figure of animosity who blesses specifically the brutality that he denounced in the Gospel; this has happened more gradually, through multiple decades instead of months, yet it remains disconcerting in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Jesus from my childhood, as conceptually Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and since the fastest-growing cadre of Americans could have minimal awareness about him since they are atheists or uncertain individuals or nones. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is emphatically not the account of a powerful ruler emerging; instead, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to avoid secret police. The child matures in simple surroundings, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for other people, specifically for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, shown by providing food and sheltering. Christ's response to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a method to instruct the aggressor; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your jacket you should give him your sweater also.
The evident and clear truth that Christ of the gospels requests a kind of profound affection concentrated on the impoverished is what has always made the Christian faith something of a scandalous religion: appealing to the general public, but because of its inherent radicalness requiring to be contained. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestantism was so widespread that it essentially baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
Hence I have become encouraged to witness the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to assist in constructing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and seems to have inspired voters to show up in large quantities in interim political contests. We shall require to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, displaying national flags throughout each rally and requests to the best parts within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the stranger? Did you welcome them and welcome him or not?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the best about American history, just as Christianity is optimally secured through connection to what makes it distinctive and magnificent, particularly the pattern of Christ. In all circumstances does it imply feigning the worst of both America and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both humility and belief, a blend that serious national faithful should embrace.
