Trumpism's most telling and defining moments – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president began displaying the public his plans for a lavish reception room double the dimensions compared to the White House and subsequently started unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to erect it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the present calculation of fatalities from his cuts to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and this week research projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have attempted – really, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying large sections of the executive mansion to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom conduct transactions with public institutions.
We moved from 'the humble will receive the world' to 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As bewildering as it is to witness the chief executive attempt to overturn the old idea of democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there is one large group of Americans who wouldn't consider it totally unfamiliar. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts close to half – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have observed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we were raised with into the total contrary of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into a symbol of hostility who endorses specifically the brutality that he denounced in biblical teachings; this change developed at a slower pace, through multiple decades rather than months, however it is still disturbing via comparable methods, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, because theoretically Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and since the quickly increasing segment of Americans could have minimal awareness about him since they are non-believers or uncertain individuals or nones. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; however I believe that exist valuable insights of great price within Christian narrative.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the story of a mighty king arising; rather, a baby is born to homeless parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to a different country to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and housing. Christ's response to aggression is to present the additional cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever someone steals your jacket you ought to provide him your sweater too.
The apparent and clear truth that the Jesus of the gospels calls for a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the impoverished is what has always made Christianity something of a scandalous religion: attractive to the populace, but owing to its intrinsic extremism needing to be controlled. In the fifties it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so widespread that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Finest of Us
So I have been encouraged to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has been substantial consolation to assist in constructing the campaign that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired electorate to show up in significant amounts during minor elections. We must have to maintain it, and with identical determination, displaying national flags at every demonstration and appeals to the finest aspects in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you welcome them and receive them or refuse?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by relationship to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is most protected through connection to what makes it special and beautiful, particularly the pattern of Christ. In both situations does it mean feigning the most damaging regarding America and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both humility and belief, a combination that committed American Christians ought to accept.
