The Trump movement's most telling and distinctive moments – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of several weeks, the nation's leader began displaying all observers his intentions for a lavish reception room two times larger compared to the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the current estimate of deaths due to his slashing to international aid stands at 600,000 and rising, and this week an analysis projected his energy policies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No other president would have attempted – really, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing major areas of the executive mansion to construct a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the planet' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to witness the president attempt to overturn the established notion about democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who might not perceive it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics a near majority – who were educated as conventional Protestant believers.
We have watched throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they transformed an image of compassion into a figure of animosity who blesses exactly the harshness that he criticized in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, across decades instead of months, yet it remains disturbing through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold
Therefore allow me to outline the Christ that I grew up with, because theoretically the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and since the quickly increasing segment among Americans might have little sense regarding him because they identify as atheists or doubters or nones. I have no problem with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; yet I maintain that exist valuable insights of great price in the Christian story.
It is emphatically absolutely not the account of a mighty king arising; instead, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to evade covert authorities. The baby grows up in modest conditions, an employed craftsman; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, specifically for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, shown by providing food and housing. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of compliant endurance, but as a means to educate the attacker; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever someone steals your jacket you must offer them your pullover too.
The obvious and clear truth that Christ from scripture requests a type of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished has perpetually caused the Christian faith rather a provocative belief system: engaging for the masses, but owing to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be restrained. During the 1950s it was controlled through watering down – Protestantism was so widespread that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Finest Among Us
Therefore I have felt encouraged to observe the persistent defiance regarding Trump emerge during the previous year. It has provided substantial consolation to participate in developing the movement that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated electorate to participate in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, displaying national flags during all protests and requests to the highest qualities of American history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, essentially, by reference to the finest in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by relationship to that which renders it unique and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In all circumstances does it suggest acting as if the most negative about the nation and Christianity did not happen; it means both meekness and conviction, a combination that serious American Christians should embrace.
