Trumpism's most telling and distinctive moments – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the nation's leader commenced revealing everyone his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size than the White House and then commenced unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of casualties from his cuts to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and growing, and recently a study predicted his energy policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No other president would have attempted – really, no previous leader would have imagined – solo demolishing major areas of the executive mansion to build a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom maintain dealings with the government.
We transitioned from 'the meek shall inherit the world' into 'the meek shall die from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the chief executive attempt to overturn the old idea regarding democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there is one large group of Americans who should not find it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations close to half – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations transformed the Christ we learned about into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of love into an icon of hostility who approves specifically the brutality that he denounced in biblical teachings; this change developed at a slower pace, through multiple decades instead of months, however it is still disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, because theoretically Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and given that the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding about him since they are skeptics or agnostics or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with any other faith; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably not the narrative of a powerful ruler appearing; instead, a child comes into the world to displaced parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to avoid secret police. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his teaching focuses on affection for other people, specifically for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to hostility is to offer the additional cheek – not as an act of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the assailant; his crime policy is that if someone steals your outer garment you must offer the person your additional clothing also.
The evident and direct fact that the Savior in biblical accounts calls for a type of extreme compassion concentrated on the needy is what has always made Christianity somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the populace, but owing to its natural unconventionality needing to be restrained. During the 1950s it was contained through watering down – Protestantism was so widespread that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
Therefore I have felt heartened to observe the steadfast resistance against Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the initiative that has protested openly via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged electorate to show up in significant amounts in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and with identical determination, with American flags during all protests and appeals to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you receive him and embrace them or not?
America is best defended, in other words, by reference to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to elements that cause it to be unique and wonderful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In neither case does it mean pretending the most damaging about the nation and Christianity did not happen; it signifies both humility and belief, a combination that committed US believers should embrace.
