Trumpism's most revealing and distinctive moments – not its most significant, nor most harsh, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – came earlier this autumn. In the course of a few weeks, the American president began displaying all observers his plans for a gilded ballroom twice the size compared to the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing to erect it.
He has done things countless times more severe – the existing assessment of fatalities resulting from his reductions to foreign assistance stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently a study projected his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have attempted – really, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying major areas of the executive mansion in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the direct cooperation of multiple America's wealthiest, almost all of whom have business with the government.
We went from 'the humble will receive the world' into 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the leader try to upend the traditional concept about democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment of Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. That is those of us – among senior generations almost a majority – who were brought up within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have witnessed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. Essentially, they turned a figure of love into a figure of hostility who endorses specifically the brutality that he denounced in scripture; this transformation occurred more gradually, over decades as opposed to months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a confusing personal impact for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, since in theory Jesus is the center within Christian belief, and since the quickly increasing segment of Americans may possess limited understanding about him since they are skeptics or doubters or religiously unaffiliated. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with different religions; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in the Christian story.
It is unquestionably absolutely not the narrative of a powerful ruler emerging; rather, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching focuses on affection for other people, specifically for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. Jesus' answer to violence is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a means to teach the assailant; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your outer garment you must offer the person your additional clothing too.
The apparent and straightforward reality that the Savior in biblical accounts calls for a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the poor has consistently rendered the Christian faith something of a provocative belief system: attractive to the masses, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was contained by dilution – The Protestant faith was so dominant that it basically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Highest of Us
Hence I have become encouraged to witness the persistent defiance against Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has been substantial consolation to assist in constructing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly via continuous gatherings, and appears to have motivated citizens to show up in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and embrace them or refuse?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to that which renders it unique and magnificent, specifically the model of Christ. In both situations does it imply acting as if the most negative about the nation and Christian faith never occurred; it represents both modesty and conviction, a combination that committed national faithful should be comfortable with.
