The Trump movement's most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. In the course of multiple weeks, the nation's leader started showing everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions than the White House and then began independently demolishing the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the existing assessment of casualties resulting from his reductions to international aid is 600,000 and increasing, and this week a study forecast his energy policies would result in fatalities an additional 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have dared – really, no former commander would have imagined – solo demolishing significant portions of the presidential residence in order to erect a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which maintain dealings with the government.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' toward 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to watch the leader try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there remains a substantial portion among Americans who should not find it entirely new. This includes individuals like us – within elder demographics close to half – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have observed throughout the years while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we were raised with into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they turned a figure of compassion into an icon of hate who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in biblical teachings; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades as opposed to months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Damaging Christianity Takes Hold
Hence I shall explain the Christ that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the rapidly expanding group of Americans may possess limited understanding of him because they identify as non-believers or doubters or nones. I take no issue with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that contain precious wisdom of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly definitely not the account of a mighty king arising; instead, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to escape undercover officers. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his teaching is about love for others, particularly for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and housing. The Savior's reaction to violence is to turn the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the assailant; his crime policy states that when someone steals your coat you ought to provide him your sweater also.
The apparent and clear truth that Christ from scripture calls for a type of extreme compassion concentrated on the poor has consistently rendered Christian religion something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the populace, but due to its intrinsic extremism requiring to be contained. In the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so dominant that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Conflict for the Finest Within Us
Hence I have become heartened to witness the determined opposition against Trump develop in this past year. It has been significant comfort to participate in developing the movement that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to turn out in significant amounts in interim political contests. We must have to persist with it, and in the same spirit, featuring US banners during all protests and appeals to the finest aspects in US history.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, essentially, through connection to the finest about American history, just as Christianity is best defended through connection to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In both situations does it mean pretending the worst of both America and Christianity did not happen; it means both meekness and faith, a combination that committed national faithful ought to accept.
