Trumpism's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but possibly its most revealing – occurred earlier this fall. In the course of several weeks, the US president started showing the public his plans for a lavish reception room twice the size compared to the White House and then began solo dismantling the East Wing to construct it.
He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of deaths resulting from his reductions to international aid amounts to 600,000 and growing, and this week research projected his petroleum strategies would kill another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have risked – truly, no former commander would have conceived – solo demolishing significant portions of the presidential residence to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom have business with public institutions.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' to 'the humble will perish from cholera'
As confusing as it is to watch the president try to upend the traditional concept regarding democracy and replace it with its direct contrary, there remains a substantial portion of Americans who should not find it totally unfamiliar. That is those of us – in older age cohorts almost a majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we learned about into the total contrary of our perception of his character. Essentially, they turned a figure of affection into an icon of hostility who blesses exactly the harshness that he criticized in biblical teachings; this has happened more gradually, across decades rather than months, but it is nonetheless unsettling in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Christ from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and given that the fastest-growing cadre among Americans might have little sense of him because they identify as skeptics or agnostics or nones. I have no problem with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in the Christian story.
It is emphatically definitely not the account of a mighty king appearing; rather, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to avoid undercover officers. The child matures in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his message is about love for others, especially for the poor – not simply tender feelings, but tangible care, shown by providing food and housing. Jesus' answer to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the attacker; his method regarding offenses indicates that whenever an individual takes your outer garment you must offer them your pullover as well.
The apparent and direct truth that the Savior from scripture calls for a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the impoverished is what has always made the Christian faith something of a provocative belief system: appealing to the general public, but due to its inherent radicalness demanding to be controlled. During the 1950s it was restrained by dilution – Protestantism was so prevalent that it practically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Best Within Us
So I have been heartened to observe the persistent defiance regarding Trump arise in this past year. It has served as great solace to participate in developing the campaign that has demonstrated publicly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated citizens to show up in significant amounts in interim political contests. We shall require to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags throughout each rally and appeals to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you accept these individuals and receive them or not?
America is best defended, to put it differently, by relationship to the best in US heritage, exactly as the Christian faith is optimally secured by reference to elements that cause it to be special and magnificent, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In neither case does it suggest acting as if the most negative of both America and religious tradition was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and faith, a blend that serious American Christians should embrace.
