Trumpism's most illuminating and distinctive instances – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president started showing the public his intentions for a lavish reception room twice the size of the White House and then began independently demolishing the eastern section to erect it.
He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths from his cuts to international aid stands at 600,000 and growing, and presently an analysis forecast his energy policies would kill 1.3 million more. Yet nothing as characteristic. No previous president would have dared – truly, no former commander would have imagined – unilaterally destroying major areas of the White House to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of some of the richest Americans, almost all of whom have business with federal agencies.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the humble will perish to cholera'
As confusing as it is to witness the president attempt to overturn the traditional concept of democracy and substitute it with its polar opposite, there is one large group among Americans who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were brought up as conventional Protestant believers.
We have witnessed throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups transformed the Christ we were raised with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of affection into an icon of hostility who approves specifically the brutality that he condemned in biblical teachings; this transformation occurred more slowly, across decades instead of months, however it is still disconcerting via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for numerous individuals.
A Damaging Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Christ from my childhood, since in theory Christ is the focus of Christian religion, and because the fastest-growing cadre within America could have minimal awareness about him because they identify as skeptics or doubters 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 within Christian narrative.
It is decidedly not the account of an authoritative monarch appearing; rather, a child comes into the world to parents without shelter in a garage, who must quickly flee to a foreign land to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his doctrine focuses on affection for others, particularly for the poor – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Christ's response to violence is to present the other cheek – not as a gesture of compliant endurance, but as a method to instruct the assailant; his method regarding offenses is that if a person pilfers your coat you ought to provide the person your additional clothing too.
The obvious and direct fact that the Savior from scripture requests a form of radical love concentrated on the impoverished has consistently rendered the Christian faith somewhat of a provocative belief system: engaging for the populace, but due to its natural unconventionality needing to be contained. In the 1950s it was contained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Highest Among Us
Therefore I have felt inspired to observe the persistent defiance regarding Trump develop during the previous year. It has provided great solace to help build the initiative that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and likely has encouraged electorate to show up in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We will need to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the best parts in US history.
We will be questioned ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you receive him and embrace them or not?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, through connection to the best within national tradition, similar to Christianity is best defended by reference to that which renders it unique and wonderful, particularly the pattern of the Savior. In both situations does it suggest pretending the most damaging about the nation and Christianity did not happen; it represents both humility and conviction, a mixture that genuine US believers ought to accept.
