The Trump movement's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but possibly its most revealing – emerged earlier this harvest season. In the course of several weeks, the nation's leader started showing the public his intentions for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started independently demolishing the eastern section to build it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties from his cuts to USAID amounts to 600,000 and growing, and recently an analysis predicted his petroleum strategies would kill another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have risked – genuinely, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing large sections of the White House to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of multiple the nation's most affluent, nearly all of which conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the planet' to 'the meek shall die to cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the president try to upend the traditional concept of democracy and exchange it with its complete opposite, there remains a substantial portion within America who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – within elder demographics close to half – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have witnessed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations turned the Jesus we learned about into exactly the opposite of our perception of his character. At its most basic, they transformed an image of love into an icon of hate who endorses precisely the cruelties that he denounced in the Gospel; this has happened at a slower pace, across decades rather than months, yet it remains disturbing through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for many of us.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
Hence I shall explain the Savior from my childhood, since in theory the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and because the fastest-growing cadre among Americans could have minimal awareness about him since they are non-believers or doubters or spiritual independents. I raise no objection with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; but I do think that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the story of a mighty king appearing; rather, an infant arrives to displaced parents in a garage, who are forced to hastily depart to another nation to evade undercover officers. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a laboring woodworker; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, particularly for the disadvantaged – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and housing. The Savior's reaction to hostility is to turn the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a means to teach the attacker; his approach to wrongdoing is that if someone steals your outer garment you should give the person your additional clothing as well.
The obvious and clear reality that the Savior in biblical accounts advocates for a type of extreme compassion centered on the needy has consistently rendered the Christian faith somewhat of a controversial faith: engaging for the populace, but due to its inherent radicalness demanding to be restrained. In the 1950s it was restrained through watering down – The Protestant faith was so widespread that it essentially sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Finest Among Us
Hence I have become inspired to see the determined opposition regarding Trump arise in this past year. It has provided significant comfort to help build the initiative that has demonstrated publicly in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired citizens to participate in numbers during minor elections. We will need to persist with it, and with identical determination, featuring US banners throughout each rally and calls to the highest qualities within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the immigrant? Did you welcome them and embrace them or reject?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by reference to the highest about American history, just as Christianity is optimally secured by relationship to what makes it special and beautiful, specifically the model of Christ. In both situations does it mean acting as if the worst of both America and religious tradition did not happen; it represents both meekness and conviction, a blend that serious national faithful ought to accept.
