Trumpism's most telling and distinctive instances – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. During the period of a few weeks, the American president started showing everyone his intentions for a gilded ballroom twice the size than the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing portion to construct it.
He has performed deeds 10,000 times as bad – the present calculation of fatalities due to his slashing to USAID stands at 600,000 and rising, and this week an analysis forecast his fossil fuel policies would kill another 1.3 million. However nothing as distinctive. No former leader would have attempted – really, no other president would have conceived – solo demolishing significant portions of the White House to build a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of the richest Americans, nearly all of which have business with the government.
We went from 'the gentle will obtain the world' into 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As bewildering as it is to observe the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion about democracy and substitute it with its complete opposite, there is one large group of Americans who wouldn't consider it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts a near majority – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have observed throughout the years as rightwing evangelical churches transformed the Christ we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. At its most basic, they transformed an image of compassion into a symbol of hostility who approves precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this has happened more slowly, across decades instead of months, yet it remains disconcerting in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Establishes Itself
So let me first describe the Christ that I grew up with, since in theory the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and because the quickly increasing segment among Americans may possess limited understanding of him since they are atheists or doubters or spiritual independents. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with any other faith; however I believe that there are pearls of substantial value in biblical accounts.
It is decidedly not the story of a mighty king emerging; instead, an infant arrives to parents without shelter in a garage, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to avoid undercover officers. The baby grows up in simple surroundings, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for fellow humans, especially for the poor – not merely emotional affection, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to violence is to turn the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a means to teach the aggressor; his crime policy is that if an individual takes your coat you should give him your sweater also.
The apparent and clear reality that Christ in biblical accounts calls for a type of profound affection concentrated on the needy has consistently rendered the Christian faith rather a provocative belief system: engaging for the populace, but because of its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. In the fifties it was controlled via weakening – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
Hence I have become inspired to observe the persistent defiance against Trump emerge in this past year. It has been substantial consolation to participate in developing the initiative that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated electorate to participate in significant amounts during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags during all protests and calls to the best parts of American history.
We will be questioned ... regarding how you welcomed the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or refuse?
The nation is most protected, in other words, by reference to the best within national tradition, exactly as the Christian faith is best defended by relationship to that which renders it unique and beautiful, specifically the model of the Savior. In neither case does it suggest acting as if the most negative regarding America and Christianity never occurred; it signifies both meekness and faith, a combination that serious US believers should embrace.
