They're Doing in America What They Did to Christianity

The Trump movement's most illuminating and characteristic instances – not its most crucial, nor most brutal, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of several weeks, the American president began displaying all observers his plans for an ornate dance hall twice the size compared to the White House and then began independently demolishing the eastern section to build it.

He has performed deeds ten thousand times worse – the current estimate of casualties resulting from his reductions to USAID amounts to 600,000 and rising, and recently research projected his fossil fuel policies would kill an additional 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No former leader would have attempted – truly, no previous leader would have contemplated – solo demolishing significant portions of the White House in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the enthusiastic participation of some of America's wealthiest, almost all of whom maintain dealings with federal agencies.

We moved from 'the humble will receive the Earth' into 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'

As bewildering as it is to watch the president attempt to overturn the old idea regarding democracy and replace it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment within America who might not perceive it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – in older age cohorts close to half – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.

We have observed across decades while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we grew up with into the complete reverse of who we understood him to be. Essentially, they converted a persona of compassion into an icon of hate who endorses specifically the brutality that he condemned in the Gospel; this change developed at a slower pace, through multiple decades as opposed to months, but it is nonetheless disconcerting in the same ways, a disorienting gut punch for countless people.

A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground

So let me first describe the Christ that I grew up with, because theoretically Christ is the focus within Christian belief, and because the rapidly expanding group within America could have minimal awareness regarding him because they identify as non-believers or agnostics or religiously unaffiliated. I take no issue with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; however I believe that there are pearls of substantial value in biblical accounts.

It is unquestionably definitely not the story of an authoritative monarch emerging; instead, an infant arrives to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to avoid undercover officers. The child matures in humble circumstances, an employed craftsman; his teaching concerns compassion for others, specifically for the disadvantaged – not simply tender feelings, but a concrete one, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a way to instruct the attacker; his crime policy indicates that whenever an individual takes your coat you should give him your sweater too.

The apparent and direct reality that the Jesus of the gospels advocates for a kind of profound affection concentrated on the poor has perpetually caused the Christian faith rather a scandalous religion: engaging for the masses, but owing to its inherent radicalness needing to be restrained. During the 1950s it was controlled via weakening – Protestantism was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.

A Struggle for the Finest Within Us

Therefore I have felt heartened to see the steadfast resistance to Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has been great solace to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and appears to have motivated voters to participate in large quantities in interim political contests. We will need to continue it, and through comparable resolve, with American flags throughout each rally and appeals to the finest aspects in US history.

We're going to be asked ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you welcome them and embrace them or refuse?

America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the finest in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by reference to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Jesus. In neither case does it imply feigning the most damaging regarding America and Christianity did not happen; it signifies both meekness and conviction, a blend that genuine national faithful should embrace.