Trumpism's most telling and characteristic moments – not its most important, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but potentially its most enlightening – emerged earlier this harvest season. Over the span of multiple weeks, the American president began displaying everyone his designs for a lavish reception room twice the size compared to the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing portion to build it.
He has performed deeds countless times more severe – the current estimate of fatalities resulting from his reductions to USAID amounts to 600,000 and rising, and this week a study projected his fossil fuel policies would kill another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No previous president would have risked – truly, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying major areas of the executive mansion to construct a palace-inspired entertainment space, with the direct cooperation of some of America's wealthiest, the majority of whom have business with public institutions.
We moved from 'the meek shall inherit the Earth' to 'the gentle will succumb from cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the president try to upend the established notion about democracy and replace it with its complete opposite, there exists a significant segment of Americans who might not perceive it completely novel. That is those of us – in older age cohorts close to half – who were raised within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched throughout the years as politically conservative religious groups converted the Savior we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. At its most basic, they converted a persona of compassion into a symbol of animosity who approves precisely the cruelties that he denounced in scripture; this has happened more gradually, across decades instead of months, however it is still disturbing through similar means, a confusing personal impact for many of us.
A Harmful Christianity Gains Ground
Therefore allow me to outline the Jesus from my childhood, because theoretically the Savior is the core of Christian religion, and since the fastest-growing cadre of Americans could have minimal awareness regarding him since they are non-believers or agnostics or spiritual independents. I have no problem with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; however I believe that there are pearls of substantial value within Christian narrative.
It is emphatically not the story of a powerful ruler arising; rather, a baby is born to homeless parents in a garage, who must quickly flee to a different country to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in modest conditions, a laboring woodworker; his message concerns compassion for others, especially for the impoverished – not merely emotional affection, but a concrete one, expressed by feeding and sheltering. Christ's response to aggression is to offer the additional cheek – not as a gesture of passive acceptance, but as a way to instruct the assailant; his crime policy states that when a person pilfers your jacket you should give the person your additional clothing also.
The obvious and clear reality that the Savior from scripture advocates for a kind of radical love concentrated on the needy is what has always made the Christian faith somewhat of a controversial faith: appealing to the populace, but due to its natural unconventionality demanding to be contained. In the fifties it was controlled through watering down – Protestantism was so widespread that it practically baptized the status quo.
A Battle for the Finest Among Us
So I have been heartened to witness the persistent defiance to Trump emerge in this past year. It has provided great solace to assist in constructing the movement that has taken to the streets via continuous gatherings, and likely has encouraged citizens to show up in significant amounts in the off-year elections. We shall require to maintain it, and through comparable resolve, featuring US banners at every demonstration and calls to the best parts in US history.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the immigrant? Did you receive him and embrace them or reject?
America is best defended, in other words, through connection to the highest in US heritage, just as Christianity is best defended by relationship to elements that cause it to be distinctive and beautiful, which is the example of Jesus. In both situations does it suggest pretending the most damaging of both America and Christian faith did not happen; it signifies both humility and conviction, a mixture that committed national faithful should be comfortable with.
