They're Repeating in America What They Did to Christianity

Trumpism's most illuminating and characteristic moments – not its most significant, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor most foolish, but potentially its most enlightening – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of a few weeks, the US president commenced revealing everyone his designs for a gilded ballroom double the dimensions compared to the White House and subsequently started solo dismantling the East Wing to build it.

He has committed acts 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of casualties due to his slashing to foreign assistance is 600,000 and rising, and recently research predicted his petroleum strategies would result in fatalities 1.3 million more. However nothing as distinctive. No previous president would have dared – truly, no former commander would have conceived – solo demolishing major areas of the White House to build a royal-themed celebration hall, with the enthusiastic participation of numerous the richest Americans, almost all of whom conduct transactions with the government.

We transitioned from 'the humble will receive the planet' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'

As confusing as it is to observe the chief executive attempt to overturn the established notion of democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment among Americans who should not find it completely novel. That is those of us – among senior generations close to half – who were brought up as mainline Protestant Christians.

We have watched across decades while conservative evangelical congregations converted the Savior we learned about into the complete reverse of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of love into an icon of hate who blesses precisely the cruelties that he condemned in scripture; this has happened more gradually, through multiple decades rather than months, yet it remains disturbing via comparable methods, a disorienting gut punch for many of us.

A Harmful Christianity Takes Hold

So let me first describe the Christ from my childhood, as conceptually Jesus is the center of Christian religion, and given that the rapidly expanding group among Americans could have minimal awareness of him because they identify as atheists or uncertain individuals or nones. I raise no objection with these various perspectives, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of significant worth in the Christian story.

It is emphatically absolutely not the narrative of a mighty king arising; rather, a baby is born to homeless parents in an automotive shelter, who are forced to hastily depart to a different country to escape covert authorities. The infant develops in humble circumstances, a working carpenter; his doctrine concerns compassion for fellow humans, especially for the impoverished – not simply tender feelings, but practical compassion, expressed by feeding and protecting. Jesus' answer to violence is to turn the other cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a means to educate the attacker; his crime policy states that when an individual takes your coat you ought to provide them your pullover as well.

The apparent and clear truth that Christ in biblical accounts advocates for a kind of extreme compassion concentrated on the poor has consistently rendered the Christian faith somewhat of a scandalous religion: appealing to the masses, but owing to its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. During the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – Protestantism was so dominant that it practically sanctified existing conditions.

A Conflict for the Best Among Us

So I have been inspired to see the steadfast resistance regarding Trump arise in this past year. It has provided great solace to help build the initiative that has taken to the streets through repeated demonstrations, and appears to have motivated electorate to turn out in numbers during minor elections. We will need to continue it, and with identical determination, with American flags during all protests and calls to the finest aspects of American history.

We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the foreigner? Did you receive him and receive them or refuse?

The nation is most protected, to put it differently, through connection to the highest within national tradition, just as Christianity is most protected by reference to that which renders it unique and beautiful, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In neither case does it imply acting as if the most damaging regarding America and Christianity did not happen; it signifies both modesty and conviction, a mixture that genuine American Christians should embrace.