Trumpism's most illuminating and defining moments – not its most crucial, nor most harsh, nor most threatening, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of multiple weeks, the US president started showing all observers his designs for a lavish reception room two times larger than the White House and then commenced independently demolishing the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the current estimate of fatalities from his cuts to USAID amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and recently research predicted his fossil fuel policies would cause deaths 1.3 million more. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have attempted – really, no previous leader would have imagined – independently wrecking large sections of the presidential residence in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the direct cooperation of some of the nation's most affluent, almost all of whom conduct transactions with federal agencies.
We went from 'the meek shall inherit the world' toward 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to observe the leader attempt to overturn the established notion about democracy and exchange it with its direct contrary, there exists a significant segment of Americans who should not find it entirely new. That encompasses people such as ourselves – within elder demographics almost a majority – who were educated within mainstream Protestant traditions.
We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches converted the Savior we were raised with into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they transformed an image of affection into an icon of hostility who blesses specifically the brutality that he condemned in scripture; this change developed at a slower pace, over decades instead of months, yet it remains unsettling in the same ways, a bewildering emotional blow for countless people.
A Damaging Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Jesus from my childhood, since in theory the Savior is the core of any Christian faith, and since the quickly increasing segment among Americans may possess limited understanding of him as they consider themselves non-believers or agnostics or nones. I raise no objection with these different approaches, nor with alternative spiritual paths; yet I maintain that contain precious wisdom of great price in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the narrative of an authoritative monarch arising; rather, a baby is born to parents without shelter in a storage space, who are forced to hastily depart to a foreign land to avoid undercover officers. The infant develops in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his doctrine focuses on affection for other people, particularly for the impoverished – and not a sentimental love, but tangible care, demonstrated through nourishing and sheltering. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to offer the opposite cheek – not as an act of submissive tolerance, but as a method to teach the aggressor; his approach to wrongdoing states that when someone steals your outer garment you must offer them your pullover also.
The evident and direct truth that the Savior of the gospels requests a type of extreme compassion focused on the impoverished is what has always made the Christian faith somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the populace, but due to its intrinsic extremism demanding to be restrained. During the 1950s it was restrained via weakening – The Protestant faith was so prevalent that it basically sanctified existing conditions.
A Struggle for the Highest of Us
So I have been heartened to witness the steadfast resistance to Trump develop over the last twelve months. It has provided significant comfort to help build the movement that has protested openly through repeated demonstrations, and seems to have inspired citizens to show up in large quantities during minor elections. We will need to maintain it, and in the same spirit, with American flags throughout each rally and calls to the finest aspects within national heritage.
We will be questioned ... how did you receive the immigrant? Did you welcome them and embrace them or reject?
The country is optimally secured, in other words, by relationship to the best in US heritage, just as Christianity is optimally secured by reference to elements that cause it to be distinctive and magnificent, particularly the pattern of Jesus. In neither case does it mean feigning the most negative about the nation and Christian faith was nonexistent; it signifies both meekness and faith, a blend that committed national faithful ought to accept.
