Trump’s cruelty to the poor, his indifference to empathy, and his overt racism begs this question: Are there racial, social and economic gradations in the image of God?
The only acceptable, only American and only remotely Christian answer is, “NO!”
Dear Republicans and White Evangelicals, your loyalty to Trump now consists of defending the indefensible from paying off porn stars to keep silent, to overt disgustingly puerile racist statements and – worse -policies.
Trump’s advocates are becoming desensitized to moral corruption. You are losing your ability to believe in anything more than power. That “power” is going to be short-lived since it is based on appeals to the worst in us not the best.
The Republican Party deserves to be destroyed and it will be in 2018 and 2020 because they are now officially anti-American. Their self-indicting silences, in the face of Trump’s racism, misogyny and cruelty, their obvious lies (like those told by evangelical Sarah Huckabee, almost every day and those provided by elected Republicans) to cover for this degenerate’s sins are eternally discrediting.
Then there are the facts: Will some evangelical white Trump-supporting Christian please explain to me how Jesus would take medical care away from a poor person to save money for a tax cut for billionaires?
(If Trump’s GOP truly wanted to help underprivileged Americans find jobs there are more effective ways than taking away Medicaid health care. Investing in skills, apprenticeships and job-matching services, not to mention a bit of basic decency and compassion, come to mind.)
In the half-century since Medicaid was first created eligibility has always been based on need. The program’s goal was to help less-well-off Americans get medical care. Trump has announced he wants states to impose tough barriers to Medicaid.
Trump is toxic and undermines democratic values: Trump’s cable-news addiction and refusal to educate himself on the policies he’s shaping has led to a year of confusion on Capitol Hill. That has diminished the moral quality of our lives here and our standing in the world, like nothing before in American history.
Trump’s assault on the FBI, a nonpartisan law enforcement agency, and his insistence on prosecuting political opponents suggest he does not understand the differences between advanced democracies and authoritarian states. He’s even insisted that the country should have tougher libel laws that would make it easier for powerful public figures – such as himself – to sue writers who say things that are “false” — that is anything true about him, to gag critics the president does not like.
The Trumped Republicans have rejected the very values that made America great: If we hadn’t been blessed by waves of immigrants driven by the dream of a better life, freedom (including freedom of the press) we’d be a shrunken, stagnant, third-rate society.
White evangelical Trump supporters are putting themselves in the garbage can of history. Yet they blame others for their low standing with the rest of us who cherish basic moral decency.
Trumped white evangelicals don’t see most American’s rejection of their delusional orthodoxies on race, science and religion as a sign that they might need to rethink. Instead, they’ve soured on facts, scholarship and education. They’ve welcome Trump’s calling anything that makes him look bad “fake” because that too is their only “defense” against the myriad of facts that contradict their religious, political and racial delusions.
Evangelical white Trump supporters complain they’re discriminated against and demand “religious liberty” to free them from facts, but when the official position of your religion is that climate change is a hoax and evolution never happened, you won’t get much support from people who take evidence seriously.
We are called to be part of the long American story, to celebrate its achievements and repair its failings. We have no idea how our struggle against Trump’s incompetent tyranny will end. But we know how it must be repaired someday: with a majority of Americans shaping a future that raises our sights to the eternal truths that rest on mercy, compassion, beauty and truth.
Want to learn more about where we’re at and how we got here? Discover my new book Letter to Lucy: A Manifesto of Creative Redemption—In the Age of Trump, Fascism and Lies, a multi-touch book about art, love and parenting, from the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the prophetic music of Green Day and everything in between, available now on iBooks and Amazon.
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11 Comments. Leave new
I’d disagree in two small albeit significant ways ;
1) Trump is not the cause of the GOP and Evangelical / Fundamentalist right’s moral degradation … but rather … Trump is the product of what had been a decades old descent into the bowls of moral hell all in the pursuit of power ( and to hell with the truth/Truth ) by the GOP and its Evangelical / Fundamentalist sidekicks
.e.g. Trump is but a mere symptom … not the disease itself
2) And lets get real here…. rather than playing this ongoing ‘ scapegoating ‘ game . The Evangelicals and Fundamentalists aren’t the only ones fully deserving the moniker of christofascists backing Trumps to the hilt …turning a blind eye .. sacrificing morality character and ethics etc ..in the blind quest for power
.. that moniker also belongs and is completely apposite to the majority of American Roman and Eastern Orthodox Catholics along with far too many despite their exterior left leanings Ecumenical mainstream Christians as they all descend into there abyss of the Gospel of Ay Rand
Sadly .. the church as a whole regardless of denomination or creed is the worst morally and ethically it has ever been since the 1930’s when the majority of worldwide christianity was in support of Hitler and Fascism in general
Question is … what can any of us do about it ? From my perspective … other than venting a bit and walking away … not a whole helluva lot … I’m afraid .. cause they ( American christians .. small case ‘c’ intentional ) simply don’t give a damn any more .. and haven’t in reality since the 70’s 80’s .. despite all their pretense of holier than thou and moral superiority
Since we’re putting up links of beauty in order to counteract the negativity of the day .. I give you the sublime beauty ( in the classic definition of the word sublime … e.g. beautiful and dangerous * ) of the repentant sinner … Gesualdo ;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEoOOYA31_E
Personally I prefer the Hilliard Ensemble’s ECM recordings … but this’ll do in a pinch
Va bene … eco .. ciao
* dangerous because Gesualdo’s harmonies , melodic structures and shifting time signatures were centuries ahead of his time
America would be a lot better off with no religion at all. Humans have suffered to long in countries that have a religion. We need more free thinkers. Get religion out of the government!.
Dear Frank Schaeffer:
Would Jesus t approve of privately owned health care corporations raking in $200 billion a year in profits from human suffering? If not, shouldn’t we end the medicine-for-profit establishment, recognize the right to preventative care, prescription drugs and mental health care as well as advanced tests and procedures? Shouldn’t we launch a multi-billion dollar program to train new physicians and health care providers, and establish new facilities to meet the needs of all? Shouldn’t existing personal debt accumulated through massive health care expenses be abolished?
What better time to declare on these matters!
Epiphany blessings!
Fact – The major reason why Trump won the electoral college vote was due not to some underlying rebellion etc … but rather due to the fact that some 65% of registered voters ..
DID NOT VOTE
As you by you own admission did not .
Therefore in light of the fact that you did not vote in the last election allowing ( and in fact aiding and abetting ) the likes of a Trump to attain the highest office in the land along with allowing a majority GOP to take over Capital hill due to your being steeped within the depths of blatant pseudo intellectual bs and the false pretense of moral superiority .
I’m afraid you are not entitled to an opinion … nor are you entitled to criticize or complain
But for the sake of discussion .. and to once again expose you for what you really are ;
A better question gdd ;
Did Jesus Christ during his entire 33 ( or so ) years on this planet as both God and man ever so much as mention politics , governments ( other than giving to Caesar that which is Caesar’s ) secular businesses etc .. never mind provide or demand certain behaviors and ethics from them ?
Why no He did not .
In fact gdd … if you’d bother to read the Bible you’d know … the only time Christ mentioned charity… care for the poor etc was in regards to the behavior of Believers .. not the general population .
Which then brings up the fact that todays churches .. from Protestant – to Catholic ( R & O ) to Ecumenical mainstream have over the last 100 years all to a number abdicated their place in society as care givers to the poor …providers of medical care .. charity … education … etc .. making them the guilty ones .. not governments
Which then brings up the most important point .
MATURE ADULTS LEARN TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS .. AND WHEN THOSE ARE THE ONLY MATURE VIABLE AND REASONABLE CHOICES AVAILABLE … A MATURE INTELLIGENT RATIONAL INDIVIDUAL CHOSES THE LESSER OF TWO EVIL’S RATHER THAN SITTING ON ONES TAIL WAITING FOR THE PERFECT SOLUTION THAT WILL NEVER COME IN A VERY IMPERFECT AND FALLEN WORLD
Mature … rational … intelligent .. and if I may add … discerning … all traits you seem to be completely devoid .
So what would Jesus do today ? Exactly what he did going on 2000 years ago … preach the Kingdom of Heaven and the path of salvation for man … leaving politics to the politicians
In closing though .. to be clear … we should in my opinion as a tax paying citizen …as a nation provide a reasonable level of health care for one and all ..
But the fact is gdd .. as long as the likes of you continues to sit on your fanny preaching bs to yourself … that’ll never happen
Dear TJ Martin:
You seem still to have trouble coming to grips with Ms. Clinton’s electoral defeat. Let’s draw up a political balance sheet.
America’s Crises:
We saw 8 years of political reaction under Obama. His signature domestic policy underwent ongoing devolution. War, secular stagnation, collapsing schools and medical care, an opioid epidemic, food insecurity, joblessness, declining wages and living standards, collapsing infrastructure, slashed services, stolen pensions, deteriorating work conditions, many hundreds of poor and homeless killed by police, Ferguson, Flint, 2.5 million deported, an international refugee crisis, a concerted drive toward WW III in which thermonuclear holocaust will eventually become inevitable – the list is endless.
Democrat Response:
Posit against that a corrupt Democrat National Committee that rigged its own convention to elevate the one public figure in the land that is hated as much as Trump as a symbol of corrupt, Washington insiderism who is in close collusion with the Military/Intelligence community. When this blew up in somebody’s face, the whole thing got blamed on Russia. The following campaign lacked a shred of progressive import or political integrity. We saw an anti-Russia campaign that could be converted into a rational for US first strike against Russia. The above named crises were ignored studiously.
As Things Stand:
The working class sees the utter disloyalty of both parties. With no solutions to offer for a single crisis, they have naught to say. By narrative and policy, the parties attack those whose allegiance they claim. They are not supported because they are not trusted or believed. The parties fail both the system and the working class, so that parties and system alike now belong on the chopping block of history. The working class increasingly sees the state as a ho, and the ruling class as its pimp. The pimp belches, the ho’s legs obediently spread, and the public is…well…guess. So why support prostitution?
Want Election Support?
Publish policy solutions to crises! No solutions, no support! An absence of serious solutions to crises falsifies elections. That is election fraud served up as a propaganda showpiece. No one is responsible to regard phony elections as legally binding, or to recognize the faux regimes that hoax elections create. Your elections are not our circus, and those candidates are not our monkeys. Not one iota of support for those refusing to show meaningful solutions to crises. Nor will we consent to become political hostages to systems or parties that systemically preclude the 90% from civic life.
Closing Observations:
Party leaders were not arrested or prosecuted for political crime. Party assets and membership lists were not seized. Party organizations were not dissolved. Big supporters are not scrutinized with like the dickens. You should be relieved.
You should also stop the capitalization. Everyone knows that the standard reaction to non-answers is to crank up the volume and mean-mouth the other guy. But hey – if you really want to look like that guy, don’t let me stop you!
Epiphany blessings!
Dear TJ Martin:
Nothing back to mine? Figures.
Epiphany blessings!
Dear Frank and poster gdd:
– Thank you, Frank, for one of your most powerful and insightful columns yet !
– Today’s “Trump Is A Wake-Up Call” article gives me hope and calms me down a bit.
– Poster “gdd”: F**k Epiphany. F**k superstition. There’s no such thing as a “blessing”; there are only auspicious, beneficial circumstances that just happen.
Thank you for speaking truth to power. I agree completely.
Thank you for speaking truth to power. The so called christians are nothing more than Pharisees and hypocrites, “whited tombs full of dead bones and all manner of uncleanliness.”
It seems that we have the worst kind of dangerously stupid high school bully in the highest office. I’ve talked to people who actually get teared up about it. The good news is that the rest of the world is watching and perhaps other countries will begin to stand up and reject American interference in their lives.