Contending In Vain

THE SENIOR CENTER MEMBERSHIP is overwhelmingly conservative christian Republican, which might be the main reason I generally don't like them. I do not like conservatives, Republicans, or Christians, generally. Conservative atheists I can handle, and I can handle Christian liberals. But for some reason, in America, political conservatism and devout Christianity seem to go hand in hand, probably because conservatives tend to be people who love tradition much more than change, and the christian faith is very traditional, and very resistant to change. If you are so traditional, rigid, and dogmatic that you believe that God speaks to us in books, that evolution is a lie, and climate change is a hoax, count me out. Give me an intellectual, well educated, left wing socialist progressive atheist or non traditional religious person any day. Such people tend to accept evolution and climate change as fact, and the Bible as fiction. For me, college educated people who know a lot about history, science, and philosophy and art are far more interesting than, say, the less educated conservative religious types. College campuses tend to have a large majority of liberals among the students and faculty; there is an obvious correlation between education and progressive thinking, just as there is a strong correlation between lack of education, conservatism, and extremely religious people. And, for a fact, most of the folks at the senor center who are conservative Trump supporters and devout Christians, which is a large majority of the members, have very little formal education. The obvious, blatant, contradiction between their Christian religiosity and support for Trump only contributes to my contempt for these people, many of whom I like and consider my friends. I avoid political conversations with these people to avoid trouble. They seem to get as easily upset at having their politics challenged as having their religion challenged. I mentioned Trump's nine thousand lies to one couple; they immediately accused Obama of having been a liar. These people simply do not want to deal with it; do not want to deal with their own twisted thinking, confusion, and evil impulses. Jesus and cut throat corporate capitalism become compatible for these conservative fundamental Christians. Former Minnesota Congressperson Barbara Bachman raised more than a few eyebrows recently when she exuberantly proclaimed Trump to be the most Biblical American president in history, or something like that. What did she mean by that? That Trump behaves like an angry Old Testament Jehovah? Or that he exemplifies the purity, virtue, enlightenment, and perfection of Christ? Surely only she knows for sure. Devout Christian Trump supporters are somehow able to compartmentalize Trump and Jesus to a remarkable degree, applying entirely different standards while pretending not to. White conservative Christian Trump supporters are angry, aggressive, and arrogant. They have invented and instilled within themselves the baseless notion that the Christian faith, the white race, and the conservative agenda are being outnumbered and overpowered by left wing liberal socialist atheists, and unwashed immigrants, who are, according to Trump, animals, not human. Their fears may not be entirely baseless after all. Conservative Christians tend to be older. The millennial generation is only half religious, and mostly liberal. The Republican party is loosing membership. But for the moment, if only the truly devout Christians who support Trump would come to their senses, and admit that their support of Trump is wrong, misguided, and un-Christian, we could get rid of Trump sooner, rather than later. That would provide the help we need now. For that to happen, our conservative Christian colleagues are going to have to require their political candidates to behave like Christians, which for the time being seems to be of no concern to them whatsoever.