Making Friends With Misty

 MY FRIEND MISTY is a fundamentalist, Pentecostal, evangelical Christian, assuming I haven't left any adjectives out. she supports Donald Trump and thinks the election was stolen from him. Standard conservative American christian material, standard issue. Exactly the sort of person I despise. Despise, not hate. My best guess is that in her universe the Lord moves in mysterious ways, and, well, Donald Trump was put in the Oval Office by Almighty God to do His work, whatever that may prove to have mysteriously been. To tell lies and blackmail the Ukrainians, maybe. I find that line of reasoning despicable, lunacy. If it works for Misty and a hundred million evangelical Christians, fine, whatever. I made Misty my standard offer: one thousand dollars for her if by the end of twenty twenty one strong evidence emerges anywhere from anybody proving that Trump actually won the election, one thousand dollars to me if nobody does. Misty knows, they all know that Biden won the election, that Trump lost, and that it wasn't even close. The steal would have required way too many people doing way too many obviously strange and shady things in front of way too many witnesses, and would have been found out by now. Yes, Trump and his cult know all that. Bu they wanted it so badly, their disappointment was so extreme, co crushing, that it turned to anger, then to denial, then to fantasy. Its just too bad that it turned to violence, lasted way too long, and turned them into liars and traitors. To remind folks like my friend Misty that Trump is the very antithesis of Jesus is pointless. he was put there to do the Lord's work, and that's that. Of the tens of millions of people like Misty, I despise them all, for supporting Trump, for sending me to hell for not being a "believer", for many other reasons. I despise them all, save for Misty, whom I love. Whom I love for her understanding that my intelligence and education deserve respect. For her sense of humor. For realizing that I am free to be a pantheist, admiring what Einstein called "the infinitely superior spirit which built the universe and is unconcerned with human morality", as long as I am willing to accept the consequences, which I am. For realizing that God and her her might send me to hell. For understanding that I choose to take my chances that hell is a myth fabricated by a cruel, primitive, dark, barbaric, in my opinion, religion. You can sit down with Misty and have a margarita, and talk a little football and she won't send either of us to hell for having a little fun. her lively, energetic mind if loving and kind. Misty is my kind of conservative evangelical Christian. Misty and I and our friendship prove that the great American divide is not inevitable, and can be healed. If Misty and I can do it, anyone can.