Asking Seniors To Change

BACK OVER AT THE SENIOR CENTER, never a dull moment. Helen, eighty five, well dressed, wealthy, and proud, repeatedly emphasizes how greatly she values learning, and knowledge. More power to her. But just try telling her that America's founders were not a bunch of devout Christians, or that the very senior center in which she has so much friendship and enjoyment, is a perfect example of socialism, at its best, working well, for everyone, and she will go off like a rocket, talking over you, proclaiming the nonsense of all that you say. Try telling her that most American high school students have sex, or that there are nearly a million transgender Americans running around, and she might stroke out, so, we'll be careful not to mentions those annoying facts. Helen does not like having her sacred assumptions challenged, her Christian conservatism called into question. This weird contradictory marriage of Christian devotion and political conservatism is especially prevalent at the senior center, where'd you'd think the folks'd be old enough to know better, but apparently aren't. Maybe they just need more time. If you embrace one tradition, like Christianity, why not embrace another great tradition, like American military and economic imperialism, racism, and cut throat capitalism? Our best example is Ted Cruz, who wears his Christian faith on his sleeve, proudly, and proudly proclaims his desire to make the sands of the Islamic State glow with the heat of American bombs. A true conservative Christian, that Senator Cruz. If I could just get all the good folks at my local southern small town senior center to renounce conservatism, proclaim their love of socialism, Bernie Sanders, and rendering unto Caesar - or would they be better suited to Ayn Rand capitalism, of the atheist sort? Why is it that in America, the more devout the Christian, the more politically conservative? Maybe I ought to try to ask Helen.