The Stripling, Aping the Sire, Falwell Style

THE REVEREND JERRY FALWELL Jr., presumptive heir to his late father's amorphous "moral majority" evangelical movement, which not only was, as the bumper sticker said, neither, and which in fact no longer exists, seems to want to outdo even daddy in audacity and highly questionable proclamations. Maybe there's something to the psychological theory that fathers and sons are natural enemies, that the son is the heir to and usurper of the father's power and prestige, and that the stripling often imitates the sire as an act of usurpation. As a Jeffersonian said of the Adams family,John and John Quincy: "damn the stripling, how it apes its sire!" Jerry junior has from the beginning of the Trump campaign been unflaggingly supportive of the prevaricating president, as has the student body at Liberty University, most evangelicals, and most conservative Christians. Television historical mini series documentary producer Ken burns dared ask: "what is it about Donald trump, exactly, which is remindful of Jesus Christ?" That's a good and fair question, perhaps even one of those questions for the ages, the kind that can never be answered, because there is no answer, like the distance to the end of the universe. After two years of chaos, lunacy, and a steady storm of executive branch disinformation, there is evidence that some elements within the holier than thou community have nearly had their fill, and are looking for a way out, without losing face, along with their presumably vanished self respect. Donald Trump simply is not a suitable candidate to carry the cross, which is manifestly apparent to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Trump, the teachings of Christ, and the fundamental precepts of the christian faith; hence the exodus of the rats from the sinking ship, metaphorically. But Falwell himself is in far too deep to jump ship now, and must either plug holes, sink, or swim. From all appearances, all of the above. Give him credit for creative crisis management. His latest tactless tact? That we do not choose presidents bases on whether they'r good people or not. That comes as news to those among us who have actual moral standards, rather than the mere pretense thereof, the sort revealed by conservative Christendom in support of Trump.