Figuring Folks Out

EVIDENTLY, IN THESE UNITED STATES, it is not illegal in many of them for children as young as fourteen to get married, with state blessing. Arguably, of course, marriage ought to be an entirely religious rather than a civic matter, which may partially explain why the conservative Christian community offers no objections to civic marital laxity. There is currently in Idaho a bill pending to make folks wait a bit longer, and grow up a bit more, but our conservative Christians are showing little to no support of it. One suggestion is that evangelicals perceive that secular civilization is steadfastly attacking the kingdom of Christ, incrementally encroaching upon God's people by refusing to convert the United States into a theology, refusing to unite church and state, and raising a fuss about godless concerns such as climate change rather than piously awaiting the Lord's return, and leaving it at that. And that because of all this encroaching secularism, it is of paramount importance that God's people be allowed to marry early without state objection, in order to railroad evangelical babies into the world by the bushel basket full. More than a few evangelical ministers have openly proclaimed their belief that god has ordained Trump to be president, and this president certainly seems to be not only a self proclaimed Christian, but a person who vigorously engages in the very activity which railroads infants into the world. This invites speculation about what other behavior god has ordained Trump to engage in. Said speculation is precisely the reason for the multitude if investigations currently seeking insight into the president's behavior, investigations which are demonstrably of no interest to either Trump's political base or his evangelical admirers. Trump's evangelical admirers need no earthly examination of Trump's behavior or motives behind it; the president was ordained by God, all answers are in the Bible, and any other source of information, about anything, especially Trump, is not only irrelevant but verily ungodly. Does the lord desire that Trump ignore climate change, and appoint to positions within the environmental advisory community people who consider climate change a hoax, a fabrication by godless, incompetent mainstream science? Does the good lord want Trump to pursue his dream of bringing back coal, and adding more carbon to the atmosphere, presumably for the purpose of increasing agricultural yield? Does God want Trump to vindicate the Biblical doctrine of the subservience of women by using them in whatever manner he pleases? Whether 'tis the more imposing task figuring out Trump or his supporters is a question with no apparent answer. Superficially, one might think that the conservative Christian evangelical community would find Trump repulsive, and reject him post haste. On the contrary, they embrace and support him as if he were a modern day John the Baptist, an orange haired harbinger of the Lord's return and the rapture of the righteous, including presumably Trump, into heaven, leaving those damned secular humanist liberals and their god free doctrine of man made climate change alone on earth, to suffer in rising temperatures and sea levels which have nothing to do with carbon, and everything to do with Aitch E double hockey sticks. Sociologists and psychologists are having, as we like to say, a "field day", mulling all of this over. Not long after Trump took office, a group of forty thousands mental health professionals signed a document asserting their belief that the new president was mentally unstable, beset with a wide variety of emotional and mental maladies, and thus wholly unfit for office. Trump's supporters quickly pointed out that none of the signatories had ever been in the same room with Trump, nor had ever conducted a thorough analysis of him in a professional manner, a valid objection. The mental health community, in fact, got into some serious trouble when they pulled the same stunt with Barry Goldwater in 1964, after Lyndon Johnson. accused Goldwater of being an atom bomb slinging mad man. Ostensibly, what Trump believes, and what his evangelical supporters believe, is utter nonsense, worthy of intense medical attention and treatment. To people possessed of solid modern educations, notions such as the six thousand year old Earth, the literal truth of the Bible, including the flat earth, and the ability of humanity to inject eight hundred and fifty billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, to leave it there, and to cause no consequences is beyond belief. To conservative evangelical Trump-ettes of doom, a modern college education means nothing. colleges are bastions of liberals who reject the Bible in favor of godless science. On a more secular note, right wing Christian extremists are a dying breed, mostly old folks, being replace rapidly with millennials and post millennials, folks who embrace secular science, reject religion, and, god willing or not, are poised to vote Trump right out of the Oval Office, and, lord willing, into the office of a good, competent shrink, with his evangelical supporters close behind.