Paying the Price For Compassion

CARLTON PEARSON was among the most famous black ministers in American history, right behind folks like Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson. At one time he was the main minister at one of the biggest chruches in Tulsa, preaching to hundreds of thousands on television, and thousands in person every Sunday. His church, concealing no spiritual immodesty, was called the "Higher Dimension Evangelical Church, Incorporated". Or something like that. Although I'm not sure, I am led to believe that his congregation was heavily black, but did not exclude caucasian-Americans, of which there were quite a few. Some modicum of racial integration, in mid to late twentieth century Tulsa, Oklahoma. Quite a feat. At least, so I am told. Unlike MLK and J. Jackson, Carlton Pearson never really delved seriously into heavy duty partisan politics and political-social activism, but rather, remained safely ensconced within the friendly confines of hellfire and brimstone funadamental Christian screaming fervor. Pearson, a handsome charismatic man with all the personality-babe personna , began his rise to fame and fortune under the wing of the famous Oral Roberts. At one point Roberts admonished Pearson to "stay close to me, I need you as my black ministerial representative"..Or something like that. Roberts made funadmentalist Pentecostal style evangelical Christianity popular by emphasizing the positive aspects of it, such that they are, and deemphasizing the negative. Faith healing, for instiance, was paramount. Eternal damnation and suffering in the flaming pits of hell for non believers and unrepentant sinners, not quite so much. Carlton Pearson was too ambitious, vain, and energetic to remain forever in the shadow of the great Oral Roberts, or anyone else. He wanted more than to be a token black presence in somebdy else's ministry and limelight. His ego demanded a bigger stage. As he grew in age and maturity, Pearson paid attnteion to the world, and became horrified at the sheer degree and extent of human suffering on planet Earth. Wars, faminine; starving childern especially caught his attention and broke his compassionate heart. He couldn't help but consider, owing to his nature and profession, that many of the suffering millions were indeed not Christians, and therefore, according to the sacred, irrefutable doctrine of his beloved evangelical chruch, unsaved, and therefore destined to spend an eternity in the flaming pits of hell, suffering. This troubled him, more and more. Ultimately he could not reconcile it, and could not ignore it, and had to do something about it. What he did was discard the notion of "hell". He totally wrote it out of his personal religious doctrine. Then in what ight have been an act of either extreme bravery or extreme stupidity, or maybe both, take our pick, he had the audacity to annaounce his new belief system, which he called "the Gospel of Inclusion", to God, his church, and the world. God and the world were, for all apperances, good to go with the new plan, His church, however, was a problem. A big problem. How dare he even question the existence of hell, and how double dare he emphasize "inclusion" of sinners snd non bielevers as worthwhile humans? Carlton Pearson was excommunicated as a heretic. Kicked out of and banned and condemned by his own church, for havng the guts, the love, and the intelligence to try to rid the faith of that horrible, idiotic, evil, insane, power wielding, imaginary device; hell. To believe in hell in the first place is pure evil, diabolic, insane. The Reverend Pearson's treatment for trying to vanquish it reveals the true nature of his former church, dramatically and accurately.

Striking Down Bigotry

THE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN JUGGRNAUT, heretofore seemingly unstoppable, seems to have hit a bit of a snag. Lord willing and with good luck and dedicated perseverence, said snag will prove debilitating, to said movement. In Florida, a judge has ruled that the flagship of the Christian extremist fleet, recent legislation intended to obliterate every trace of gay and transgender culture from the American landscape, public schools included, is unconstitutional. Social justice has been done, an increasingly rare phenomenon in America's increasingly right wing judiciary. Doubtless there will be years of appeals and counter appels, heading in its curcuitous route eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court, as the holy army of the self righteous, newly aroused and angered, regroups and redoubles its hateful crusade to insinuate bigotry back into the American legal code. The lower court's decision was probably based on any number of clearly stated, sacred constitutional principles, among them equal protection under law. The decision seems obviously correct, just as all anti-LGBTQ laws seem blatantly, inherently unconstitutional. And this is precisely why the far right does and will continue to fight strenuously for the evil law's salvation and restoration. All anti-LGBTQ laws are nothing other than expressions of bigotry, intolerance, and hatred, codified. This is because hatred, intolerance, and bigotry against gay and transgender people are traditional, core conservative values. There is already speculation that other courts in other states might well join the liberation parade, and make similar rulings in similar cases. Ultimately, SCOTUS will be compelled to render a comprehensive, definitive ruling on the matter,covering all anti-LGBTQ laws in all the reprobate red states all across America's fruited plain. It may will be that the ideogically conservative weenie dog Supreme Court will have to be dragged into the whole sordid affair kicking and screaming, since upholding wise, valid, and correct case law upholding gay rights and striking down anti-gay bigorty is precsisly the sort of thing our current court of questionable veracity and morality is adverse to undertaking. Oh well, we all have to do things we simply do not want to do...This whole malignant far right social agenda: anti-LGBTQ, denial of racism, book banning, climate denial, etc., is interconnected, well organized, and, tragically, well funded, well motivated, and politically powerful. The conservative movement, unable to win at the ballot box on the issues, has in recent years used a strategy of right wing court packing to implement its whole diseased, anti-human rights agenda. But that only goes so far. And, it can work both ways. Sometimes, indeed often in our sytesm of justice, courts do not rule based on ideology, but on equal justice under law, according to the constitution. This is what has happened in forida, with the striking down of anti-gay legalized bigotry. Since the progressive viewpoint on most issues is the constitutional one, including protection rather than destruction of gay rights, we should perhaps have faith that indeed the arc of justice is long but just, and that, in the near future, progressive, human rights affirming principles will be enshrined into law, by the very justices the conservatives expected to serve as their shills.

Trump, Fumbling

I HAVE LONG BELIEVED that there is a pretty good chance that Donald J. Trump will talk himself out of getting elected. I believe it now, more than ever. Admittedly, it would be an impressive achievement, even for Trump, considering his sycophantic cult-like base of political support. Trumpers overlook everything. They call Trump's evil words and deeds, his sins, "virtues". Case closed. Of course,it might not happen. It probably won't. However, for example, a large part of Trump's support base are senior citizens. Just the other day, Trump said he supports cutting Social Security and Medicare. We'll see how that plays among undecided inpedendent voters,as the campaign goes on...At some point, who knows when, Trump will have to dispense with or at least augment his usual psycho-babble with something approaching sanity. Complete, ungarbled sentences, for one. Clear, intelligible, sane answers to political position questions, for another. That is, to whatever extent he is capable of thinking of them. To appease his base, he'll have to strongly oppose women's reproductive rights in favor of strict abortion limits, condemn (dark skinned) illegal immigrants as "vermin", or "poison", express opposition to LGTBQ gay and transgender rights and culture, and take the Russian and Israeli sides in their respective wars. The question is, how is all of that going to resonate with moderates and independents? Just recently Trump had a meeting with Hungarian strongman dictator Viktor Orban, and has lavished praise upon the tyrant ever since. "Totally terrific, great guy, great leader, very strong. People who don't like him don't like him because they think he's too strong. A strong man is good for a country"...That is a paraphrasing of Trump's exact words. What rubbish. What bbble. How insane. Trump is now openly endorsing the authoritarian dictatorial type of government he says he will use on day one of his next presidency, if not longer. That must never be allowed to happen. Trump also said today that he would not spend another penny on Ukraine. Of course he wouldn't. Trump loves Russia, actually he loves Vladimir Putin, idolizes Putin's absolute power, wants the same thing for himself in the United States of America. Putin helped Trump get elected in 2016, bigtime.That has been repeatedly proven. There seems to be a very good chance that Trump owes Putin lord knows what - money, favors, favorable American policies towards Russia, who knows? Just in the past few days, Trump has been making extremist, radical, unpopular statements on many topics, intended to get attention, and to please his hard core of followers. Meanwhile, simultaneously,there can be no doubt that these same tactics are alienating some, or maybe many, undecided, independent voters, as well as less than fervant Trumper Republicans, of which there are many. Keep talking, Mr. Trump, my orange haired unintentional friend. You may be firing up your worshippers, but you are not gaining new ones. You have reached your peak, and are even now beginning your long, sensational, precipitous decline into ingominious infamy, as a convicted criminal and disgraced political demagogue. There is a geat deal of fireworks and drama and sensational Trump words and deeds left, but the supply is finite, and dwindling. As the campaign proceeds, Trump's legal difficulties will arrive for real, in force, and, even better yet, he will, beyond the shadow of a doubt, keep talking.

Singing and Praying

THE PIANO PLAYER for our gospel singing group is an archetypal little old lady, silver, meek, mild, who plays a pretty mean gospel piano. We meet and sing once a week. This time, she stood and looked at us before we began. She sadly told us that her son is in the hospital with a very serious bleeding brain issue, but that the doctor has hopes, and surgery may not be necessary. But he was still in grave danger, his life hanging in the balance. She told us that God has already worked a miracle by keeping him alive. She cried softly, gently. I, we, were shocked. As I recall, she asked us to keep him in our prayers, or something like that. The thought immediately came to my mind that this would be a good time to pray together as a group. Such a good idea, that within a few seconds,any moment now, somebody would surely speak up, and suggest that we all pray together, here, on the spot. I waited, but nothing happened. Nobody moved, nobody made a sound, nobody spoke. Suddenly I decided that I would make the suggestion, and offer to lead the prayer. I am a very good spontaneous impromptu public prayer leader, my prayers are always intellectual, creative, passionate, and positive, and always applicable to all religions, including none, or mine. (I'm not religious. I'm a "pantheist", a follower of Spinoza, almost a deist, but not quite.) The fundamentalist Pentacostals never seem to pick up on that fact, my irreligiosity, nor on my generally disdainful contempt for traditional, organized religions, including Christianity. But, well, and then, that's fine with me. If they ask, I will tell them, and have, in fact.... Then, just as suddenly, I decided not to. I decided not to suggest a group prayer and offer to lead it. Cold feet took over. I suddenly had doubts as to whether they would respect the idea, it coming from me. I probably had it backwards.They probably would have loved the idea, and invited me to say the prayer. I probably made a big mistake, by not taking the plunge, and leading a prayer. To be honest, the thought occurs to me that how ironic it is that the group prayer leader would have been the least and only non-Christian in the grouup, excepting the Buddhist lady who sits next to me, my good friend, who belts it out like a freight train with perfect soprano pitch. Well, maybe next week it will still be appropriate to pray together, in the same context. Even better, God willing, that we pray to ask forgivenes for not praying the first time, and to give thanks for the rapid and miraculous recovery of the piano lady's son, who must be about my age. When we finally got around to singing, we had a good day, everybody singing good and loud, if not always on key. I for one had my best day yet, booming out the crazy, bloody, barbaric lyrics and simplistic tunes in a rich baritone and/or bass. Sometimes tenor. Sometimes all three in a single song. A few mintues after we quit, I approached piano lady and duly informed her that I had already begun praying, and would continue to do so. She, a true beleiver, seemd quite happy to hear this. What I believe is that, if nothing more or less, praying brings us psychological and emmotional comfort, as well as hope, and is therefore helpful. But I still wish to hell that we had all prayed together, as a group, while we had the chance.

Dissembling

A VERY NICE LOOKING young brunette lady Trump supporting Republican member of Congress was interviewed on national TV by George Stephanopolous. Condifent, assertive, a paragon of modern hot looking young female political power. He had the temerity to remind her that immediately after the insurrection, she had been on TV telling the world that Donald Trump must never again be allowed to hold political office. He wanted her to explain her renweed support of Trump. She mumbled a couple of hollow platitudes, like things change or that was then.....or whatever. He reminded her of her previous insistence that Trump be held accountable, and asked her precisely how supporting him now, in his run for president was helping to hold him accountable. Fair question, seemingly. She replied that the voters are holding him accoutable right now, in the primaries. Actually, this is a halfway clever answer. On the surface, it sounds high minded, idealistic, an expression of pure, America democracy!But, alas, not quite clever enough, at least not clever enough to fool me, which was its intent. What the voters are doing is supporting him for president. That is not holding him accountable. That is ignoring his criminality, and supporting a probable felon. As if by voting for him the voters can decide and are deciding that Trump, therefore, is innocent of all charges, can start clean, and must be politically supported, because of his surpassing greatness. The way to hold Trump accountabel is to support the criminal justice system, the legal process, and insist that Trump be processed through it, and that in the meantime, until his guilt or innocence is determined in a court of law, that he bow out of the presidential campaign. That, in a nutshell, would be accoutability, and integrity, among other good things. If you knowingly harbor a bank robber, even if he hasn't been arrested, tried, and convicted yet, you are breaking the law. Arguably, the people who support Trump, post insurrection, post everything, are breakling the law. Neither Trump nor Trump supporters have been tried and convicted, but they have been indicted, and are under suspicion, awaiting trial. Common sense, if nothing else, clearly tells us that when you are currently on trial or about to go on trial for ninety one felonies, you really don't have time to run for president, or shouldn't have time. The very moment Trump is exonerated on all counts, by all means, bring im back to the presidential race. Maybe Trump should have been offered no bail, for fear of being a flight risk. Supporting Trump politically is analguous to harboring a bank robber on the run. If Trump is elected, he will have the power to dismiss a law suit against himself, or to at least try, an inherent conflict of interest. For a bank robber, when he's caught and awaiting trial, to run for judge, get elected, and then declare himself innocent seems...well....improper? Illegal? Maybe we shouldn't hold our breath waiting for the Supreme Court to declare Trump ineligible to run for or to be President tof these United States of America.

Figuring Out Trumpers

IT TOOK ME ALMOST A DECADE, but, after immense striving and sustained endeavor, after much frustration and persistance, I think, at long last, that maybe, just maybe, I have figured out Trump supporters...Maybe. Knock on wood, as we say. Maybe I haven't, maybe I won't, maybe I never will. But, in the jargon of Davy Crockett, I aim to try, and try I will, and I'll stand up to my rack, all holler, and, wrathy as a passle of wildcats, fodder or no fodder, take my chances, and may the devil take the hindmost... A good friend of mine, who aint so good after forty years of non political freindship turned political, started me in the right direction. After I told him that not only he but everybody else who supports Trump is simply too good a person to support such a reprobate, he gave me the difinitive response, answer, explanation: "its not about Trump as a person", said he, "its about the direction in which he was taking the country". Bingo! Morality doesn't matter, honesty doesn't matter, criminality doesn't matter, insurrection doesn't matter. The sacred Christian conservative agenda must be implemented, by any means necessary, including authoritarian government. What they, especially his mob of right wing extremist evangelical Christian NAZI types want, is to turn these United States of America into a theocracy, the Christian faith established formally as official,the bible the basis of American law. Prayer everywhere, schools, city council meetings, football games, all of it. And also, the government completely out of the economy, an unregulated economy, neo-liberlism as its called, corporations free to roam the great American fruited plain at will, exploiting everything, including people. No federal or state control of prices and wages. The regulatory apparatus, what the conservative extremsits laughably call "the deep state", dismantled and destroyed, including the EPA, SEC, all fo it. No critical race theory in public schools, nor even in law school where it is actually taught, no mention of contemporary real life racism in today's America, "To Kill A Mockingbird" and other great works of classic literature banned from school libraries, gays and transgender folks rounded up and executed,illegal Immigrants, if they have brown skin, rounded up and herded into concentration camps, for later "processing". Former Canadians and Norwegians get a free pass, a "get out of Jeil for being white" card. Don't believe it? Just ake them. Even if they do not intend to, a little in depth but respectful courteous questioning of any garden variety Trump supporter will, at length, reveal all these biases, lunacies, and hatreds, and then some. A Trumper friend of mine said that if he had a black and a white job applicant, and the black guy as more qualified, he would hire him. But if they were equally qualified, well, he would hire the white guy, of course. Dude doesn't think he is a racist, despite having just proven it. Another Trump friend (I try) bet me a case of cold beer that Biden would be removed from office and that Trump would replace him. That's the way these disturbed people think. When I showed up to collect the beer when the time limit for Trump's return came and went, my friend, obviously non plussed, embarrassed, and resentful, paid up. Actually, I settled for a bag of good skunk. We haven't spoken since, and perhpas never will. Whose loss is that? One consolation: There is in modern America at least one, if only one, Trump supporer with a modicum of integrity, if nothing else. And that, as they say, is a start.

Taking On Biden, With Consequences

DESPITE HIS AGE, despite his often slurred speech as a preventative to stuttering, and his "gaffs", both grammatical and factual, despite the lingering Trump disease afflicting America's conservatives, President Biden gave America and his political enemies all that they could handle, and then some. When the very symbol of right wing crassness and idiocy, Marjorie Taylor Greene, tried to shout him down, her shrill harpie voice screeching the usual inanities, Biden countered her with facts and reason, standing up to the bully. Her shrill harpie voice faded away into the Washington night, utterly without lasting impact, to be forgotten, discared like the garbage that it was. Marjorie Taylor Greene, by virtue of her inane prevarications, her latent criminality in supporting the insurrectionist former president, is the perfect representative of the Republican party and American conservatism generally. Behind Biden sat the Speaker of the House, whose head shaking conveyed utter disrespect for the office of the presidency, and whose smirking visage qualified him for employment as a clown in a freak show or circus, both of which the Republican party has become in the era of Trump. He had earlier exhorted his fellow insurrectionist Republicans to behave with dignity and respect. Finding that impossible, bereft of anything more intelligent, the Republican insurrectionist mob instead showed their true lack of character and decency, which in any event they do on a daily basis. Biden needs to start telling the truth. Seemingly he has. The truth is that the Republican party has abondoned democracy, has elevated a career criminal to its highest leadership position, and that it remains a criminal terrorist organization by so doing. To start telling the truth, Biden will have to go on the attack daily, in each of his forthcoming appearances. The argument that Joe Biden is too old to serve as president is not without merit. A fifty year career in politics is antithetical to the sacred democratic principle that political power should be shared by as many citizens as possible, widely distributed, and that there should never be allowed to emerge an entrenched political class. The same can be said of Donald Trump; that he has had more than enough time to exert his will in American society, and should step aside and allow a new genertion, in whose hands the future beolongs, to assume national leadership. There is a minumun age requirement for serving as president and in Congress; perhaps we should consider a maximum age as well. Joe Biden deserves the opportunity to live out his final years in restful, peaceful reflection and recreation, with grand children, great grand children, and dogs and cats, on his lap. Donald Trump deserves the opportunity to spend the rest of his life in prison where he can, for the first time in his criminal life perform meaningful, worthwhile tasks, such as forging license plates and hammering rocks.

Hating Jews, Or Whoever Is Convenient

THERE IS A WAVE of anti-semitism sweeping across America's fruited plain, so it was reported on National Public Radio, and that wave is not confined to the usual racist promulgators,the American right wing, but also,is manifested in the progressive movement. Unreasoning hatred from both the left and the right, a one two punch. Why not? Why not go all the way across the political spectrum in doing what Americans do best, display intolerance? Christian conservatives are always at risk of sinking into intolerance of non-Christians. Progressives seem to be angered at President Biden's distinctly pro-Israeli policy in their war with Hamas. As Israel becomes the aggressor,killing thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, progressive anger at Israel and its government intensifies. One must distinguish, however,between anti-Semitic ethnic hatred,and anti-Israeli attitudes against a nation-state and its foreign policies. Before World War Two America was an anti-Semitic country,pure and simple. The Holocaust made Americans rethink their traditional anti-Jewish bigotry. It is possible,and quite easy, to oppose the idea of theocratic governemnt, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, or other, while harboring no hatred of the people who practice these various religions. There are rabbis who believe that the Jewish faith should have remained exclusively a religious tradition, and should never have been incorporated into a nation with distinct territorial boundaries. When one considers the human suffering which accompanied the establishment of the Israeli nation in 1948, especialy among the Palestinian Arabs,and the fact that Israel was carved out of land already occupied by legitimate inhabitants,this point of view gains legitimacy. It is noteworthy that the level of violence in the middle east was far less prior to 1948 than since. Prior,Jew and nonJew lived in relative peace. Since, not so much. Then too,it is neceaary to factor into the equation the impact of massive western imperialism on that part of the world. What sort of world might we have now had the Birtish Empire not imposed its will, by force,on far flung regions of the world which would have been quite content to do without their British overlords? After World War One, when the Turks nad been defeated and their control of Palestine eliminated,in moe teh victorious Brits, who redrew national boundaries all across the region, and established countries of questionable borders and combinations of ethnic groups. The complexities of our world, past and present, and the highly questionable decisions made then and now, invite endless analysis. Human beings invent more reasons to hate each other and to kill each other than there are square miles of Earth over which to fight. If we aren't busy being hateful towards the Jews, or the blacks, or the greens, or whomever, we shall surely find targets of convenience wherever we happen to look. When Jackie Robinson became the first black player in the major leagues, his new teammates, racists all, threatend to not play, or to quit the team. Manager Leo Durocher spelled it out."I don't care if he's black, white, green, red,or yellow. On this team, he's gonna play. He's too good not to. He'll help us win, and make us all rich. Now, if you sons of bitches don't wanna get rich, I'll trade your asses right now." In a time capsule, Einstein wrote: "If you have not becoem kinder and more compassionate than we were, may the devil take you". Enough said. Perfectly clear. Perhaps it is time for the devil to take us. People are surprised to learn that the actual level of international violence and warfare has, over the centuries,declined, and is less today than ever before. That tells us much: not that we have become peaceful and compassionate, but rather, that bad as we are today, our ancestors were even meaner, more cruel, and more violent than we. Whether that gives us reason for hope for the future is anyone's guess.

Growing Old

"I GROW OLD. I GROW OLD, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled". (T.S. Eliot: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock")... T.S. Eliot wrote this poem when he was ninteen years old. Prufrock, the poem's protagonist, experiences insecurity as he walks towards the home of a lady, for a tea date. He is deep in personal reflection and self doubt. His years have borught him much less than he had expected. Despite the wisdom of age, our frailties remain. The world, it turns out, has not turned out as we might have hoped and expected. Our lives proceed other than expected. The best laid plans gang aglee. If we are wise, we have few regrets and few complaints. Our salvation is our enduring opportunity to contribute and produce. It is surprising how much we have grown, and how much we have not, and how much growth remains, unfulfilled. "I make friends with people. And I wear a derby on hy head, as others do. I say, they are strangely stinking animals. And I say, no matter, I am too". (Bertolt Brecht: "Concering Poor B.B.)...Man is a social animal, as Aristotle said. I go to my local senior center, seeking a modicum of community. My expectations are rewarded. The rewards are not always what I seek. No matter: I am aware of my unqualification and inability to order the world in which I live, but only my capacity to adjust to the circumstances it affords me. The place,like America, is full of conservative evangelical Christians who love Jesus and Donald Trump, and believe that if you do not share this belief, you are destined to burn eternally in hell. The say they worry about my salvation. What really concerns them is their lack of ability to impose their malignant beliefs on me, and their own unlikely salvation. They suppress the likelihood they will soon turn to dirt, and nothing else. The ninety year old and his wife who hated me at first, then came to know me, and decided they loved me, and began sending me twenty dollar bills at Christmas. Then, disapproving of my expressed utter contempt for conservative Trumper evangelical Christians, returned to their former hatred. It is they who are misguided and confused, not I. The eighty year old illiterate religious fanatic who never attended school, sure that he knows more history than I, despite my Ph.D in history.. The eighty five year old farmer who took one look at me and hated me, until my kindness towards him won him over. The hard core evangelical Republican who despised my politics and lack of religiosity, until he gained respect for me when he watched me volunteer in the senior center kitchen for four years. But damn! That pointy headed intellecual guy is not a Christian! O horror! Of what value is his fancy damned education if he has not been saved? And, ah, the piece de resistance. the old born again confederate who declared Donald J.Trump the most "constitutional" president in 'murican history, and rated Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt as the "sorriest" damned presidents in 'murican history. The former had the audacity to free those N-word darkies, the latter, why, he brought damned heathen un-Christian socialism to 'murica, was a damned Democrat, and hell, really had nuthin' to do with winning World War Two. No, I do not like these people. Whether they treat me with the warmth and respect I deserve, which they generally do not, is irrelevent. I do not tolerate racial and religious bigorty and intolerance. Anyone who thinks that non Christians burn in hell deserve to. The only salvation is that the food at the senior center is excellent, and you cannot beat the price.

Becoming A Christian Criminal Organization

WHEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES tries to steal an election by falsely claiming that he won it, he becomes a criminal, if he wasn't aready, which in this case he was. When he carefully plans,organizes, and orchestrates a violent insurrrection by forming a mob of supporters, and instructs them to "go to the Capitol and fight like hell", and the mob does precisely that, the ensuing violence causing the deaths of nine people, and very nearly the lynching of the Vice President of the U.S., the president becomes a terrorist. This is so self evident that any argument against it is on its face laughable. Despite all attempts by America's conservative Christians to deny, obfuscate, twist and turn this reality into fiction, it remains an undeniable fact. It bears repeating. When a Christian congregation and its minister continue to actively support this criminal terrorist post insurrection, it therefore supports terrorist insurrection, and becomes itself a creiminal terrorist organiztion. All across America's fruited plain, Christian congregations are becoming and have become criminal terorist organizations,depsite their best attempt to portray themselves as witnesses to and messangers for Jesus Christ. By trying to describe President Biden and progressive Democrats as consigned to hell, by consigning in their delusional minds anyone who is not Christian Trump supporter to hell, they themselves reveal their own demented evil, their obvious mental illness. We the American people have so consistenly been brainwashed by these evil people to believe that to be a Christian is inherently "good", much like we have been brainwashed to believe that capitalism is"good", that we seem, like programmed robots, to resist the truth that Christianity is not inherently "good". It is, like all choices, merely a choice. Christians who support Trump are no better than Christians who supported Hitler. They are, in fact, worse, because they have Hitler as an example. They laughably proclaim that this is a "Christian country", when in fact, as John Adams said, it is no more Christian than Islamic. Their dishonesty does not end there, but permeates their every self deluded thought and action. To embrace Trump is to embrace his innumerable thousands of lies. They reinvent Jesus as a white, right wing crusader for American conservative values, another of their fabrications. The word "woke", a grammatical error, means nothing more than being aware, awakened to reality, reality such as the lingering systemic racism in America. They blind thmeslves to the fact that Jesus, as depicted in the Bible, is precisely the embodiment of "woke". Then there is the matter of loyalty to one's country, and its opposite, traitorous betrayal of it. What can possibly be more traitorous than attempting to violently overthrow the United Satates government? What can possibly be more traitorous than supporting the author of such an attempt? More than eighty percent of America's evangelical Christians still support Trump, post insurrection. By so doing they reveal themselves to be traitors, despite their ludicrous claim to be patriots in service to America and Christ. Conservative evangelical Christians often combine the cross and the assault rifle to project their identity. This is perfectly appropriate. Both are insturments of death and destruction. And it is a perfect indication of where they properly belong, and that place is neither in America, nor in heaven.

Trumping the Criminal Church

THE SIGN OUTSIDE THE CHURCH, a billboard, had the image of a cross and an assault weapon intertwined, and the message indicated the absolute necessity of fighting the Lord's fight, spreading the Word, aggressively. The end, evidently, justifies the means. Also pictured were parishoners in full MAGA red capped garb, the standard red ball MAGA caps, implying that America is no longer great, because Donald Trump is no longer president, but would and will be once again, when he reassumes the title. America had been great for four short years, before the tragic,precipitous relapse following the election stolen from their savior on Earth. Ultra consrvative evangelical Christian churches are deeply politicized, and Donald Trump is their crusader for Christ, and for the hope of an America to be great again. Precisely what was not great about America pre-Trump is never explained. Maybe tha MAGA church go is simply lacking in patriotism. Unsurprisingly the sign was photographed and posted on Facebook, joining pictures of still uneaten lunches and cute kittens, and fed by algorythm to spoon-fed millions. A true Trumper church, congregation, preacher, cross, and gun barrel. Guns and crosses, instruments of torture onad death. Motivated, I hopped on, like a frog in heat. I posted: "Any church which supports Trump is a criminal terrorist organization." I meant every word. I still do and any Christian nationalist super patriot Trump church goer who bothers to ask my opinion, which none will, will get exactly what they ask for. The problem is not so much whether a church supports Trump, it is one of irrelevancy. Why would a church, any church, digress from the teachings of Christ to sink into the swamp of politics? Are the sacred beauty of the messages of Jesus not sufficient unto themselves to occupy the scarce time alloted to Sunday morning congregating? Trump a criminal, an insurrectionist, and therefore a terrorist by virtue of more than one hundred and fifty million solid sober citizens of all religious faiths and political affiliations having witnessed his being such, live and in living color on national American television. To be a supporter of an insurrectionist, whether in the pew or anywhere else, renders one a supporter of insurrection and crime. A church full of Trump supporters is a criminal terrorist organization, just as is the Republican party. What I omitted is that the same church is also a traitorous organization. All across America's fruited plain potentially good American citizens are selling their souls to the devil (who exists only in the same symbolic sense as atonement through the torture and death of Jesus himelf) - marrying their faith to their politics, convenientally overlooking the inconvenient reality that Jesus Christ preached a message of woke, progresssive socialism. Render unto Caesar, give unto the poor, and so forth. I have heard them spew their scnctimonious hateful garbage on the radio, on television, and straight to my face. They claim that folks like me are possessed by demons. I claim that they are mentally ill.

Trump, Getting Back In the Game

LIKE HOUDINI,Donald Trump has escaped again, avoiding his just deserts. At least, for the time being. As a great man said:the arc of justice is long, but it bends towards justice, which means that although it may take awhile, criminals are always, in one way or antoher, brought to justice. The cliches are innumerable, but, so we assume, all true. What goes around comes around, karma is a bitch, and my personal favorite: "All comes out even when the day is done, and more even still, when all the days are done. Voltaire said that, which gives the concept credence. Voltaire was rarely wrong. What goes around comes around, is many people's preferred version. Eyeryone espouses the virtues of justice and fair play. Many of us want precisely that, for everyone except ourselves, for whom we tend to want preferential treatment. MAGA Trumpers, for all appearances, want to live in a deranged world where their icon hero savior Donald Trump does exactly what he wishes, no matter how criminal or cruel, and gets away with it. The king can do no wrong. If Donald Trump did not engage in insurrection, the sky is not blue, and there is no justice in the universe. If anybody should be removed from America's ballots, surely it is he. Whether the cliches are true is anyone's guess; it often seems that indeed life is unfair, which is what people also say, setting up a seeming contradiction. One must admit, from the viewpoint of Trump haters that it would, at the "end of the day",be far more fulfilling emotionally to watch Trump go down in ignomonious landslide election loss, we the people making the fateful decision rather than the courts. Nonetheless, qualified is qualified, and unfit is unfit,and,as James Madison and friends clearly articulated in the constitution, you cannot engage in insurrection, you cannot attempt to overthrow the United States government, then hold high office My assumption had been that the supreme court would bail out the criminal by reminding us that he has not yet been convicted of anything, including insurrection. Wrong. SCOTUS, that now infamously conservatively packed ostensibly pro-Trump court which includes no fewer than two probable sex offenders took a different tact in gegiving the riminal his get out of jail free card. In their apparent desperation to aid and abet criminality while seeming to so so on legitimate grounds, it ruled that only Congress has the ppwer to prevent a citizen from holding federal office by removing him or her from the ballot when running for it. How creative! The sycophants didn'teven ahve to address the insurrection question at all, thus maintainign its skin deep appearance of rendering equal justice under law, while actually casting its own vote for Donald Trump, for criminality of the extreme right wing, kind, all the while eluding responsibility. I tmay be that Donald becomes president of the United States one again. Anything is possible. More probalby, Ameirca will come to its sense, to the extent that it ever does, and not elect Trump. that opens yet another an of worms, so to speak. those worms are, herew go again. Denial of reality, renewedclaims of election fraud,astolen election, and the resulting mob attack on the Capitol.Our main comfort is that many of the mobsters of 2021 are now in prison, and might be a bit reluctant to make another go of it,and risk reincareration. On the other hand, Trump has this almost surreal ability to pull insurrectionists out of a hat, like rabbits or vermin. Sadly, history, as Mark Twain said, rhymes.

Posing,Well Hidden

THE LADY is apparently very proud of her swimming pool, pool deck, and metal mesh frame serving as a cover over it. No fewer than five thousand photos of it she has posted on Facebook. I have every inch of it memorized,including the water, which,she asures us, is heated as needed. But, probably wisely, she never shows a picture of her house. She must be sorely tempted, but deterred by the fear of uwanted visitors and potential criminals. All those Facebook "friends", who really aren't. Or,maybe she can't afford a house, and camps by the pool. Then too, the pool itself is sufficient to evoke images of a splendid home near it, doubtless her intent. We American humans cannot resist the self congratulatory satisfaction of flaunting our affluance, our pretty material things. When we flaunt with subtlety, as an after thought or in context with a much more imoprtant point, the pride in material wealth can be denied. Her profile says she's married, but she never utters a word about him, perhaps by agreement. Maybe that's where the standard of living comes from. Is he perhaps a fabrication, for protection, or a discarded commodity? Her son, she says, is a lawyer. Again, the subtle hint of affluent success. There is no mention of any black sheep offspring. There wouldn't be. The only pictures of herself she posts on her profile are probably thirty years old, a comely young brunette.Once, and only once, she shared a current picture of herself,a selfie which bounced and reflected between mulitple mirrors as she stood just barely around the corner, avoiding a direct, head on shot. The indirect image is of a much older woman. Gotta keep 'em thinking young, and cute. She never mentions her age, a womanly thing. In keeping with current tastes she provides "pics" of her lunches and beverages, both adult and non-alcoholic. The lunches are all well prepared, fine dining with high end cuisine. Fast food is beneath her. The drinks all come with a sprig of mint, a straw, or even an orhid, which she grew herself. It is, of course,pictured. The orchid, she says, is edible, and is sometimes included as adornment in restaurants featuring the fine cuisine. She shoud know. Whether she eats hers she didn't say. She goes to Rolling Stones concerts, as the wealthy elderly do in this century. Sometimes, classical concerts. But there are microscopic cracks in the upper middle class high cultural armor. She mentioned that she thinks that perhaps "The Empoeror Concerto" is another name for "The Moonlight Sonata". When I explained that a "concerto"and a "sonata" are two different forms of music, that the famous compositions are actually two different pieces of music, and that Beethoven named neither,she hastily dismissed the matter as unimportant, naturally. To accept correction would be to admit error. Once a month she announces that she can "feel" the full moon. Some kind of "juju". I gave it a try, but failed to feel. After all, my house is small, I have no pool, and I eat and drink with the masses.Her frequent mention of the "lawn guy", the "misquito guy", the "pool guy", among many service "guys", evinces images of an army of servants, as intended. She posted: "I do not fear the storm,I AM the storm", I belatedly realized; she is truly a spiritual bad ass, and wanted the world to know it. The denouement was her insistance that weather is an "abstraction". I could not dissiade her. Again, the upper middle class image of cultural perfetion, at stake. I would invite her to stand outside in a hail storm,and to feel her head being pelted with abstractions,but why bother? She would laugh dismissively, as is her wont, and proceed to caviar and minted cocktails, then proceed to the pool for a quick float, just before the next "guy" arrives to serve her immediate needs.

Fighting Like Hell, For Trump and For God

"THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION is an abortive political revolution that turned moral." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). The revolution that aborted was an uprising against the Roman Empire. It turned moral when a charismatic rabbi-teacher assured the failed revolutionaires that they needn't be concerned about achieving political freedom in this lifetime, that they would have something better,eternal salvation and joy in heaven, if they agreed to certain terms. Hence was born the Christian religion, almost as if by accident, an expedient transition from politics to religion. Every century has had a different version of Christianity, which wasn't even called "Christianity" until several centuries after Christ lived, and, temporarily, died. (It was called "the truth"), In the early twenty first century, the true faith seems to be taking a step backwards, re-insinuating itself into the political sphere, in these United States. First came the "moral majority", which was famously neither. Reagan, an evangelical Christian like Jimmy Carter, but with the added benefit of being politically conservative, was America's born again Republican president. Traditional religions harmonize with political conservatism. Then came Donald Trump, and the evangelical movement, looking for a savior, a strongman to fight like hell for the true faith, had found one. That Donald Trump is as a person the antithesis of traditional Christian values matters not; he fills the bill. God was looking for a bully, and, in any event, has a habit of elevating reprobates to positions of great import. Evangelical Christianity took control of the Republican party, and Trump took control of the Republican party, a match made in heaven, if not hell. With evangelical Trump-Republicanism emerged several subsects, just as the true faith itself fragmented over the centuries, a fragmentation which proceeds apace today. New Christian denominations are born almost daily. Surely, at least one of them has the blessing of the one true God, the one in the christian Bible. Maybe, all of them, diverse in dogma though they be. Perhaps the most extreme and thus most dangerous Christian subsect is the "New Apostolic Reformation". This marriage of political conservatism and evangelical Christianity, the "New Christian right", is white, angry, far right wing,filled with grievances, and determined to destroy secular democratic America and replace it with a Christian nation, politiclly, culturally, by taking "dominion" over all aspects of American society and culture; economics, education, arts and entertainment, the whole ball of wax, so to speak. An incisive new book, "Preparing For War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism, and What Comes Next", by Bradley Onishi, lays out the landscape, past, present, and future. Oshino should know. He is a refugee from hard core conservative Christianity. He was saved (from religious fanaticism) by education, at Oxford University. Accordingly, America is the shining city on the hill, just as Ronald Reagan claimed. The USA is destined to lead the entire world, starting with itself, to God,the Christian one, by violence, if necessary. Christian nationalism. Dominionism. The "New Apostolic Reformation" being the formal name of its spearhead movement. Trump is the leader on the political side. The insurrection at the Capitol on jaunary 6th, 2021, was full of evangelicals, kneeling, praying, carrying the NAR flag in one hand, and assault rifles in the other. Now the Christian dominionist Republican nationalist horde seeks to return their icon leader to power, by violence or election stealing if necessary. Whatever works. They tried it before and it was an impressive dress rehearsal. And they are not going anywhere.

Presuming, At Great Risk

AN EIGHTY YEAR OLD friend of mine related that sixty years ago, while in Atlanta, he stepped into an elevator, and saw a young African-american man standing quietly next to the door, wearing what appeared to be a customer service uniform of some sort. My friend smiled at the young gentleman, and said: "fifth floor please". This was in the era in which many big city elevators still had a person stationed inside,operating them, similarlty to how, long ago, gas stations had service attendants who pumped gas while customers remained in their cars. Then came self service gas pumps and self serve elevators... The man looked at my friend, but said nothing. He punched a button, the elevator began to move in that all too familair disquieting way, defying gravity, and up they went. It stopped at the third floor, and the black man got off without a word. In a sudden shock of awareness, my friend realized that he had not spoken to an elevator operator, but rather, to another passenger. My octogenerian friend confided to me that as he made his lonely way to the fifth floor, he couldn't help but wonder what the young black man was thinking as he walked away from the elevator, on to his third floor destination. Or, what he mumbled to himself, or what he later told his friends, family, and associates about the awkward moment. He wondered whether he had mumbled "damned cracker", or some such, and whether, in his later retelling of the story, he had used phrases like "effing honkie"... "Who knows", I rhetorically said... Maybe he is still alive, and still telling the story today. And if, lord willing, he still is, we agreed that we both hope that he is doing so in a much softened tone, with a poignant smile on his now aged face, his wrinkled visage revealing a tolerant, resigned attitude towards the blatant racism of the past. And that he has, over time, come to forgive my presumptuous, unintentionally racist friend................ Another friend of mine of about the same age recalled that long ago he was in a bar, having a drink with a white, working class stranger whom he had just met. On the dance floor was an attractive white lady dancing with a tall, handsome African-American gentleman. The stranger noticed, looked troubled, and said: "I'll be right back. I'm gonna help that lady". He approcahed the dancing couple, and, just as the dance was ending, said to the lady: "May I share a dance with you?" She pleasantly agreed. As they danced, the heroic stranger told her: "I just thought I should rescue you from that N-word". (he said the N-word). The lady, seemingly unfazed, responded without missing a beat: "that N-word (she said the N-word) happens to be my husband". The failed hero left the dance floor the moment the song ended, mumbled a muffled thank you to the bi-racially married lady, and not only quickly left the floor, but the entire building as well. My story teller friend and I pondered what the stymied defender of feminine virtue and and American way might have thought to himself as he got to the street, and how he tells the story now, or if he is too ashamed to tell it at all. Most likely, the night of the event, his thoughts were on the decline of American society. Most likely, if he is still alive,he has a different take on the whole affair- event, possibly denying it altogether to himself, possibly never sharing it with anyone else. The life lesson that both the elevator rider and the cracker dancer should have learned is quite evident. Never assume that you know what's going on until you know what's going on. Don't be presumptuous. Do your homework. The elevator rider learned this, he confided to me. Whether the dancing savior of feminine virtue did remains unknown, and will remain so forever. We can hope that he did. We can probably assume that he did not, although, of course, we should assume nothing.