DONALD TRUMP IS NOT THE PROBLEM

Jesus blessing a poor man.

Donald Trump, though the current poster child for the hard right in America, did not invent the callous, heartless, and decidedly unChristian worldview with which we are currently fighting.

The policies of this president are met with joy by people who have been here all along but who, until now, have had limited power to realize their selfish and distorted world view.

I do not pretend to know, for certain, the origins of America's reversion to such primitive, tribal and harsh aspirations, but, when I think back to the infancy of this country, I see the seeds of it right there. Women were not allowed to vote. African Americans remained in slavery to rich landowners. Many of the founding fathers did not want to give voting privileges to anyone but landowners.

If you analyze the group of people who had all the rights in the beginning of our nation, it is the same group of people who are now trying to keep everyone but themselves from having any.

Even though I am functionally poor and cannot afford to buy the assistive devices and furnishings that I need to accommodate my disabilities, I STILL live much better than the poor souls who are trying to immigrate here from other countries, and this disparity in standards of living is a crucial part of the current debate on immigration. A large segment of the American population is selfish and doesn't want to help anyone. The character assassinations they employ to justify their selfishness give false witness, and are a scandal in themselves. A lot of it appears to be racist, but underneath the apparent racism, I think this selfishness is the primary fuel for the current hostility toward immigrants.

"Today the illegal migrant comes before 
us like that "stranger" to whom Jesus asks 
to be recognized. To welcome him and to 
show him solidarity is a duty of hospitality 
and fidelity to Christian Identity itself."

Pope Saint John Paul

Just look at the way we treat our OWN people! We have more than 40 million poor people in our country, but the hard right doesn't care about them. They dismiss us by saying that we all need to go to work, which is another lie because most poor people ARE working. The rest are disabled, elderly, or children. Less than 3% of people who receive entitlement income are able-bodied people that aren't working - and most of them are searching for work. Despite these facts, the hard right persists in pushing the lie that poor people are just lazy bums that need to go to work. I am quite sure there are some lazy bums among the poor, but there will always be a few people like that in the world.

Although there is a lot of talk about the hard right being "Christian" and following "Christian values," the only people they seem to care about are babies in the womb. They excuse Trump's brutal reign with all sorts of nonsense, supposedly because he will make abortion illegal, vis-a-vis conservative Supreme Court jurists.

While it appears that the hard right have sold their souls in exchange for one or two seats on the Supreme Court, their doing so is a pointless endeavor. Abortion will not likely become illegal, now that the flood gates have opened. It would be more effective to evangelize the heart while making survival a bit easier for moms, but, instead of taking care of people after they have been born, and establishing family-friendly economic systems that would assist families, the hard right advocates for cuts to food and shelter assistance, cuts to healthcare, cuts to the minimum wage, and a tax structure that caters to the ultra rich. They create an environment that is hostile to women, children, families and poor people, then criticize the people they impoverish when they are driven to abortion.

Since poor Americans are treated so shabbily by other Americans who have benefited in our culture to a greater degree, it is no surprise that they don't want to help immigrants from other countries, regardless of our completely immigrant past (except for the Native Americans.)

The idea of scarcity, that there are not enough resources to go around for everyone to be happy, is the biggest lie of all. There are a few men at the top of the socio-economic ladder who have nearly all the wealth of our nation. For years, our economic policies have shuttled all the wealth to the top of the ladder, while the people who actually do the work to create the wealth - the workers - are suffering with stagnating wages for more than 40 years! We have poverty in our country, not because the poor are lazy, but because the rich are filthy greedy. Those few men at the top of the ladder have enriched themselves unjustly at the expense of the common man, and they currently spend some of their ill-gotten gains to spread lies about the rest of us so that they can continue to rape our economy.

There is no scarcity. There is enough wealth in America so that all people may get a living wage and feed, house and clothe themselves, with a little extra for fun. There is enough wealth to help immigrants and refugees come into our country and become part of our economy. There is no scarcity. There is greed.

Many "religious" people think you cannot call yourself a Christian unless you are a Republican. The reason that this drives the rest of us crazy is because the hard right advocates for harsh policies that hurt the vulnerable, something that jesus would NEVER approve of.

Donald Trump didn't start this, though he is the lightning rod for all the animus that followers of Christ feel toward the policies and prejudices of the current administration. Trump is an icon of far right thought. His attacks on the press and the first amendment, his vulgarity, his commercialization of the office of the Presidency, his corrupt business practices, his objectification of and assaults on women, his constant lying, his long-term ties with Russian oligarchs and American mafia, his destruction of the offices of government by promoting people unqualified and/or devoted to their destruction, his extreme mental laziness that is demonstrated by his refusal to be properly briefed, his continually affirmed admiration for dictators and his repudiation of our allies - ALL of this makes us cringe. All of it is unChristian.

What really scares people who actually follow Christ is not Donald Trump. What really concerns us  are millions of people who think just as Trump does. Although he did not win the popular vote, Trump won enough votes to enable him to come to office through the quirks of the Electoral College.  Though Donald Trump lied about the crowds at his inauguration, his crowd is big enough to be of grave concern.

Donald Trump is not the problem. He represents the problem, and he does a good job of it.

Evangelization and some truth telling would seem to be in order.

Silver Rose 

PLEASE DON'T JUDGE JESUS BY THE "CHRISTIANS" WHO SUPPORT TRUMP

Even though Donald Trump's outrageous lies are easily unmasked by watching a video of him speaking his own contradictions or of eye witnesses, experts and professional testimony and photographs, some people choose to believe Trump and his lies.

They believe the lies of his lackeys and sycophants, such as Jeff Sessions, when he claims that jailing children at our borders is Biblical because God has installed our leaders, relying upon a text-twisted Biblical reference divorced from its moorings and rendered opposite in its meaning by removing the surrounding text that directs and defines it.

The idea that all the policies of all heads of government are holy because God installs all the leaders is another version of Nixon's comment that "if the president does it, it isn't illegal." This idea, if followed to its logical conclusion, would mean that all actions of every dictator and despot in the world are a positive good from God. This is patently ridiculous. It is neither legal nor Biblical.

Unfortunately, when Trump apologists cite the Bible and Christianity as authorities for their actions, they make claims about Christianity that are completely false. For instance it is the antithesis of the Christian message to behave in a cruel way toward immigrants. The Old and New Testaments are very clear on this. Jews and Christians alike are told to be kind to strangers, for once we were also strangers. Dire warnings are given for those who fail to do this.

Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you

accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his

angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was

thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me

no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in 

prison, and you did not care for me.

~ Matthew 25 ~

The Bible consistently affirms that Satan is "the father of all lies." Many Christians are saying that it doesn't matter that Trump lies continually because "all politicians lie." Excusing Trump's lies because someone else has lied would excuse Hitler from murdering millions of Jews because some other leader killed someone at some time. "They all do it."

Shall we excuse all the murderers from prison because someone else, somewhere, in some way, killed someone?

If we justify Trump's continual lies because, supposedly, "Hillary did it," should we then adopt all of Hillary Clinton's actions as our model to follow? Should we follow the worst behavior of other people, or should we uphold Biblical values?

If so-called "family values" Christians think it is fine that Trump has brought with him a legion of women who are suing him for various assaults because he is, supposedly, a "baby Christian," then how much more forgiving would they be of Clinton and the two women who sued him? Right? No?

Sometimes I worry that the "Christian" support of Donald Trump has obliterated the possibility of bringing the Gospel message to non-Christians. Today, we do not have a prayer of gaining converts, unless they are people who are devoted to principles that are the OPPOSITE of Biblical principles. Neo Nazis, white supremacists, sociopaths who blackmail voters by tormenting children, and pathological liars would feel at home in the "Christianity" that is being advertised by the Trump administration. Jesus weeps!

Having studied and been a part of many different religions in my lifetime, I can tell you that people come to religion for a variety of reasons, not all of them honorable. Every religion has its hypocrites who neither follow the religious precepts nor advocate for them. Each of them has a certain number of people who use the religion to get things they want on earth, or simply to make themselves feel good.

Religious institutions are full of people - and people are very flawed. A good portion are sincere and make a good faith effort to live their faith. The rest are either coasting or perverting the message to their own ends.

Jesus knew this would happen. He said that, in the end, people would cry to Him, "Lord! Lord" and He would reject some of them, saying, "I do not know you."

This is why I do not judge a faith by any of the people that fail to live up to it. I would not want the Christianity that approves of the sins of Donald Trump and his people. THAT "Christianity" is abhorrent to me and to every Christian who knows the message of Christ. Thanks be to God, I do not belong to that Christianity.

I can only pray that people inclined toward true Christian values do not turn their backs on Christianity because of this vile circus that is being played out in our halls of so-called "justice."

Silver Rose