The 45th President has been many things since arriving on our political landscape in 2015: a national embarrassment, a global punchline, an environmental disaster, a divider of people, a prolific murderer of the English language.
When it became clear in November of 2016 that Trump won in the Electoral College, I thought, “Oh dear Lord, this country really is as racist as I thought it was.” I grew up in rural eastern NC where racism was always just below the surface.
This ugliness has definitely affected churches. I belong to a United Methodist church, and the schism caused by disaffiliation was bolstered by the ugliness of secular politics making its way into churches. One of my neighbors down the street, who used to go to the same church I do, told me how he didn’t want to hear any more sermons about loving your neighbor. That topic was too political. I will never forget that moment. Loving others as you love yourself is one of the major tenets of Christianity. The people who separated from my church and denomination wanted to be able to discriminate against others, but think they are somehow “guarding” the church.
When Christians start rejecting the core teachings of Jesus, something is very, very wrong. I am so sorry to hear about what has happened to your neighbor. Millions of Americans are literally in need of deprogramming.
The church has a long history of racism, going back at least as far as the Age of Exploration, when violence in support of Spanish colonialism was aided and abetted by the Catholic Church. Beginning with the earliest American colonies, white Christians justified the enslavement of Africans with Biblical texts. Even though our country fought a Civil War over slavery, many white Southern Christians remained unrepentant up to and after the Civil Rights Movement. In response to the first Black President in American history, the country elected a racist with vocal support from Evangelical Christians. People who identify as Christians have long rejected the universal nature of Christ’s teachings. This is not a new turn—it’s a very old stain on the soul of the church. I am delighted by the candidacy of a woman of Black and East Asian descent who clearly embodies the joyous inclusivity that Jesus calls us to demonstrate in our personal and public lives.
Everything you wrote is what I believe as well. I'm not able to express it as well as you, but I think you speak for many of us. Hate in one's heart brings misery, from what I observe. Anger and hate seems to be all these people have. I find it sad.
The link is there . The acceptance of Donald Trump as a leader of our country has grown into “ Gods anointing of him as the chosen one “.
Of course that was drawn up by one of his followers ( accomplices) to woo his white ‘Christian’s’ , who were looking for a way to hate, that was suddenly ‘ acceptable’.
It s not acceptable, it’s another lie blamed on ‘Gods wishes’.
These White’Christians ‘ have adopted the only playbook that works to relieve themselves of responsibility for their base choices.
Their irresponsible behavior is not exposed by media but accepted by the monied supporters of DJT who in many cases own the media.
The corruption in every aspect of our lives is man made, not God made.
But it’s become an acceptable corruption .
I believe , however , that the reception given to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the joy they’ve engendered is in fact a turning away from corruption .
We will still have the opportunity to win in this election.
The White Supremacists have had a long shelf life hiding behind their false god .
I’m praying that the attraction to real love , as endorsed repeatedly by the real God , will return , as the example of loving leaders establish new values in , hopefully , a majority .
Make no mistake , they will fight the deprivation of active hate , with demonic strength .
As you have noted repeatedly, John, in different words. We can ‘win’ . We must win.
Permit me to add a comment or two here that are contrary to the 'left organized religion' responses above. In the late 60s-early 70s, my congregation was dead-center in a theological split in our denomination. We didn't let it slide, but invited seminary professors, visiting pastors, and lay persons to offer their perspectives. It was a trying, sobering and painfully refreshing time in the history of our congregation. We found that our neighboring congregations, like ours, were being influenced by the outflow of white families to 'safe havens' of gated communities, etc, and that they had in effect buried this coming split in order not to face it. So, we ended up taking a vote, moving away to a newly-formed organization of like-minded congregations in local and national areas, began to rediscover the inherent values of open-minded, open-arms service to others, and decided that the "church is not a building...the church is its people". We've welcomed worshippers of all skin colors, all nationalities, and all backgrounds. We've made a conscious effort to becoming practicing worshippers without regard to one's sexual identifications, and we've tried in every way to maintain a devotion to the words of the Sermon on the Mount. It has been a refreshing journey; we've decided that our pastors will preach the Gospel and avoid preaching politics. No political divisions have arisen, but we have invited after-worship discussion of social needs or practices or governance policies on a regular basis. Our congregation is open to all, but does not subscribe to a commercialized version of outreach. We do, in fact, continue the missions outreach efforts that we have always followed, knowing that our calling is not to be measured in numbers of butts in the pews, but in what we can help to sustain outside our doors as well as inside them. And, yes, if one were to survey our congregations members, s/he would find that there remain some vestiges of old racism or old white privilege, but that these are not affecting our decisions. Thanks, John, for your writings and especially for today's column. We all have a long way to go, but we do believe strongly in 'building a longer table' where all are welcome.
As Pastor Warnock (Sen. of GA) said when he was addressing the DNC, “Our vote is like a prayer”. This spoke to me; our vote is personal, just as our confession is personal. (More to come)
John, waking up to your beautiful but difficult words this Sunday morning is a true gift. I left organized religion in my 20’s owing to a lack of tolerance in every church I entered: one had to conform to the limited scope of behavior and beliefs epsoused by each or be shunned. I will keep sharing your work and maybe a few of those “Christians” still in my orbit will recognize themselves and be freed of their hatred and find thier way back to the light and love of the gospel. I no longer believe in Jesus, but I do believe in his teachings and in welcoming all, including those who are currently consumed by their hate and racism. Thank you my friend. I wish I had found your church 40 years ago.
I have stopped attending in person. The hypocrisy of the people attending is too much for me.
I think if these “Christians” only looked to what should be in their hearts as Christians. The gifts of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Taking this into account there is only one choice, and it is not the traitorous felon who is consumed with himself.
Thanks for your comment that included “disorienting”. I so identify with your description of what led up to my personal disorienting. I think it is very common amongst us clergy. And I am not a fundamentalist evangelical. I’m retired Ev. Lutheran Church in America who served in Ohio. Yet I was so dismayed and disoriented two years ago I was clinically depressed and decided to stay away from church. I felt like everything we boomers thought we had worked toward was a mirage. I’m back at it now after listening to lots of Diana Butler Bass and studying McLaren’s _Do I stay Christian?_. Thanks again for sharing your struggle.
You said exactly what I have been thinking since 2016 and very eloquently. It is astounding to me that half of America is this racist and small minded. A big wake up call. I belong to no religion and it is very easy to call them all hypocrites.
Sadly, I agree with you, Linda. We can only hope that the Harris/Walz platform of inclusion, joy and kindness will bring some...no, many of them back to the fold of compassion.
It’s not racist to prefer something you’ve grown up with over something else that’s different.
It’s not racist to be patriotic.
And It’s not racist or sexist to vote for a ‘White’ Male instead of a ‘Black’Female
Im Australian.
I get branded a ‘White’ Male.
I get told I owe the Aborigines an apology for what my ancestors did to them while taking the land away from them.
Facts are my ancestors were sent here as slaves and died while incarcerated in a pigsty jail.
It was the Royal family that were murdering the indigenous. It certainly wasn’t white men turning up on our shores to kill black people.
While at school I never witnessed proper racism. But I’ll tell you what I did notice.
Those Redhead kids copped it.
Big time.
America isn’t a racist country.
If it was racist then Obama wouldn’t have been elected.
Twice.
I’ll ask a question to everyone that reads my comment.
What is the most racist incident you have witnessed with your own eyes?
Most people answer similar things like “I heard my Grandfather call a Asian a ‘gook’”
That’s not nice nut it’s hardly a public lynching.
My observation is there isn’t large scale racism. You put 2 people of any race or colour in the street in a stressful situation and they will help each other.
And if historic racism was a thing why hasn’t there been a war Blacks Vs Whites?
Fact is more White males were killed in the battle to free the Slaves than in any other war.
Can one of you so called anti racist racists tell me how or why this would happen?
This is something we have known all along, but you expressed it with admirable force and eloquence, John. What you say is so very sad and so very hard -- but so very true. The Body of Christ has been grievously wounded -- and the wounds have not been inflicted by "secular humanism," LGBTQ people, Socialists, or any other bugaboos of the Right; in a stunning act of spiritual self-mutilation, the wounds have been inflicted by a noisy, angry minority of people who are part of that Body. This may be the American Church's last chance to have any credibility at all and begin to bind up those wounds, as well as the wounds of those outside the Church who have been lacerated by hate. I will join my prayers with yours.
Instead of reading, I decided to listen to your post this morning. It was like listening to a beautiful sermon. I've felt and seen that underlying bigotry all my life. It's everywhere. In some places it's closer to the surface than others. As much as I think us "baby boomers" fought to overcome it, it's still there to some degree in all of us - to be honest. I think we've done better with our children and hopefully, even better with theirs - not seeing color & difference. The country is so much more diverse these days than it was pre-2000. The diversity is so in keeping with what America is supposed to be about. I hope we can keep it going. But we'll have to overcome that "original sin" of bigotry against blacks that I believe is at the heart of it all and is so evident in Trump.
John, I'm not here to brag, but I saw this crap coming back in the 80s. Honestly, it seemed glaringly obvious to me. I was raised--steeped, actually--in Christian fundamentalism, and I fought it from my earliest memory of what it actually was, probably sometime in my late teens (late 70s). My so-called father, were he alive, would have utterly worshiped Donald Trump, and clear back in the 80s himself predicted a "race war, one that the whites will win and take this country back for good and for ever." He was an inveterate racist and bigot, a philandering drunk, a pathetic excuse of a man who beat and then abandoned his children and his terminally ill wife. In other words, a poster boy for Trumpism.
It is not possible to be a Trump supporter AND a moral human being. I post that statement at least once a day on YouTube, and the thousands of comments I have gotten back at this point tell a very tragic tale of an enormous number of Americans who have literally lost their souls to ... well, does it fucking matter? Whatever it is about Trump, about his vile movement, about the endless desire for revenge and power, that have grabbed these people ... take it from me, it's been festering a helluva lot longer than a decade.
I have literally lost every childhood "friend" I have had because of it. I put friend in quotes because they never were. When I refused to stick a Trump cow bell around my neck and moo around stupidly like they did, they walked away. But let me be clear: this was years and years *before* Trump. Understand: the American Christian Church, regardless of denomination, has shown itself to be critically morally compromised and weak. Thankfully, millions of American churchgoers are finally seeing the light, as it were, and, rightly and morally, leaving the church behind.
We stand at an existential precipice. Those high-and-mighty "friends," judging me as unworthy, as immoral, as weak ... wow. Talk about projection, yo. The thing is, morality does matter. Decency does matter. Kindness does matter. Inclusion and diversity are critical. It does take a village to raise a child. Well, how about that.
It doesn't take a prophet to see that or say that for common folk to live it, to know it in their bones, without or without that prophet in their lives. Period.
Get ready, because the awful bastards, seeing Harris pull ahead day by day, are going to pull out all the nasty stops they can to stop her, and us. It's going to get ugly, people. We need to be willing to jump into the stinking mud and go toe-to-toe with these jackweeds, because, without exaggeration, millions of lives literally depend on it, quite possibly yours and your children's.
“One of the main functions of organized religion is to protect people against a direct experience of God --Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion (CW11)”
White Christians choose to worship a mythology that will never bring them closer to love. Their Christian mythology exists for the sole purpose that they may never know love. It is their closet, the place they hide from authenticity and truth. It insures and protects their hearts from love’s indoctrination—it’s baptism. It makes certain they will never stop hating or evolving to saying “YES” to love. Therefore, as long as humans suck from the nipple of Christian mythology, their heart will remain uncircumcised and they will never ever know love—only hate. No matter how much our misguided and purely false hope in Christianity, prays and cries and demands Christians rise up with spine and goodness, proving Christianity actually works—that it is not merely a myth—that it is as real as my stubborn human faith says it is—that it is the champion of all that is right and true—it never has and it never will. As with Hitler and his good Christian German followers and now tRump and his good Christian American followers; the contemporary religious have always proven to be more in line, more comfortable with Fascism than Democracy, hate than love, inequality than equality, injustice than justice, war than peace.
Donald tRump’s dark energy and vile hate speech did not turn White Christians into hateful magets—NO—his narcissistic personality disorder is not to be blamed for turning good people into bad people. Hate is attracted to hate. It always has been. It always will be. As bad will always desire bad. And simply put—simply understood—White Christians have always been crusaders for hate—never for love—long before tRump came along…
We may think reality is too radical. That truth can or may be altered. That the laws of nature do not have the last say. That when we mock the Universe it goes unnoticed—it matters not. We may even be so bold as to deceive ourselves into believing it’s okay if we choose Inequality or Injustice over Equality and Justice. After all—who’s keeping score? But if we do—we are beyond gravely wrong. tRump didn’t come from nowhere. He was birthed in the Republican Party. The party that over the decades has proven it does not support the Constitution in regard to Freedom, Equality and Justice for all. Just like the Civil War didn’t come from nowhere—it too was birthed in a political party that did not prove to support the Constitution in regard to Freedom, Equality, and Justice for all. We as a Nation, and as a People have accepted and allowed and tolerated and worked overtime to normalize the fact that today we have American Citizens amongst us who do not and have never fully supported the Constitution in regard to Freedom, Equality, and Justice for all. And we call tRump and closeted Vance weird? I find it weird that Democrats and Republicans alike appear to deny the fact that Republicans are not for the Constitution in regard to Freedom, Equality, and Justice for all, AND yet carry on year after year pretending a persisting—never resolved issue—is okay—it’s normal—that we as a Nation are exempt from consequences that naturally arise from Slavery, Inequality, and Injustice. I find this form of National Denial weird! And to make matters weirder—we carry on expecting to be blessed—considering we win if our political party of choice wins an election. Meanwhile kids are killed in our schools, Americans live without healthcare, Corporate greed goes unchecked, etc., etc. And millions of humans abroad are slaughtered and raped because we the people can’t get our own country in alignment with love.
One of your best articles John. I enjoyed reading it. The people these days have had their conscience seared with a hot 🥵 iron. They know that’s is wrong to follow along with the likes of trump. They know it’s wrong to hate and they don’t care. I have heard that many people blame Putin for all the things going wrong in this country. Well from what I’ve seen, this country has always been this way. Like you said, it was below the surface. I always wondered why America was not in Armageddon. Now I know why. It will destroy itself from within.
When it became clear in November of 2016 that Trump won in the Electoral College, I thought, “Oh dear Lord, this country really is as racist as I thought it was.” I grew up in rural eastern NC where racism was always just below the surface.
This ugliness has definitely affected churches. I belong to a United Methodist church, and the schism caused by disaffiliation was bolstered by the ugliness of secular politics making its way into churches. One of my neighbors down the street, who used to go to the same church I do, told me how he didn’t want to hear any more sermons about loving your neighbor. That topic was too political. I will never forget that moment. Loving others as you love yourself is one of the major tenets of Christianity. The people who separated from my church and denomination wanted to be able to discriminate against others, but think they are somehow “guarding” the church.
When Christians start rejecting the core teachings of Jesus, something is very, very wrong. I am so sorry to hear about what has happened to your neighbor. Millions of Americans are literally in need of deprogramming.
The church has a long history of racism, going back at least as far as the Age of Exploration, when violence in support of Spanish colonialism was aided and abetted by the Catholic Church. Beginning with the earliest American colonies, white Christians justified the enslavement of Africans with Biblical texts. Even though our country fought a Civil War over slavery, many white Southern Christians remained unrepentant up to and after the Civil Rights Movement. In response to the first Black President in American history, the country elected a racist with vocal support from Evangelical Christians. People who identify as Christians have long rejected the universal nature of Christ’s teachings. This is not a new turn—it’s a very old stain on the soul of the church. I am delighted by the candidacy of a woman of Black and East Asian descent who clearly embodies the joyous inclusivity that Jesus calls us to demonstrate in our personal and public lives.
Beautifully said.
Everything you wrote is what I believe as well. I'm not able to express it as well as you, but I think you speak for many of us. Hate in one's heart brings misery, from what I observe. Anger and hate seems to be all these people have. I find it sad.
Thanks for saying what I wanted to say!
Thank you--keep up with your good ideas!
The link is there . The acceptance of Donald Trump as a leader of our country has grown into “ Gods anointing of him as the chosen one “.
Of course that was drawn up by one of his followers ( accomplices) to woo his white ‘Christian’s’ , who were looking for a way to hate, that was suddenly ‘ acceptable’.
It s not acceptable, it’s another lie blamed on ‘Gods wishes’.
These White’Christians ‘ have adopted the only playbook that works to relieve themselves of responsibility for their base choices.
Their irresponsible behavior is not exposed by media but accepted by the monied supporters of DJT who in many cases own the media.
The corruption in every aspect of our lives is man made, not God made.
But it’s become an acceptable corruption .
I believe , however , that the reception given to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the joy they’ve engendered is in fact a turning away from corruption .
We will still have the opportunity to win in this election.
The White Supremacists have had a long shelf life hiding behind their false god .
I’m praying that the attraction to real love , as endorsed repeatedly by the real God , will return , as the example of loving leaders establish new values in , hopefully , a majority .
Make no mistake , they will fight the deprivation of active hate , with demonic strength .
As you have noted repeatedly, John, in different words. We can ‘win’ . We must win.
Permit me to add a comment or two here that are contrary to the 'left organized religion' responses above. In the late 60s-early 70s, my congregation was dead-center in a theological split in our denomination. We didn't let it slide, but invited seminary professors, visiting pastors, and lay persons to offer their perspectives. It was a trying, sobering and painfully refreshing time in the history of our congregation. We found that our neighboring congregations, like ours, were being influenced by the outflow of white families to 'safe havens' of gated communities, etc, and that they had in effect buried this coming split in order not to face it. So, we ended up taking a vote, moving away to a newly-formed organization of like-minded congregations in local and national areas, began to rediscover the inherent values of open-minded, open-arms service to others, and decided that the "church is not a building...the church is its people". We've welcomed worshippers of all skin colors, all nationalities, and all backgrounds. We've made a conscious effort to becoming practicing worshippers without regard to one's sexual identifications, and we've tried in every way to maintain a devotion to the words of the Sermon on the Mount. It has been a refreshing journey; we've decided that our pastors will preach the Gospel and avoid preaching politics. No political divisions have arisen, but we have invited after-worship discussion of social needs or practices or governance policies on a regular basis. Our congregation is open to all, but does not subscribe to a commercialized version of outreach. We do, in fact, continue the missions outreach efforts that we have always followed, knowing that our calling is not to be measured in numbers of butts in the pews, but in what we can help to sustain outside our doors as well as inside them. And, yes, if one were to survey our congregations members, s/he would find that there remain some vestiges of old racism or old white privilege, but that these are not affecting our decisions. Thanks, John, for your writings and especially for today's column. We all have a long way to go, but we do believe strongly in 'building a longer table' where all are welcome.
Where is this congregation and how do I join!?
As Pastor Warnock (Sen. of GA) said when he was addressing the DNC, “Our vote is like a prayer”. This spoke to me; our vote is personal, just as our confession is personal. (More to come)
John, waking up to your beautiful but difficult words this Sunday morning is a true gift. I left organized religion in my 20’s owing to a lack of tolerance in every church I entered: one had to conform to the limited scope of behavior and beliefs epsoused by each or be shunned. I will keep sharing your work and maybe a few of those “Christians” still in my orbit will recognize themselves and be freed of their hatred and find thier way back to the light and love of the gospel. I no longer believe in Jesus, but I do believe in his teachings and in welcoming all, including those who are currently consumed by their hate and racism. Thank you my friend. I wish I had found your church 40 years ago.
I have stopped attending in person. The hypocrisy of the people attending is too much for me.
I think if these “Christians” only looked to what should be in their hearts as Christians. The gifts of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Taking this into account there is only one choice, and it is not the traitorous felon who is consumed with himself.
Thanks for your comment that included “disorienting”. I so identify with your description of what led up to my personal disorienting. I think it is very common amongst us clergy. And I am not a fundamentalist evangelical. I’m retired Ev. Lutheran Church in America who served in Ohio. Yet I was so dismayed and disoriented two years ago I was clinically depressed and decided to stay away from church. I felt like everything we boomers thought we had worked toward was a mirage. I’m back at it now after listening to lots of Diana Butler Bass and studying McLaren’s _Do I stay Christian?_. Thanks again for sharing your struggle.
Thank you for recommending Bass and McLaren; I will check them out.
You said exactly what I have been thinking since 2016 and very eloquently. It is astounding to me that half of America is this racist and small minded. A big wake up call. I belong to no religion and it is very easy to call them all hypocrites.
Sadly, I agree with you, Linda. We can only hope that the Harris/Walz platform of inclusion, joy and kindness will bring some...no, many of them back to the fold of compassion.
It’s not racist to prefer something you’ve grown up with over something else that’s different.
It’s not racist to be patriotic.
And It’s not racist or sexist to vote for a ‘White’ Male instead of a ‘Black’Female
Im Australian.
I get branded a ‘White’ Male.
I get told I owe the Aborigines an apology for what my ancestors did to them while taking the land away from them.
Facts are my ancestors were sent here as slaves and died while incarcerated in a pigsty jail.
It was the Royal family that were murdering the indigenous. It certainly wasn’t white men turning up on our shores to kill black people.
While at school I never witnessed proper racism. But I’ll tell you what I did notice.
Those Redhead kids copped it.
Big time.
America isn’t a racist country.
If it was racist then Obama wouldn’t have been elected.
Twice.
I’ll ask a question to everyone that reads my comment.
What is the most racist incident you have witnessed with your own eyes?
Most people answer similar things like “I heard my Grandfather call a Asian a ‘gook’”
That’s not nice nut it’s hardly a public lynching.
My observation is there isn’t large scale racism. You put 2 people of any race or colour in the street in a stressful situation and they will help each other.
And if historic racism was a thing why hasn’t there been a war Blacks Vs Whites?
Fact is more White males were killed in the battle to free the Slaves than in any other war.
Can one of you so called anti racist racists tell me how or why this would happen?
This is something we have known all along, but you expressed it with admirable force and eloquence, John. What you say is so very sad and so very hard -- but so very true. The Body of Christ has been grievously wounded -- and the wounds have not been inflicted by "secular humanism," LGBTQ people, Socialists, or any other bugaboos of the Right; in a stunning act of spiritual self-mutilation, the wounds have been inflicted by a noisy, angry minority of people who are part of that Body. This may be the American Church's last chance to have any credibility at all and begin to bind up those wounds, as well as the wounds of those outside the Church who have been lacerated by hate. I will join my prayers with yours.
I hope your prayers are answered. I’m not so sure we will get back any of the 40%.
Instead of reading, I decided to listen to your post this morning. It was like listening to a beautiful sermon. I've felt and seen that underlying bigotry all my life. It's everywhere. In some places it's closer to the surface than others. As much as I think us "baby boomers" fought to overcome it, it's still there to some degree in all of us - to be honest. I think we've done better with our children and hopefully, even better with theirs - not seeing color & difference. The country is so much more diverse these days than it was pre-2000. The diversity is so in keeping with what America is supposed to be about. I hope we can keep it going. But we'll have to overcome that "original sin" of bigotry against blacks that I believe is at the heart of it all and is so evident in Trump.
John, I'm not here to brag, but I saw this crap coming back in the 80s. Honestly, it seemed glaringly obvious to me. I was raised--steeped, actually--in Christian fundamentalism, and I fought it from my earliest memory of what it actually was, probably sometime in my late teens (late 70s). My so-called father, were he alive, would have utterly worshiped Donald Trump, and clear back in the 80s himself predicted a "race war, one that the whites will win and take this country back for good and for ever." He was an inveterate racist and bigot, a philandering drunk, a pathetic excuse of a man who beat and then abandoned his children and his terminally ill wife. In other words, a poster boy for Trumpism.
It is not possible to be a Trump supporter AND a moral human being. I post that statement at least once a day on YouTube, and the thousands of comments I have gotten back at this point tell a very tragic tale of an enormous number of Americans who have literally lost their souls to ... well, does it fucking matter? Whatever it is about Trump, about his vile movement, about the endless desire for revenge and power, that have grabbed these people ... take it from me, it's been festering a helluva lot longer than a decade.
I have literally lost every childhood "friend" I have had because of it. I put friend in quotes because they never were. When I refused to stick a Trump cow bell around my neck and moo around stupidly like they did, they walked away. But let me be clear: this was years and years *before* Trump. Understand: the American Christian Church, regardless of denomination, has shown itself to be critically morally compromised and weak. Thankfully, millions of American churchgoers are finally seeing the light, as it were, and, rightly and morally, leaving the church behind.
We stand at an existential precipice. Those high-and-mighty "friends," judging me as unworthy, as immoral, as weak ... wow. Talk about projection, yo. The thing is, morality does matter. Decency does matter. Kindness does matter. Inclusion and diversity are critical. It does take a village to raise a child. Well, how about that.
It doesn't take a prophet to see that or say that for common folk to live it, to know it in their bones, without or without that prophet in their lives. Period.
Get ready, because the awful bastards, seeing Harris pull ahead day by day, are going to pull out all the nasty stops they can to stop her, and us. It's going to get ugly, people. We need to be willing to jump into the stinking mud and go toe-to-toe with these jackweeds, because, without exaggeration, millions of lives literally depend on it, quite possibly yours and your children's.
“One of the main functions of organized religion is to protect people against a direct experience of God --Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion (CW11)”
White Christians choose to worship a mythology that will never bring them closer to love. Their Christian mythology exists for the sole purpose that they may never know love. It is their closet, the place they hide from authenticity and truth. It insures and protects their hearts from love’s indoctrination—it’s baptism. It makes certain they will never stop hating or evolving to saying “YES” to love. Therefore, as long as humans suck from the nipple of Christian mythology, their heart will remain uncircumcised and they will never ever know love—only hate. No matter how much our misguided and purely false hope in Christianity, prays and cries and demands Christians rise up with spine and goodness, proving Christianity actually works—that it is not merely a myth—that it is as real as my stubborn human faith says it is—that it is the champion of all that is right and true—it never has and it never will. As with Hitler and his good Christian German followers and now tRump and his good Christian American followers; the contemporary religious have always proven to be more in line, more comfortable with Fascism than Democracy, hate than love, inequality than equality, injustice than justice, war than peace.
Donald tRump’s dark energy and vile hate speech did not turn White Christians into hateful magets—NO—his narcissistic personality disorder is not to be blamed for turning good people into bad people. Hate is attracted to hate. It always has been. It always will be. As bad will always desire bad. And simply put—simply understood—White Christians have always been crusaders for hate—never for love—long before tRump came along…
We may think reality is too radical. That truth can or may be altered. That the laws of nature do not have the last say. That when we mock the Universe it goes unnoticed—it matters not. We may even be so bold as to deceive ourselves into believing it’s okay if we choose Inequality or Injustice over Equality and Justice. After all—who’s keeping score? But if we do—we are beyond gravely wrong. tRump didn’t come from nowhere. He was birthed in the Republican Party. The party that over the decades has proven it does not support the Constitution in regard to Freedom, Equality and Justice for all. Just like the Civil War didn’t come from nowhere—it too was birthed in a political party that did not prove to support the Constitution in regard to Freedom, Equality, and Justice for all. We as a Nation, and as a People have accepted and allowed and tolerated and worked overtime to normalize the fact that today we have American Citizens amongst us who do not and have never fully supported the Constitution in regard to Freedom, Equality, and Justice for all. And we call tRump and closeted Vance weird? I find it weird that Democrats and Republicans alike appear to deny the fact that Republicans are not for the Constitution in regard to Freedom, Equality, and Justice for all, AND yet carry on year after year pretending a persisting—never resolved issue—is okay—it’s normal—that we as a Nation are exempt from consequences that naturally arise from Slavery, Inequality, and Injustice. I find this form of National Denial weird! And to make matters weirder—we carry on expecting to be blessed—considering we win if our political party of choice wins an election. Meanwhile kids are killed in our schools, Americans live without healthcare, Corporate greed goes unchecked, etc., etc. And millions of humans abroad are slaughtered and raped because we the people can’t get our own country in alignment with love.
One of your best articles John. I enjoyed reading it. The people these days have had their conscience seared with a hot 🥵 iron. They know that’s is wrong to follow along with the likes of trump. They know it’s wrong to hate and they don’t care. I have heard that many people blame Putin for all the things going wrong in this country. Well from what I’ve seen, this country has always been this way. Like you said, it was below the surface. I always wondered why America was not in Armageddon. Now I know why. It will destroy itself from within.