Here’s where I stand on the election.
If you were talking honestly and sincerely to a grandson
about what Christian virtues of Donald Trump you would like him to emulate, I’m
confident you couldn’t find any. Not one.* But you could find a dozen strongly un-Christian
behaviors and traits you’d want an impressionable young man to reject. Of
course, if you were talking to a granddaughter, it would be simpler. You’d simply advise her to stay as far away as possible from Trump and men like him.
The stories you and others cited about Hillary Clinton as
serial murderer or tool of Iran have been thoroughly debunked as fabrications.
These mostly came from a small town in Macedonia where people creating Facebook
web ads discovered that American conservatives would click on anything anti-Clinton
(and would further prove their gullibility by lingering on the site to buy fake
Viagra, magic health pills, etc.). There's also strong evidence that Russia helped in this effort.
If there was any substance to these phony news stories,
Republican legislators would have investigated and Republican prosecutors would
have indicted. But that hasn’t and won’t happen. Just like Trump’s unqualified
statements that he had “absolute proof” that Obama wasn’t born in the US, the
lies have served their purpose and will quickly fade back into the darkness
they came from.
Hypocrisy is the common thread connecting conservative
Republicans’ past and future.
When the Catholic bishops urge respect for the sanctity and
dignity of life in the context of protection of the unborn, Republicans step
forward and produce legislation that, among other things, forces all people to live
according to laws set by the bishops and their evangelical colleagues – even if
the affected people belong to religions that have a different view of when life
begins. And even if saving the unborn threatens the life of the mother.**
But, when the bishops speak out about the sanctity and
dignity of life in the context of the life-sustaining impact of affordable
health care and the integrity of immigrant families, the Republicans will
again, as they have in the past, tell the bishops to shut up and mind their own
business. The bishops should back off, Republicans will say, because dignity
and sanctity in this case is about politics, not religion, and the most
important thing is to save a few bucks in taxes.
This is deep moral hypocrisy and why the Republican party my
ancestors revered as a bastion of American values has now become the heart of
evil.
So, again, my anger and depression about the election isn’t
about taxes or regulations. It’s about the systematic rationalization of anti-Christian
values.
Garry
*I
wouldn’t include being pro-life as a virtue. Trump was pro-choice until late in
life when he chose to run as a Republican. That’s when he changed. Reconstructing
your professed principles based on cynical calculation about personal
advancement isn’t a Christian virtue.
** Using the power of government to force others to adhere to your religious beliefs is the most un-American thing possible. This practice of imposing religion via government is the reason many of the nation’s founders fled Europe. And no, you can’t explain it away with a pretense that you’re not forcing religion but instead supporting “natural law.” A belief, such as one about the personhood of the unborn, can’t by definition be natural law if important religions don’t accept it. True natural law is accepted by all thinking people without challenge. Even a child could see through the circular, assumption-filled logic employed by those who want to describe their religious beliefs as inarguably “natural” even if others with equal moral commitment disagree with them.
