(3.3-minute read)
In the beginning.
It started during the 2016 election.
For me it started with people of the faith lying. It isn’t that we don’t lie, we do. It’s a human frailty. Call me naïve but I used to think that the majority of people of the faith and otherwise try to do better.
It was of all things a political ad that really hammered the point in for me.
Lying
Perhaps you remember the ad. It was the one done after Pence had debated Kaine. During the debate Kaine would say that Pence had said something and then Pence would deny saying it. Here’s a link about the ad. The ad starts at 37 seconds into the video.
Pence is one of those super-duper religious guys that the Evangelical Party loves. Watching him blatantly lie like that was shocking but I didn’t need the ad. I could remember him having said the things that he denied. That was sad. It turned out to be just the beginning.
We had already seen during the
primaries that Trump at best had a flexible relationship with the truth. That hasn’t
changed during his term in office. To watch him talk is to see him lie. That’s
putting it mildly. He’s a pathological liar. Lying is like breathing for him.
He has to do it. He doesn’t have to work at it. It’s his nature. It’s his
character.
His devotees embrace this quality.
Racism
I said to a friend after the 2016 election that I truly did not realized the depth of racism in this country. It was deep and it was obvious. It has only become more so. In a way it’s a good thing because at least now it’s out in the open.
An early clue to the public about Trump’s base of support and ideology came early on. Racist groups fell over themselves to endorse his candidacy. Throughout his term Trump has played to this base and enabled them, from his calling some racist Nazis very fine people to his undeclared war on people of color. Whatever happened to all those marauding bands of brown people anyway? They were at our door! Coming to rape white women! Did the mighty draft dodger Trump stop them?
They never were there.
He has had more White Supremacists serving his administration than any other President in modern time. President Nixon would probably come close but racism wasn’t really in vogue then so White Supremacists were still staying in the shadows. Unlike today.
Having studied Trump during his gambling days I already knew that he was a racist.
And yes there are People of Color (POC) supporting him and Trump enablers that have black friends. That really isn’t a surprise or anything new. Kings will always have their loving serfs. Just like Trump loves Kim Jong Un.
Hypocrisy.
The level of hypocrisy of the Republican Party in so many areas has been astounding. This would be too many thousands of words to list the one hundred eighty degrees that Republicans have switched on their supposed values.
During the Republican primaries of the 2016 election the candidates were quite specific about the evil that Trump was. What he has done as President has verified what they maintained. He didn’t pivot. He didn’t change.
They did.
The saddest
What makes me absolutely the saddest though is to see men and women pastors of the Christian faith pushing a political agenda that is getting people killed and bringing lifetimes of illnesses to others. To see them openly supporting such an evil, venal man and encouraging others to do the same is really blaspheming the faith. They have presented a false prophet and named him The Chosen One.
They are the minority of the faith
yet doing damage that far exceeds their numbers. Jesus will forgive them just
as he will forgive us all.
Will the rest of society?