Lonesome Trump [Politics]

I have in mind two movies that I believe provide great reference points to what is taking place in our culture, especially in regards to the current Presidential election.

Years ago Andy Griffith starred in the movie "A Face in the Crowd". He played a character named "Lonesome Rhodes". Patricia Neal and Walter Matthew were also in the movie directed by Elia Kazan. Andy Griffith did an incredible job of acting. The movie is one of my all time favorites and the years haven't diminished its relevancy. If anything the message resonates even more. Though technology has changed how the delivery of an agenda is accomplished the human character traits remain very much the same. Griffith's character is finally undone by an open microphone where unbeknownst to him he is sharing his true feelings about people.

The other relevant movie to the subject matter of the Presidential election that comes to mind is "Hammersmith is Out" starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Peter Ustinov and Beau Bridges. Richard Burton plays a character that is insane, escapes from a mental institution and takes Beau Bridges' character to fame and fortune by being pathologically ruthless. Insanity not only rules but it works quite efficiently.

There are considerations that should be made of those that seek the office of President. What is their measure as a person? What do they value? What is their history? How does they treat human beings? Are they considerate? Are they rude? Do their actions live up to their words? Are they fair? Are they reasonable? The list of what we look for in a human being can and should be long, keeping in mind that they will fall short of our expectations. We are all fallible.

Character is important. In regards to character it's hard to come up with an appropriate descriptive representation of what Trump as a man embodies. Being an accomplished showman is perhaps one of his better characteristics. He is a legend in his own mind. Ask him. He isn’t shy. Though he is less than the sum of his parts he is much more than a cliché or stereotype. After hearing him speak I feel like I need to take a mental shower. It's like he has soiled himself intellectually and is darned proud of it. Trump manages to be a caricature of himself.  Money simply makes him a more dangerous Archie Bunker but not in any way endearing or funny. He is to politics and the Republican Party what the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is to religion. But unlike the character played by Griffith he isn't being undone by an open mic. His is an open mic. His history of abuse to people (rich, poor, average, wives, workers, women) is not only well documented but Trump revels in it and defends his questionable actions at every opportunity.

As much as I have enjoyed the Trump candidacy for President of the United States I've had enough.  The stuff that spews out of his mouth is both repellent yet fascinatingly entertaining at the same time. The truly sad part is that so many are called to him; that he's telling them what they want to hear because they already believe his message and are willing recipients. Trump speaks to that dark side of humanity that exists in all of us. While many struggle against that darkness others embrace it as their guide. Like the WBC, Trump speaks to the choir or at least a choir. Only Trump's choir is much larger. Therein the problem lies.

He is the quintessential schoolyard bully. No slight, real or imagined, goes unchallenged. Is this a man that should be Commander In Chief of our armed forces? Is this a man that should be in charge of our nuclear arsenal?

That so many in the Republican Party leadership and members would support such a vacuous deadbeat of a man as Trump is truly disheartening. And according to Mr. Trump not supporting him makes me stupid. He may indeed “win” the Republican Party but at what cost? He is not capable of winning the office of President.

We are going to end up with a choice to make and there isn’t always a “best” choice but rather the choice that we have before us. 

A soft closing [Life Story]

A soft closing

By Keith Thomas

        Way back when I was a teenager – and I mean that's waaaay back – my older brother Pat and I were out squirrel hunting in the woods someplace in Missouri. Our footsteps had taken us deep into the forest. I was stuck to Pat like glue. This was due to the fact that I have absolutely no sense of direction. You could drop Pat down anywhere and he automatically knew the points of the compass. If he'd had wings he could easily have migrated to Canada.

        At one point we came into a little clearing. There was a tiny old-fashioned white painted church smack in the middle. No electric lines. (Imagine church without amplifiers.) No parking lot. No roads leading in. Just paths in the woods. We noticed that there wasn't any glass in the windows. No broken glass on the ground either. The panes of glass had been completely removed.

        The door wasn't locked so we went inside. No broken glass inside either. As soon as we stepped in the door we realized that the church was still being used. Everything inside was neat and orderly. Hymnals were in their place in the pews. There was no trash strewn about. It was clean. There were probably 4 or 5 pews to each side. The place just seemed to be and felt sacred. We didn't even want to take a chance of getting dirt on the floor from our shoes. What a beautiful place to worship.

        Out in the middle of the woods like that they should have been safe. Safe from any upgrades. No worries about tearing the church down to build a bigger, better pew-packing church.

        I still think about that church and wonder. I know that the elements must have claimed the structure long ago. It's what the sun, wind, rain, snow and cold do. How long did that little congregation hold on? Was there a last person standing? Was there one last cost/benefit analysis? Did they have to deal with a church hierarchy and bureaucracy as their members died away or did they have a gently peaceful demise like a life well lived that ends during a last restful sleep? I would like to think that's the way they went; the way the door closed for the last time. Perhaps a white-haired couple that turned, said goodbye and walked off through the woods holding hands. A soft closing.

Unfortunate Circumstances [Culture]

Unfortunate Circumstances

by Keith Thomas

        I passed by a homeless person the other day. Just a snapshot out the window of a younger woman. Rail thin. Missing teeth. Dirty grey sweatshirt. Back pack on the ground beside her. Holding a cardboard sign. (It seems that the homeless and/or beggars always have access to magic markers.) The kind of appearance that can mean lazy drug user that doesn't bother taking the time to do their make up or a sign properly. I mean really if she could afford a magic marker did she really need to be on the street begging for money? She was working a lonely corner in the middle of the afternoon with limited marketing skills. There were way too many words on her sign to provide any kind of readability at a distance.

        An opening paragraph doesn't always signal where a story is leading. "Unfortunate Circumstances" seems like the wrong words for a title; but just as appearances can be deceiving there are clues as to the upcoming content.

        I acknowledge that we have freedom of speech with some limitation in this country but does hollering "Get a job!" ever serve any good purpose? I suppose there is the possibility that would be of help with earning a Masters degree in being a better asshole but it begs for retort escalation. "Be a better human!" Annnnnd we're off!

        For a couple of days I had been carrying around a twenty dollar bill meaning to put it towards a project that Shelley and I are working on. Holy Spirit kept telling me to hang onto that twenty. So I did. When I passed that corner, it was instantly made clear to me why. I couldn't stop so I went ahead and quickly tended to my errand. I came back to where she was, parked the truck and walked up to her.

       I offered to take her to a McDonalds that was close to get her a meal. She was wary and declined even though she said that she was hungry. It's dangerous being homeless. It's dangerous being homeless with a family. It can also be dangerous picking up a homeless person. I picked up a guy when I was younger and he tried to rob me. It happens. I had to get home since I'm a caregiver so I didn't have enough time to go get some food and bring it back to her. It was a stand-off.

        When I was in the Army I did a tour in Korea. There were lots of beggars in Korea. Any more it seems that there are lots of beggars everywhere. Beggars and homeless people. (Emphasis on people added.) Several of us were walking on a busy street in Seoul when we were surrounded by a bunch of beggar kids of all ages. I should also mention here that there were lots of talented thieves/pickpockets as well. I carried my wallet in my front pocket with my hand in my pocket wrapped it. Tight. Not much room. A little sweet-faced cherub, maybe eleven, got his hand in there too and somehow those nimble little fingers were able to pull bills out. He would pull out one bill and then go back in for another while his friends were checking out all the other pockets. A Korean businessman in a suit was walking by and took in the situation of GIs being victimized by children. He looked at the boy stealing money out of my pocket and punched him right square in the face--hard. I will never forget that he looked at me and smiled. Then he was gone and the kids were gone. It was like it never happened. Everyone was just swallowed up by the crowd.

       Segue back to my beggar du jour story. Was it a scam she was operating? If she was then the sad-eyed children she mentioned on her cardboard might have been helpful. (Once when I was growing up and we were coming back from visiting my grandparents, dad got caught in a small town speed trap. They actually took us to see the judge. After all it is America and we had the right to a speedy trial. My younger brother was just walking and he toddled over to the judge, crawled up into the judge's lap and called him grandpa. That didn't hurt dad's case.) So, back to begging in general, what kind of story would be worthy enough to be monetized? Does the quality of a life story need to be proportional to the donation being sought? Would references or documentation help in gaining larger amounts? I mean how good does a story have to be really for a dollar donation, a fiver or a ten spot? Time is money. Why spend ten minutes pouring out your heart for a dollar? That isn't really much of an ROI when a novelty sign can get that much. (I was in San Diego at the beach once and a guy had on a sign that said he would bark like a dog for a dollar. He didn't look like he was earning a living wage doing that but I don't know what kind of overhead he was dealing with. He may have been a creative writing drop out. His penmanship left a lot to be desired. How did he decide that there was a demand for the particular service that he was offering? It seems like there would have to be a first time that it worked. Perhaps it was a demand from a donor. Perhaps that should be the title:  "Will Bark Like a Dog for a Dollar.")

        If they ask for too little is there a risk in offending the wage giver as not being able afford more. "Do you think that I can't afford more than spare change?! How dare you?! I don't even carry change!"

        I don't ask for their stories. I don't need them. I'm not the arbiter of determining what constitutes a donation-worthy story. Besides they just make me sadder. When my wife worked at a hotel downtown there were drunk winos hiding out in the bathroom. They had really good stories and afflictions enough for several country western songs that they were than willing to share when being evicted from their new found domicile. If scamming as a self-employed entrepreneur is their job it certainly isn't a job that I would want to have. It isn't a job that's going to send their kids through college, provide health insurance or dental coverage. It isn't a job that's going to provide them quality of life.

        Quality of life. I had to go so I gave the woman the twenty that had been earmarked by Holy Spirit. She took it, looked at me and said, "Seriously." Perhaps that should have been the title. Perhaps my appearance in a T-shirt and ball cap didn't make me look like someone that could afford to give a twenty. I just told her that I was sorry that she had fallen on hard times. Oh yes, she thanked me too. It just poured out of her. Then she said to me, "God bless you." Think of that.

The Church of Just Us [Religion]

 

(11 minute read)

NOTE:  This will be familiar to some. I wrote this piece previously with references to the Duck Dynasty and Rev. Frank Schaeffer controversies. It was titled "The truth of our hearts". I have deleted those references in order to make it more generically applicable to the ongoing struggle of the Church v. Homosexuals.

What is the main purpose of the Christian faith? What comes first? Preaching to believers? The Bible? Doctrine? Theory? The Church? Rules? Punishment? Mercy? Wounding people? Compassion? Love? Salvation? Jesus? Helping others? Helping the less fortunate?

It seems to me that in order to bring people to salvation the church needs to reach out to unbelievers and believers as well, not drive them away from Christianity.

When it comes to dialogue about homosexuality, religious opponents find the most intolerant passages that there are in the Bible to cite as defense of their open ridicule. They wear these passages as badges of their disdain for the unworthy, the doomed. This open ridicule is part of the problem.

Is it justified? What is the second greatest commandment? Insult and ridicule thy neighbor?

Yes, people are entitled to their beliefs and behavior, Christian and non-Christian alike. But the rhetoric of intolerance and contempt doesn't just drive people away from “The Church”. That's a relatively small problem. The larger problem is that it drives people away from finding Jesus. Is that good? To drive people away from the possibility of salvation and a richer, more fulfilling life? Too often people stop at salvation as being the defining moment of their Christianity and don't apply the faith to how they live their lives, conduct themselves and interact with others.  Christianity by its very nature requires socializing with others and ministering to needs.

I think the Bible has to be a place that we turn to for guidance since it will be used as further justification as the foundation for arguments either way. Is it a useful resource in this regard? Do we single out a particular sin du jour and make that sin a foundational cornerstone of the faith or do we use love as that cornerstone, the foundation of our faith?

I'll say right here that the Bible is NOT the literal infallible word of God. (Get out the holy water, padre, there are demons to exorcise!) The paragraph below provides my justification for that statement. (If you have a Bible that is the infallible literal word of God--lucky you. BTW millions of Christians disagree with both you and me.)

We need to keep in mind that the New Testament did not exist in Jesus’ time and the whole Bible is an assembly of written words put together over the centuries.

I have several Bibles. My first Bible is the one that my Grandmother Thomas gave me. It's a King James Version (KJV) as is the second one I was given when I went into the service. The Gideons provided that little pocket Bible. My Aunt Lucille sent me a "Living Bible", a Bible in the language of the times as in "I'm telling it like it is." I also picked up a direct word for word translation of the King James into modern English from archaic English. Then I have my New American Standard (NASB) study Bible. I also have an English Standard Version (ESV). My phone has the New International Version (NIV). Shelley also bought me “The Message”. There are other versions as well. I think there are around fifty different versions used by the over 20,000 different sects of Christianity. There may be more. All of them are different and unique in how they represent the word of God. So in that sense the Bibles that we have can't really be considered the literal infallible word of God. I'm not a literalist. I'm not really a contextualist either but I do turn to the Bible for inspiration. Theologians argue over the various translations, words and what was said in the context of the times in often opposing views, including even the question of whether salvation, a basic tenant of the Christian faith, is permanent or has to be constantly renewed. The translation of ONE word can make all the difference. Is salvation as ephemeral as a wisp that hangs on the translation of one word? Seriously, we can't even agree on salvation.

WARNING! INAPPROPRIATE JOKE.

When I was growing up in the Southern Baptist church I heard jokes about Catholics that I believed were inappropriate then just as they are now. But I'm going to share one to illustrate my point.

The joke goes that there was this guy that died and went to heaven. St. Peter is showing the newbie around when a cloud with a wall around it catches the guy’s attention. "What's that?" he asks St. Peter, who replies, "Oh, that's the Catholics; they don't think anybody's up here but them."

Anybody can do good and lead an exemplary life. They don't have to be Christian to do that. They can be of any religion or none. So it seems to me that the main purpose of the Bible can't be that we should just do good unto others.

Rather than go through what all the Bible is and isn't I think we can just say that the main purpose of the Bible is to give us a platform from which we're supposed to bring people to the belief that there is a continuance after death, that they can be saved and have a desirable afterlife through Jesus Christ. What's more, we should practice and live our faith by helping others in order to have a fulfilling purposeful Christian life.

So back to my question: Why the inflexibility against homosexuality? Why all the vitriol directed their way? It's one thing to deny rights in the religious sector and quite another to deny a person rights in the secular world. What non-believers see and are subjected to is Christians imposing their religious views in the secular world.

My wife and I, both previously divorced, were married in the Presbyterian Church without disapproval. (Obviously we're not Catholic.) The Bible is clearly against divorce and adultery. Violently so in some instances. So, by allowing us to be married in the church, isn't the church, using one of the same arguments used against gay marriage, therefore condoning our “lifestyle”? But even the Catholic Faith has numerous loopholes to their prohibition to marriages outside the faith and between divorced people.

Our marriage is considered legal in this country because the state provided certification and approved the “union”. A marriage performed by the church would not be recognized by the state until the proper government paperwork is done. (Even on this point the state is willing in some cases to be flexible and will recognize "common law" marriage for certain purposes.) Lastly, a marriage will be recognized as legal if there's no religious involvement at all.

Religious people could certainly find plenty of passages in the Bible about divorce to use against us. But my wife and I have not been ostracized from the church we attend now because we were previously married and then divorced, and our 25 year vow renewal was held at the church we currently attend. No one held our previous status of being divorced against us. No rocks were thrown. (Good thing too. I don't run very fast any more.) If churches came out against divorced people they would empty out their congregations pretty quickly.

Why not rail against women for not being submissive?

"A woman should learn quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man."

1 Timothy 2:11-12

Most churches (though not all) lay Timothy aside just as other sections of the Bible are laid aside like several from Leviticus (such as prohibitions against certain foods and fabrics and what-have-you).

The constant disparagement of homosexuals not only drives them away from the church and Christianity but many times from their friends and family as well. It sends the message certain kinds of people are not welcome and all too often unbelievers in general feel that they are in this category. This is just the opposite of the way it should be. So why do it? They just might be in need of the word and love of our Savior.

Then to add insult to injury, some churches oppose gay people having rights in the secular world as well so that the government can punish them in ways unavailable to the church.

Decades ago I left the church because of all the hypocrisy, hate and intolerance expressed by so many. After my four year hitch in the Army I tried again attending a home town church. I had let my hair grow out and qualified as a "long-haired hippie". The pastor just happened to give a service that morning vilifying hippies and their (my) immorality in general. I was a tee-totaling vegetarian at the time and did not do drugs. As I left, not to return to a church for several decades, I was thinking that the time would come when long-hairs would be welcomed and desperately needed to support and continue the church. I pass by that church now on Sunday morning and there will only be a half dozen cars in their parking lot. How many souls might they have saved if they had reached out instead of driving people away?

Look around your church at the congregation. Who is missing?

Now we're getting to the heart of the matter. It's easy to bully homosexuals because they're a minority. Gay people realize that "love the sinner hate the sin" is bullshit. It's Christian code for “your kind isn't welcome here” any more than hippies were back in my time or divorcés in another or black people in another.

It occurs to me that hymns and praise music are not hateful or degrading to any specific group of people. I have never heard praise music in a church condemning, say, divorcés. Praise music is invitational and/or an inspirational call to worship. It's "Come, ALL ye faithful." Not ALL except for unwed mothers, the addicted, homeless, homosexuals, you know--different people.

There's an easy way for churches to handle this. First ask congregations:

• Are white people welcome?
• Are stinky people welcome?
• Are unwed mothers welcome?
• Are black people welcome?
• Are ugly people welcome?
• Are people of color welcome?
• Are journalists welcome?
• Are people of a certain political party welcome?
• Are fat people welcome?
• Are the infirm welcome?
• Are people of color welcome?
• Are divorcés welcome?
• Are women welcome?
• Are sinners welcome?
• Are women with their heads uncovered welcome?
• Are unbelievers welcome?
• Are people that curse welcome?
• Are illegal immigrants welcome?
• Are pedophiles welcome?
• Are the sick welcome?
• Are adulterers welcome?
• Are prostitutes welcome?
• Are addicts welcome?
• Are the poor welcome?
• Are the rich welcome?
• Are the out of work welcome?
• Are the homeless welcome?
• Are criminals welcome?
• Are other faiths welcome?
• Are those without hope welcome?

Really; give a lot of thought to the list and make yours as comprehensive as possible so that you don't have to go through this again. Also keep in mind that some people may fit into several different categories. In other words, poor people may be welcome unless they happen to be stinky as well. Then let people decide if there are some that are welcome but with certain restrictions, like women not being able to hold leadership positions.

Then, after congregations decide who is acceptable, they can proudly post a list at the entrance of their place of worship of those that aren't welcome and those that are welcome but with certain restrictions. Get it right out there in the open so that people can know before they ever darken the door, listen to a sermon, crack a book or find salvation. This will save them from being surprised later on.

So in the end, what defines us, I believe, is the love that resides in the truth of our hearts.  In the indefinable, unexplainable language that is love. The kind of love that Jesus talked about. The love that brings hope and salvation. The kind of love that we're commanded to give in Matthew 22: 37-40 (KJV). I think this scripture makes for the perfect closing.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

            Now there’s a passage that is surely the same regardless of the translation.

UPDATE, 2/27/19

This essay was written in 2014. The UMC church we were attending had a schism over the issue of homosexuality in 2015. That UMC church no longer exists.