Possibly my last post on the Kavanaugh controversy (Hallelujah!)

Last updated on: October 6, 2018 at 12:19 pm by Dan Peterson

Possibly my last post on the Kavanaugh controversy (Hallelujah!) 2018-10-06T12:19:04-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC (Wikimedia Commons)

I have not often been an enthusiastic fan of Susan Collins (R-ME). But I am today:

“Kavanaugh fight: Susan Collins stands up to Democratic bullies and becomes a profile in courage”

If you have the time and the interest, listen to her speech on the floor of the Senate. It is a model of reasoned discourse on a matter of deep public political concern.

***

I also like this statement from Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), which was kindly brought to my attention by my friend and very kind neighbor Tom Pittman:

https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=E4121F3B-AD4F-408B-B08B-6A48EBDE41AB

For what it’s worth, Marco Rubio was my preferred candidate during the Republican presidential primaries in 2016, and, back in 2012, I was hoping for a Romney-Rubio presidential ticket.

***

The battle over the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States has been an ugly and a divisive one, a terrible little chapter in the history of our nation. It will certainly not fade away soon, and will probably never altogether do so during the lives of those who are now adults.

I know this ugliness personally. I’ve tried to avoid contributing to it myself. Still, insignificant as I am in this matter, I’ve received some exceedingly nasty comments and have been harshly maligned for my stance on the matter at various places on the Web. I receive vicious anonymous emails on most days for my religious views, and, for my defense of the Restoration, am demonized on more websites than I can count. But some of the recent attacks have been politically motivated.

Fortunately, I have a thick skin. Or, if you prefer, I lack empathy, am impervious to reason, and am past feeling. Some of those who write to me — and some who have written to me several times each week for many years now — would, I think, be both shocked and deeply disappointed to realize how little their attempts to wound me actually hurt. On the whole, I simply find them very, very odd.

Some such folks are, probably, pretty much beyond fixing. I can’t imagine what sort of curious personality defects would motivate a person to email anonymous obscene insults to somebody else for the better part of a decade. It just seems unfathomably weird to me, and, frankly, not very interesting.

“If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how — the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what’s said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.” The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House by Francis B. Carpenter (Lincoln, Nebraska, University of Nebraska Press, 1995), pp. 258-259.

But normal, decent people must now work hard to prevent our society from sinking deeper still into the horrifying kind of political discourse — if we dare call it that — that has engulfed Washington DC during the Kavanaugh hearings.

Abraham Lincoln led this nation through a crisis that was considerably worse than that occasioned by the Brett Kavanaugh nomination.

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.

That is what he said. That is what Abraham Lincoln said.

Posted from Park City, Utah

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 6, 2018

Some interesting little items from the Book of Mormon

Next Post

October 6, 2018 Into the woods

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Peter Paul James Jesus