Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Catholic and Enjoying It!

Home
Catholic
If You are Not Against Trump, You are for Him

If You are Not Against Trump, You are for Him

Last updated on: September 24, 2019 at 12:08 pm by Mark Shea

If You are Not Against Trump, You are for Him 2019-09-24T12:08:42-07:00 Mark Shea

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.

Stalin once remarked that one death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic. Our brains tend to zone out when deluged with information. Trump’s outrages are so numerous that it is hard to take them in. You get numb. So I will simply point to one tiny example of the ugliness of this pathetic little bully:

Image result for trump tweet thunberg

It is, in the grand scheme of things, a minor incident in his long career of bullying. But it gives us the measure of this puny little man. His puniness is everywhere: his jealousy because she is rightly nominated for a Nobel while he never will be; his repulsive use of his office as the most powerful man on earth to sneer at a 16 year old girl; and, of course, his eagerness to gin up a mob to do the same while adoring him like the toadies they are. As with every tweet, his cult fawn over his courage in beating up somebody infinitely less powerful than he, because he is the channel through which all their hatred, bitterness, resentment, and urge for vengeance is channelled.

It is that last point I want to address here. Trump is Trump and, barring a miracle, will not change. What has changed–radically and for the worse–is his audience of conservative Christian defenders. For as I have warned for years, the great danger of supporting this man was seduction. As Jesus said:

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mt 10:28).

There is only one person who can do that: you. God does not send us to hell. We send ourselves there. Jesus did not die to save us from his Father. He died to save us from sin. The gates of hell are barred from the inside.

The promise of the Christian Right was that they would “hold his feet to the fire” and bend him to their will. He was (they lied) a “baby Christian” and would learn righteousness under their wise guidance. Yes, and men of Gondor will never be corrupted by the Ring.

Instead, what has happened in spades is that conservative Christians have turned into Nazgul in their slavery to his every lie and cruelty. There is nothing they will not defend and there is very little left that they do not eagerly approve. Case in point: mockery of a child with autism.

It is evil–and seduced–to join this vile bully not only in mocking a child, but in making fun of her looks:

It is even more repellent to declare that anybody who disapproves of this ugly bullying has no sense of humor.

(Important Republican Rite Rule: When white conservative feels are hurt by the truth, however gently stated, the cry is for “civility” or the need for a “sense of humor.” When brown, poor, autistic, gay, mentally ill or right wing culture war enemies are obviously and wantonly insulted, the cry is “political correctness”.)

A reading from the Book of Proverbs:

Like a madman who throws firebrands,
arrows, and death,
is the man who deceives his neighbor
and says, “I am only joking!” (Pr 26:18–19).

Speaking of insulting her for autism, FOX reliably aired goon Michael Knowles to do that by calling her “mentally ill”.

Well, you know those secular conservatives. They play hardball. Yeah, about that:

Knowles was raised in the Catholic faith by his family, but had fallen away during his adolescence; while at Yale he experienced a reversion to the Church, spurred at first by ontological arguments.

Yet another “prolife faithful conservative” Republican Rite convert willing to spit on the dignity of the human person while hiding behind the unborn in the service of the god-king.

FOX apologized for Knowles and promised to never book him because he is a nobody. What they did not do was apologize for Laura Ingraham comparing an autistic girl to The Children of the Corn. Nor, I warrant, will we hear a peep from Raymond Arroyo for her disgusting mockery of autism. That fell to her brother:

Clearly my sister’s paycheck is more important than the world her three adopted kids will inherit. I can no longer apologize for a sibling who I no longer recognize. I can and will continue to call out the monstrous behavior and the bully commentary born out of anger. https://t.co/afrSuraQqt

— Curtis Ingraham (@CurtisIngraham1) September 24, 2019

And then, of course, there was the reliably disgusting convicted felon and adulterer Dinesh D’Souza:

Children—notably Nordic white girls with braids and red cheeks—were often used in Nazi propaganda. An old Goebbels technique! Looks like today’s progressive Left is still learning its game from an earlier Left in the 1930s pic.twitter.com/E4q2KZ526s

— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) September 22, 2019

Thunberg, meanwhile, was a class act, expertly trolling the Bully-in-Chief:

Image result for trump tweet thunberg

Now, before anybody speaks: stop. Is your first impulse to denounce–without qualification, excuse, deflection or denial–this ugly attack by immensely powerful bullies on a good-hearted child with autism who is doing her best to promote the common good?

Or do you feel an ungovernable impulse to excuse, deny, and even pile on? Do you want to rush past this ugly, ugly display of viciousness to a kid so that you can shout, “NO! THEM!”

Perhaps you tremble at the opportunity to call her a stooge or puppet (unlike the Holy Martyrs of Covington you passionately defended, still used to this day by the Right Wing Lie Machine).

Maybe you want to shriek something about how kids should not be allowed have political opinions in the public square (a conviction that utterly vanishes every time the pro-life movement marches on Washington).

Maybe you want to blast past the insults directed at her age, her looks, her autism, her alleged “mental illness” by some of the most powerful and vicious bullies in the world to wring your hands and cynically lie that you “care about her” and are oh-so-concerned about those who are “exploiting her”.

Maybe you long to just say, “Screw PC! I love comparing her to Nazis and making fun of her looks and her autism! I won’t be intimidated by you Bergoglio liberals! MAGA!”

Or perhaps you want to play the Wounded Card and ask why I am making a so-called “blanket condemnation” of all conservatives.

If you object to “blanket accusations” when I have mentioned no names except the Right Wing Lie Machine perps and the little bully boy they serve, then consider the possibility that you suffer from a guilty conscience. The solution is simple if you feel personally condemned by me: stop wearing the shoes you claim don’t fit you.

Here’s the deal: I don’t know you, gentle reader. What I condemn here is a behavior, not you. If you feel condemned, don’t blame me. I’ve never met you and don’t know you. But if you feel guilty because you support Trump with your silence, or excuses, or denials, or lies, or flat out defiance of the gospel and common decency, then good. You should. And then you should repent and believe in Jesus Christ by the only real means he accepts: obeying him.

“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’

“Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.” (Mt 7:21–27).

Uncategorized

Bullies

The Cult of Trump

Previous Post

September 24, 2019

How to deploy the unborn as human shields for the cruelty you love

Next Post

September 25, 2019 A Canadian reader is worried about some developments and has some questions

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month 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 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 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz