Burning Christians Illuminate Administration’s Immorality

Donald Trump can end his “Rip Families Apart” policy by calling his Attorney General and ordering him to stop.

There are at least two reasons he will not do this.

First, he likes the results. Dislike, if not hatred, of “other” people, especially those of a different skin color, seem to be embedded deep within his bones.

Second, he finds the children and their parents useful to him in a devilish sort of way. They are living and breathing human bargaining chips he can use both in his ongoing War Against Immigration and his drive to fund the border wall.

Jesus, while taking a child into his arms, once said, “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.” (Mark 9:36-37)

Unfortunately, instead of receiving children in any way remotely resembling Jesus’ desire, or in any other humane and moral manner, our nation’s leadership has embarked on another course.

They receive children in the name of a man who would do them harm and leave them at his mercy.

The result is that Trump has chosen to show “zero tolerance” to immigrant families appearing at the border even to present legitimate claims of asylum.

This means that our country rejects valid asylum claims that it has heretofore accepted. It also means that families are separated, with parents being jailed for subsequent prosecution and children being imprisoned for indefinite periods of time.

The latter results in our government taking children into custody and stashing them in an abandoned and now overcrowded Walmart facility located deep in South Texas.

While this facility is now licensed by the state of Texas, it is only approved to hold about 1100 people. Unfortunately, it now houses almost 1500 children ranging in age from 10-17. In addition, at least thirteen citations have been presented against the facility for inadequate conditions or services.

Meanwhile, as they move into federal jails and detention centers, these children and their parents join DACA recipients in an obscenely unjust pocket of Trump-imposed hell– pawns in his unholy, immoral fight against immigration.

Stunningly, Trump repeatedly brays out the lie that his “Rip Families Apart” policy actually is caused by a pre-existing law passed by Democrats, and that he can do nothing about it until the law is changed.

Rubbish. It is Trump’s policy designed to hurt people.

As such, these families not only are they bargaining chips but are also people the Orange One hurts in the hope that their misery will deter others from seeking asylum.

Shockingly, Attorney General Sessions looks on all of this and claims that it is part of God’s plan designed to bring law and order to the United States.

He even cites verses from Romans 13 to support his contention. In those verses, the Apostle Paul exhorts early Christians to submit peacefully to taxes imposed by the Roman Emperor Nero.

It is odd that Sessions uses this verses. However, he is likely unaware that some of the same Christians whom Paul counseled to honor the Roman government were destined to later become human torches illuminating the Roman night. They had been publicly dipped into tar and set ablaze pursuant to governmental policies set by Nero to discourage the practice of Christianity.

So much for that government’s “law and order” and lack of morality.

We are left to fight against those of our own.

Our Painful Election

Our presidential election faces voters with choosing between a knee to the groin or a right cross to the chin. Either are bad. (If you want to throw in the two major third party candidates, all are bad.) This morning’s news gives us the most recent examples about Trump and Hillary. as if we needed more.

The latest from WikiLeaks shows additional dishonesty, smarminess or questionable conduct (choose your preferred description or add one of your own) by the Clinton Foundation. The Washington Post story about is here. A report by Bloomberg News reveals, in addition to other questionable activities, an admission by the Trump campaign that they are actively trying to suppress voter turnout. That report is here. Both stories are based on the words of a staffer and not the candidate, but let’s not quibble over that. There is no way to avoid: the choices we have are bad and the worst since it least the 19th century.

Even if you disagree with that and love your candidate, whomever wins will have a difficult time governing because he or she will be considered illegitimate by about half of the country. Even worse, some Trump partisans hate Hillary and threaten violence if she wins.

hillary-nbc-1200-800The picture illustrates the hatred that hatred for Hillary that is within the hearts of some Trump supporters. It was taken at a Trump rally on October 27 and depicts Hillary being hung effigy. There are also Trump supporters who wear a t-shirt which features Hillary’s face as a target. And, of course, all Trump rallies include the infamous chant, “Lock her up!” All is over the top nasty.

For their part, although they neither have the hatred of Trump nor have promised violence if he wins, a good number of Hillary voters (maybe the clear majority) consider Trump to be a narcissistic, misogynistic, repugnant, bigoted, racist, sexist bully.  Full disclosure: I am one of these and will vote for Hillary– reluctantly.

The likeliest outcome of all of this is that irrespective of who wins our country is destined to suffer through additional turmoil and division for the foreseeable feature. What roles are Christian to play in this? More on that tomorrow.

 

Republicans Unite: #NeverTrump

Last night, the Donald again displayed the most important factor that disqualifies him from being president: given a choice between the best interests of the country and his self-interest, he will choose the latter every time.

His life has been devoted to himself. He has shown no ability or inclination to change that focus. A president needs to have the capacity to put the country first. He does not.

We most recently see this in his explicit threat to throw the country into turmoil over the election results (note that today, he did say he would not dispute the results, “if I win”). We have seen this in his lifelong pursuit of fame, fortune and celebrity. We even have seen in this election cycle in two new ways. First, in how easily his thin skin is pricked into absurd reactions, most notably his belaboring the “size of his hands” and vouching for the size of his penis. Second, last Spring during the Republican primaries, when he questioned the results of primaries that he lost.

Even good Republicans who quiver at the thought of another Clinton presidency need to wake up to this. They need to vote for Hillary. Do they want a self-centered egomaniac making decisions about war and peace when his foremost considerations as president will revolve around his ego?

Would he sell out allies if Putin stroked him around the ears? Would he use nukes if North Korea belittled him? Would he jail political opponents? Shut down press outlets? Deport American citizens?

We do not know how far his hubris might reach. We should not try and find out.