Biden the Kind

Tonight was the town hall meeting which were supposed to be the second presidential debate in a series of three supervised by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Due to a rule change which made the debates by web, Trump declined to participate. As may suspected, if he was not allowed to interrupt, overrun his time, insult, and pressure his opponent, he was not interested.

So the Presidential Debates were actually two dueling town hall meetings at the same time at different locations on different channels. We tuned in to the Biden Town Hall because we have been exposed to too much of the Trump experience. Somehow we figured the time wrong and only got in on the last 1 hour of the two hour debate. In that one hour, I was deeply encouraged about him, our nation, and our future.

Joe Biden is a neighbor, a friend, a kind and caring person who has spent his years in public service because for him it was the right thing to do. He has “the common touch.” It is not pretense, but genuine. He is a man touched by the human experience of loss and deep grief, and yet with his faith, found the courage to go on and be a single father to his two sons after his wife and daughter died in a tragic car accident. Biden did not enter the 2016 election race because it was too close to the loss of his son Beau with cancer.

Biden is simply a man who has served and learned. He has made mistakes as a congressman and repented of those owning the error and apologizing for those mistakes. I like that because I too have made great mistakes in my life and they grieve me. He has been man enough to own those, repent of those, and move on.

Biden is a kind man. I saw it again tonight. He responded to each with thoughtfulness, and ownership of his position. He was not attacking or condescending. He did not belittle the questioner or the question.

Biden is a recovered stutterer. One of the tactics of Trump in the first debate was to pressure Biden in such a way he would stutter. However, tonight, in this forum, Biden was in his element.

I must say, I am drawn to the humble man, the honest man, the man who speaks my language, and does not belittle my question or my concern. I have never seen Biden be combative, but I have seen him addressing all, respecting all, and responding to all.

While I freely recognize he may not be the strongest of candidates; after the debacle of Trump and his arrogance, anyone would be better.

I believe that Joe Biden will surround himself with the smartest people in this country especially those who have given their lives to protecting this nation. He will listen, decide and then act.

That would be a revolutionary change from our last four years of arrogant ignorance.

 

Missing The Point

Today in worship, I helped by running the “jib camera” in both services.

Such service makes it a little difficult to enter the praise part of worship because I am focused on operating a camera so that others can enjoy the streaming of the service. During these times of service, I am reminded the mind can focus on only one subject. People who believe they are able to “multi-task” are generally referring to the ability to do something from rote, while thinking of something else. My wife Anna is a great example of that skill. She can sit on the couch, fold clothes and watch TV with me. Actually, we can only successfully focus on one thing.

However, after the praise part of worship is over, I get to sit down and listen to the message and I am blessed to get to hear it twice. Our lead pastor(read Senior Pastor) Keith Ferguson is preaching through the book of Revelation. It has been a powerful series. Today, we looked at the letters to Sardis and Philadelphia. What the Spirit hammered into me was the message that believers can become cold and indifferent to the movement of the Spirit in our midst.

I was convicted.

I have struggled with a lifetime of trying to establish a consistent reading of Scripture and ongoing prayer time. The deficiency has been in that all important area of “discipline.” Every believer struggles with that important discipline of spending time alone with the Word of God and with God. I learned a valuable lesson from my pastor who had a study apart from his office where he retreated to pray, study, read and prepare his messages. I was able to do that in three of the four churches I served. Moving into another realm of ministry made the discipline more difficult. Today, I was convicted of the lack of progress in my own life and the impact that has had on my overall spiritual well being.

I also got a deep, profound insight into the plight of the white evangelical religious right in America.

Let me try to put into words what I took away from the pastor's message today. Two words actually: coldness and indifference toward what God's heart rests upon.

Pharisees have always intrigued me because in the “study” of the law, they were flawless, without fault. In fact, it was not unusual for a Pharisee to have memorized significant portions of the law of God, the prophets, the history, and the wisdom literature. Some could even tell you how many times an alphabetic character appeared in something like the book of Isaiah. Yet, for all that wisdom, knowledge, and obedience, they missed the point of all they learned, memorized, and studied.

That is the plight of the American evangelical church.

We have missed the point. The crowds gather, the preachers preach, and still our hearts are not in sync with the heart of God. I felt the weight of that today.

That insight weighed heavy on my heart as this message burned in me. We are not really on board with Christ in the way He looked at people for whom He died. Our compassion has been constricted to our success and safety within our borders and some notion that compassion and justice somehow diminishes us.

Then I began to think(always dangerous territory for me). Would the Christ who gave his life as a ransom for the many really be pleased with allowing children and parents fleeing from danger to be separated from their parents and while putting both in cages? I can't help but think of my grand girls and their parents. How would I feel about a flight to safety that ends in a cruel imprisonment in cages separated from their parents? Where was the outrage from believers in America? Would the God who loved the world enough to send His only son into the world to save sinners, approve of our closing our borders to those fleeing oppression and violence? Where was the outrage from believers who understand the need for safety and the safety of our children? Would the Gospel of Christ leveling all men and women at the foot of the cross be pleased with an informal but powerful caste system in America where some are more valuable than others? Does Jesus really approve of marking Black men and women as targets of concern and over and over again stopping them for no apparent reason than they are black? I have been stopped by law enforcement only five times in my adult life. Each time was about speeding. Three times resulted in warnings, two in tickets. Nothing more. There was no disrespect, no searches of the automobile, no intrusions or disrespect.

Would Jesus approve of our cavalier approach to our treatment of those suffering serious mental illnesses finding themselves in prison primarily because they are mentally ill? Would the God who called on His people to “love justice and do mercy,” (Micah 6:8) really be pleased with the disparity in the prison population between Black offenders and white offenders, and sadly in our criminal justice system where influence and money is everything and poverty and mental illness is punished?

Would Jesus be pleased that an unusual number of black persons shot and killed by law enforcement whose only crimes at the end seemed to be “being Black.”

Sadly for many of the evangelical religious right, it is all about protecting our privilege, our possessions, our status than it is about justice for all!

As I grow older, I am more and more convinced the one debt our Founding Fathers owe is that the promise of freedom for all, equal treatment under the law, and the inalienable rights for all.

It still remains an unfulfilled dream.

However, the debt has come due. It is time, believers push this issue until all are treated as each, where color is no limitation, when origin is no barrier, and where all can believe and receive equal treatment by law enforcement and the justice system.

Wash your hands, wear your mask for others, mind the gap and be kind.

 

Bait and Switch

Bait and Switch is the name of the game.

As the world comes crashing down around Trump and his administration, those folks who voted for Trump in 2016 and consider themselves evangelical believers are pivoting to say they are electing the platform, not the person.

Ok, I will bite.

The MAGA movement, the Trump rallies, the cult of believing only him about his take on the world, the press, and his great achievements—were just about a platform. The crowds were about a platform. The rabid cult-like obedience was never about him, DJT, because well, that would be wrong or at the worst idolatry. Funny, now, it is wrong but not back in 2015 up to the disastrous present which has largely been created by an immoral, incompetent, corrupt president.

This election season it is about “the platform.” Most of all that platform supposedly is “pro life.”

And you can say that with a straight face while 215,00 people have died unnecessarily in America from covid. You say that when millions of wage earners have lost their jobs and cannot collect unemployment. You say that while you are attempting to remove pre-existing conditions from health care coverage while limiting health care insurance for millions who are uninsured.

Yea, that is truly believable. However, this election season, Trump and his Republicans don't have a new platform but rather are basically rubber stamping the disastrous “America First” positions from Trump's 2016 race. Disastrous because it has facilitated a world in turmoil, the United States withdrawing from its key leadership position among like minded democratic nations, unhealthy fixations with dictators and their regimes, as well as careless disregard for our men and women in service around the world. The Trump administration has been silent on the Putin bounty on dead American soldiers. However, Trump has spoken of those who died in the service of this nation as “suckers and losers.”

So that is the platform coming into this November election.

In the world of politics, of philosophies, of world views, of economics, of histories, even psychology, and medicine, there is room for people to have their personal and preferred opinions. It is a little different in the world of the Christian faith.

The options narrow.

Either the Scriptures are authoritative and accurate or they are not. If they are authoritative things narrow even more. There can be diverse understanding of key theological truths, key doctrines, and key teachings, but rarely is there a disagreement about ethics for ourselves, others in the fellowship and how we related to a lost and dying world. In fact, my experience is there is more agreement on the moral imperatives of our faith than any other facet of the Christian religion.

However, it is precisely these moral imperatives of our faith expressed in teaching after teaching of Jesus that seems to be the most ignored. What does Jesus teach about children—very young children? Is Christ in agreement with separating these children from their parents in a strange land and putting them in cages? What does Jesus teach about the foreigner who comes to our land? What does Jesus teach about the value of a human life? And on and on we could go. Nearly every action this administration has spoken about or acted on toward Blacks, Hispanics, women, immigrants offends the heart of God.

The very “America First” is an affront to the Gospel which points out the Kingdom Rule “the first will be last and the last will be first.” (Matthew 20:16) There are some of us who believe the progress, the favor, the affluence of America has been the result of our national will to be last fueled by a vital Christian Church who implemented that teaching of Jesus. That is why we have had a heart for the world, the hurting world, no matter what the politics of that nation. So, when tsunamis devastated nations, you could always count on the US to be one of the first onsite with aid. Hurricanes, the same, floods the same, earthquakes the same. While we were as a nation affluent enough to respond to our own domestic crises, we were generous with others, really expecting little in return. But in return, we had a world wide good will toward the American people. Even in these days of “holy war,” “international terrorism,” the rise of radical Islamic groups, America has been generally been well thought of—until now.

With that good will, has been a credible platform for the Gospel to leverage a hearing around the world.

An unspoken or referenced willingness to host American missionaries is the reputation of the US as being a compassionate and giving nation.

However, after the debacle of four years of Trump, the world looks with pity on a once great and gracious nation because of our Republican platform? Not exactly.

Rather it is because of a significant number of voters who felt disenfranchised from their federal government and with that frustration elected a deeply flawed, mentally unstable man who has single handily wrecked two hundred and forty four years in the making. Sowing fear, selfishness, and division, he may well bring an end to the American experience. With that decline will also go the evangelical church. Not because the platform was flawed which it was, but because the person who made the platform was deeply flawed. And the people who embraced such a candidate and platform were selfish.

Wash your hands, wear your mask for others, mind the gap, and be kind.

 

Trump on Steroids

How many warnings does one nation need?

That is a vital, relevant, and pressing question for our nation right now. How many warnings does one nation need?

Folks who live on the Gulf coast routinely listen to weather casters from June through October monitoring storms in the Gulf or along the Atlantic. I remember my first hurricane in 2008 after we had relocated to Livingston, Texas to allow Anna to help with the care of her mother. I believe I will always remember the name of that storm. It has been branded if you will into my memory. Hurricane Ike left us without power for five days, sultry humidity, downed trees, and power lines. In our 11 years in that community we had only one other hurricane, Harvey. It did substantial damage to the area.

People learned to listen to the experts and then make decisions on the best advice they could get.

Sadly, tragically that has not been true for the last five years in the national life of the United States. A year before the presidential election, in 2015 a book hit the market called “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” It was a compilation from 37 mental health experts on the psychological and psychiatric issues of then candidate Donald J Trump. He went on to be elected to the White House. As one person communicated to me, “He is just what this country needs.” I would not say I am an “expert” in mental health assessing especially from a distance, but as one of my sons says, “I can recognize when someone is a little whacky in the wicky woo.” 37 Mental Health clinicians drew the same conclusion. Not enough people heeded their warning.

Michael Wolff gave us an inside look at the Trump White House in “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.” Many more books would come out, editorials penned by people close to the situation, an unprecedented book by Anonymous entitled “A Warning.” Bob Woodward gave us “Fear,” and “Rage” where Trump tells us he knew all along how dangerous Covid was but chose to keep that information from the people of the United States.

Most recently two other warning have been fired across the bow of our ship of state, by scientists and doctors. Scientific American for the first time in many years endorsed Joe Biden because of the utter failure of DJT and his rejection of science and what that has brought down on the heads of the American people, our economy, our culture, our businesses, and our families.

Then, in a spectacular move, the New England Journal of Medicine, published an editorial signed by all members of the editorial board to vote out the leadership of the nation. Not endorsing any person or party, it simply said our leadership had failed us and they needed to be removed from public office and leadership. Go here(https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/08/science-journal-endorsement-trump/)

So I ask you, “How many warnings does one nation need?”

Seven warnings but really more have given us the truth about this president, his mental instability, and his incompetence not just with Covid but really with everything. His narrative about being a successful businessman has been proven to be false by his tax returns. His narrative of being a great deal maker has been proven false by the “deals” he touts as being great steps. His breaking of treaties has made this world an unsafer place, and he has alienated our allies while drawing us closer to our historic enemies.

So, “how many warning does one nation need?” 

The President has emerged from his hospital stay less chastened but more irrational. He is literally “Trump on steroids,” which is never a good thing. “Trump as Trump,” was bad enough, but his irrationality, and behavior is even more bizarre, as he tries to pick up the pieces of his flagging and tattered re-election campaign.

So again I ask, “How many warning does a nation need?” 

Thoughts on Law Enforcement

Thoughts on Law enforcement in 2020

Law enforcement: both local police and sheriff deputies has come to be the focus of protests and sadly some rioting by lawless thugs whose use peaceful protests to mask their robbing, damaging, burning, and attempts to hurt individual police officers.

Additionally, Black men and women tell similar, sad, but consistent stories about being pulled over by law enforcement and detailed having to find out why they were pulled over and why they are being subjected to a traffic stop when they have done nothing wrong. For some men, they have lost count of how many times they have been stopped and questioned without reason.

Law enforcement in America is different than law enforcement in other places around the world. Some years ago, I was in and out of a South American country over a period of ten years where “Federales” had more presence than local police. Other nations have police which are the rule keepers of the King, or the Dictator. They are an extension of his power.

America has largely chosen a different path. In fact, in the United States, all law enforcement whether police, Sheriff's Officers, Constables, State Police, the FBI, and the National Guard have what is called “conferred” authority. That word “conferred” is essential to understanding the authority of law enforcement in this nation.

That is a significant statement because these groups of law enforcement do not have an inherent or intrinsic authority. The person who picks up a lost badge of a law enforcement officer does not possess any authority associated with that badge.

This is foundational truth as we consider law enforcement today. When authority is conferred, the question is “Who conferred that authority to those who represent the law in communities, counties, state and nation?”

The answer is simply, “We the people.” The further one moves away from a local community the larger the “We” becomes. We have police departments in communities throughout the nation because communities have come together to confer authority to a certain agency to protect, serve, and defend the whole community without bias and without bullying. The White community, the Black community, the Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern and other residents of the community depend on a diligent, courteous, and well trained law enforcement agency to enforce the community standards by which the community is providing ongoing input about needs and changes. It is that covenant between citizens that makes a community work. Such covenant says: “We want safe traffic laws and compliance; We want safety in our homes and businesses; We want gatherings to be safe and meeting community standards for such activities. That last one may be one of the most pressing at this time. We want law enforcement which reflects the values of our cultures within the community. We want from our law enforcement, respect to all, cooperation with all, justice for all. I am a very small voice in an area that has 400,000+ residents but I expect all to be treated respectfully and evenly. That is what sets the standard for “conferred authority” from me. The larger the area, the more people who participate in the conferring of authority. In the past, law enforcement in the South has been hampered by a select “we” which resulted in an unfair, skewed caste system with favoritism for some and no justice or rights for others.

When we speak of the “rule of law” we are speaking about a covenant between citizens and law enforcement that stresses a competence in what the law is, how it is applied to all, and how interaction with law enforcement will look like. The best law enforcement agencies have that standard. These agencies are “color blind, blind to ethnicity, or any other handle by which we classify or discriminate against others.

The second reality, which is huge, of modern day law enforcement is the profoundly sad refusal of our nation to control the weapons of war flooding our streets. First organized in Philadelphia in 1964, specially recruited 100 member team called Special Weapons and Tactics was formed because of a significant increase in bank robberies and in the process finding themselves seriously outgunned. From that first SWAT has grown a movement to a team in many cities and counties. With the exacerbating number of school shooting most memorialized in the Columbine shooting in 1999, we began to see a different method of dealing with shooters. Columbine was not the first school shooting in America, go here: (https://www.k12academics.com/school-shootings/history-school-shootings-united-states) but law enforcement procedures for protecting students and law enforcement escalated from wounding to “neutralizing” which basically meant killing with overwhelming certainty. With the additional fire power available to the local law enforcement officer, numerous shots could be placed into the suspect to guarantee the suspect was no longer a threat. I am not sure this has ever been fully discussed in the media or by law enforcement agencies but that really is why a suspect is shot “seven times.” The old days of wounding, disarming, and arresting suspects is long gone. It is literally too dangerous. Even with the shift in policy, there are still a lot of law enforcement deaths in the line of duty. Go here: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_enforcement_officers_killed_in_the_line_of_duty_in_the_United_States) Such numbers may not seem like a lot unless you are a family member of a law enforcement officer.

The other factor which is huge to me, is the lack of understanding of mental health crises when law enforcement responds to a call without knowledge from the family the person has a severe mental illness, not taking their medication, and not having that information comes into a situation which is far more complicated than a “hostage taking” or a shooter cornered following a robbery or break in. The most horrific example was a West Texas community where an officer responded to a call about a man with a gun in the front yard. The officer responded, was not told the man suffered from a severe mental illness and was hallucinating. The officer arrives, tells the man to drop the gun, get down on his knees with which he did not comply. The officer got closer, the man was refusing to take his directions, still held the gun, and so the officer used his TASER unaware the suspect had doused himself in gasoline. As soon as the TASER hit him he exploded in flames.(https://www.statesman.com/news/20170908/uncommon-but-horrific-when-tasers-set-their-targets-on-fire) In Texas right now, the people who routinely interact with the severely mentally ill are law enforcement and jailers. Sadly, law enforcement are woefully under-trained for such confrontations and families of the mentally ill reluctant to disclose such information. I remember a panicked mother calling me when she found out her son was to be released on parole from our prison. She and her husband were elderly and she was afraid he would have a mental health crisis when he came home. The offender refused to sign a consent for me to talk with his elderly mother, so I was left with not talking specifically about her son, but generally about people who suffer from such diagnoses. I walked her through how a parent of someone with this disorder would talk to law enforcement and what a parent would need to communicate to the law enforcement people or 911. Sadly, Texas is negligent in its services to the severely mentally ill, preferring instead to send them to prison for their care at the most recent cost of $30,000 per offender.

The bottom line is communities will continue to struggle with how law enforcement should respond to the complexities of our culture: violence, bodily harm, robberies, school shooters, gangs, and shootings of all kinds.

For me, it comes down to an openness from law enforcement to hear the people's concerns who conferred authority to them, and hear from law enforcement the challenges of defending, protecting, and serving a diverse community. The truth is, we can do this if we work together and realize we are all on the same team. We all want safer communities, fewer violent deaths, and communities thriving on opportunity instead of divisiveness.

We do have a ways to go, but working together, community by community trust can be built, conferred authority can be respected and we can all be the better for it.

Wash your hands, wear your mask for others, mind the gap, and be kind. We have a distance to go before our culture returns to normal. 

"Get Used to Different"

My journal reflect a couple of days experiences worth noting.

My work as a therapist is increasingly with trauma survivors: either by war; sexual assault; or domestic abuse. It occurred to me as I was on my way to my afternoon appointment yesterday a great time presented itself to incorporate a new “motto” for my clients mired in trauma. In “The Chosen” Jesus wrestles with his emerging disciples about the heart of God and the love of God and how it breaks the normal rules of convention whether the law as interpreted by the lawyers, the priests, the Pharisees, or conventional wisdom. In a scene where Jesus stops by the tax collector's booth, Jesus stops and looks at Matthew and then says to him, “Matthew, son of Alphaeus, follow me.” Simon runs to Jesus and says, “Master, - - -(correcting Jesus on his choice of Matthew)” with Jesus responding, “Get used to different.”

One of the challenges therapists face is helping clients “get used to different.” For so long client's lives have been shackled with baggage, haunted by guilt and shame, regrets, bitterness, loss; their issues have literally become assimilated into their persona. So, the therapist not only has to help the client experience healing in whatever way it needs to come but also “get used to different.” Recent advancements in brain science helps us understand the body keeps the score of trauma. In fact, there is a highly rated book on that very subject by Bessel van der Kolk, entitled, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” Van der Kolk explains that although time passes, the impact of trauma does not go away. I have seen that with veterans who are still dealing with the trauma of their military service 20+ years previous. I also observed that trauma can be remembered in the culture such as the Albanians as I worked with the teams focused on helping them. So trauma is not just personally remembered, it is culturally remembered. Trauma unresolved shapes one's life and future.

Previously, I had received a couple of face masks from “The Chosen” with those words on it and I realized it was a phrase worth sharing with my clients. It sets out the hope of therapy, a new different!

Saturday, which now is a day I can sleep in since I no longer talk with my mom on Saturday mornings at 8:30. However, I had scheduled a blood donation at a location in Georgetown called Wolf Ranch Town Center at 10:00. Anna had fixed me a hardy breakfast which one needs when parting with a pint or so of blood, and off I went. Problems emerged when I realized I had never really seen how big Wolf Ranch Town Center was. So, as I pulled in with plenty of time to find the blood mobile, I started looking as I drove slowly. I found the van and the trailer of the Blood Service, but no blood mobile. I only signed up for Saturday because they said they were pressed for blood, and I of course was used to getting blood out of a rock—so why not. However, 15 minutes of driving around without success, I left and went home in a funk. Perhaps it was the failure to do good, or the feeling I should have gotten better instructions, or perhaps read the text more carefully, but a morning shot—and no one helped with my blood.

I continue to grieve over the state of affairs in this nation as we move to a national election. I struggle to understand how anyone could support a lawless criminal. This afternoon, I also found myself wondering why Trump was allowed to get this far escaping the attention of authorities because of his racketeering, his criminal activities, his wire fraud, and mail fraud over the years. There has not been a honest deal Trump has made in his adult life. How is it he has flown under the radar until now?” Is this an indication of our lack of competence in the area of white collar crime? It is troubling.

I also wonder if somehow some Americans feel so disenfranchised from their government that authoritarianism is appealing to them. They are willing to support a candidate who will disregard the rule of law, do as he pleases, thumbing his nose in the face of authorities, be comfortable with hate groups and supposed support for Christians while not choosing to be one himself.

Are Christians so easily misled, so easily stirred up, so easily duped, that a man like Trump who has no loyalty to his country, his God, his own family that he will not sacrifice all for a profit and to enlarge his brand? I guess I believed we were better than that.

So I end this day, having talked with my granddaughter Abby and her mother Karen as they were getting ready to go to church in Taiwan. The girls are having great experiences in school, very busy schedules, opportunities for learning in multiple areas, but most of all safe. With only 7 deaths from COVID in Taiwan, the girls wear masks at school, all wear masks everywhere without any problem.

I must say, I am deeply saddened that the United States is unable to provide that safe experience for children attending school. However, we have allowed our politics to spill over into our action on COVID-19 allowing this president and Republicans to politicize a pandemic which has killed over 209,000+ of our citizens: someone's child, husband, wife, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother. All of these deaths are totally unnecessary and we are past using the excuse COVID is just another flu. All of these deaths need to be laid at the feet of this President(who lied not wanting to cause “panic” while embracing fear and panic as a media tool) and his Republican party from the Congress on down. Added to these official numbers are those in nursing homes who have died because they have been isolated, without contact from family and friends in order to keep them safe. Their numbers are legion and perhaps will only be know in retrospect as we sort out the numbers.

The United States is at a tipping point. To few realize what the “point” is.

Wash your hands, wear your masks for others, mind the gap and be kind

 

Trumptator

One book I didn't mention because I did not finish it was “Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever.” Rick Wilson. However, the title stayed with me especially as we move to the upcoming national election.

I believe it is fair to say, DJT is killing America. More deadly than COVID is the virus of Trumpism which is slowly infecting our national life, our national conversation, our institutions, our morals and values both at citizens and as elected officials.

Sadly, the poison of the Trump virus has been slowly working at the White House since DJT entered the race for our 45^th President. It started with lies, distractions, bullying of other candidates and attempts to pathologize his opponents and the media which would not bend their reporting to his liking.

Personally, I don't believe Trump is a smart person(smart people know how much they don't know) neither is he a wise person. Wise people learn to adapt throughout life to the expectations and requirements of the job or the mission they are undertaking. Trump bends the standards and expectations to fit his narcissistic outlook on the world. Being neither smart or wise, his anger and venom have sadly spread through his administration and beyond that to our national institutions.

I would never have believed one person could so poison and kill so much we hold sacred as a nation. He has surpassed my expectations and I have some deep sadness we are on a rapid decent into authoritarianism.

Everything Trump touches he poisons. He sullies the reputation of those who end up in his orbit, or attempts to crush them when they will not bend to his will or instructions. Early on some believed they could temper or moderate his worst features. They were proven wrong and quickly.

Over this past four years Trump has gathered a cabal around him that will stop at nothing to advance his agenda. We have watched the Border Patrol, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement descend into behaviors more in common with emerging nations led by dictatorial thugs than America. He has corrupted the Supreme Court with at least one morally corrupt man, and hobbled the Department of Justice making it his lap dog in the suppression of the first amendment rights to peacefully assemble and ask for grievances to be addressed. He has been heavy handed with threats regarding turning the military against citizens and using them to enforce Trump's law overreaching Governors, Mayors, and local law enforcement.

He tells his base he is unsure he will vacate the White House if he loses the upcoming election because by his definition if he fails to win, the Democrats must have cheated. Yet time and time again, his accusations against others are meant to deflect attention from himself. Trump, according to Trump, is always a winner, even when he has to cheat to win.

Trump has poisoned perhaps to death the Republican party, as he has bent and coerced party members and office holders to his reality and insisted on their loyalty. Those who lacked the integrity and courage to stand against his bullying “retired, resigned, retreated” to home believing that somehow they would not be engulfed in the coming storm. They will. And some of us will freely call them cowards. The refusal to stand against corruption and tyranny when one has been entrusted with such a terrible, awful responsibility to secure freedoms denied to some, safety for all, and the rule of law in my mind is not just cowardliness but also simple sedition. The United States has never had a “supreme” leader by any name you want to use—King, Emperor, or President for Life.

Without doubt we are watching this country slowly slide into authoritarianism under this president's mismanagement, his corruption, his undermining of all the checks and balance laid in the founding documents of this nation.

If this journal article sounds shrill, it is because we are moving ever closer to extinguishing the promise of this land, and putting in jeopardy the hope of all free peoples around the world.

That reality grieves me deeply. 

The Wrong Man for the Job

Bob Woodward in his latest book on President Donald Trump ends his 18 recorded conversations with the President with these words, “For nearly 50 years, I have written about nine presidents from Nixon to Trump—20 percent of the 45 U.S. presidents.”

“A president must be willing to share the worst with the people, the bad news with the good. All presidents have a large obligation to inform, warn, protect, to define goals and the true national interest. It should be a truth-telling response to the world, especially in crisis. Trump has, instead, enshrined personal impulse as a governing principle of his presidency. When his performance as president is taken in its entirety, I can only reach one conclusion: Trump is the wrong man for the job.”

(Woodward, Bob. Rage (pp. 391-392). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.)

With the finishing of this book, I have consumed too, too many non-fiction books on this president.

I started with “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by Michael Wolff; then “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” Bandy Lee, MD, MDiv, Editor; “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.” James Comey; “Fear: Trump in the White House,” by Bob Woodward;“A Warning,” Anonymous; “The Room Where it Happened.” James Bolton; “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man.” Mary L Trump, PhD; “Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump.” Michael Cohen.

The total of this reading experience should come to 9 books, with only one author providing two different books—one could say at the beginning and ending of Trumps four year term. Some authors served this president, and many did not.

What I have seen as I have swept across these different books, by different authors, from different perspectives is that at the core, they tell the same story. It is a troubling story, a tragic story, but a consistent story. Without exception, every book sounded alarms, warnings, of the damage this president was doing to our nation, our democracy, our leadership in the world, and the goals to which we still aspire as a people and a nation.

The United States has since its founding been an imperfect union unable to do completely what its vision encompassed. For some like our African American population it has been a process to often blocked, minimized, and thwarted again and again. The same could be said for our Native Americans who first settled this land and were pushed off and then subjected to a way of life that has been poisonous to them as a people. Our lofty ideas, our promises, our “destiny” has more often left behind those who were different ethnically, financially or socially. The gaps of opportunity have been huge for those who were non whites, the poor, the immigrants, and the illegal aliens.

Sadly, the presidency of Donald J Trump has trafficked in those differences and pandered to the fear and hate directed toward those who are not like us. I used to speak of some gossips in the churches I served as “dirt merchants,” always spreading half truths about people they did not like. In the same way, I am comfortable saying “DJT is a hate merchant, a fear merchant,” and when he is not peddling those two deadly toxins, he is eroding the very nature of truth-telling.

I am comfortable saying in the world of Donald J. Trump, not everyone is of equal value. Actually, no one is of intrinsic value. Some people like residents of Puerto Rico are of lesser value that folks on the mainland. People dying in cities run by Democratic Mayors and Governors are of lesser value than those dying in Republican cities but more than that, they must be Mayors and Governors on his approved list—those who pay homage to DJT.

I find this deeply troubling. Add to that mix, a toxic kind of evangelical religiosity(not Christianity) which use names for Trump reserved exclusively for God.

Doctors evaluating symptoms often use the term, “rule out,” or perhaps, “reason to believe,” as justification to do more testing for a more precise diagnosis. I would invoke that nomenclature for the following assessment of our current president: “There is reason to believe, DJT is attempting to move this democracy to an authoritarian government in which he, like Vladimir Putin, is the sole authority and his decisions, executive orders, and will is the supreme authority in the land. His truth is the only valid truth.

My reading has convinced me DJT is a man without empathy, without conscience, without values except for money and power, and with a careless disregard for all forms of human life that do not serve his ends. The office of president has not been one of a sacred trust given by the voters of America, but an opportunity. That opportunity has been to expand his wealth, his brand, his influence, and his power. Those in his party who have tried to work with him have quickly learned he cares nothing for their concerns, or their congressional success. Rather, everything is about him. It is always about him. It will always be about him. COVID is about him.

Hurricane damage is about him, the economy is always about him, and while Americans are thinking he is looking out for their best interests, he is not. He is always looking out for what profit there is in this situation for him.

I will also tell you his desire for a second term in office is not to serve us better or more, rather it is to avoid prosecution for the mountain of crimes he has committed during his adult life. It has never been about his base. He could care less about his base. Rather his base exists to praise him and his excellence. When the applause dies, so will his affection for his base. If you believe you are important to Trump, you are deluded.

Trump only cares about Trump. At the moment you cease to shower him with praise, cease to show up at his rallies, cease to cheer his most inane statements, he will leave you in the dust. There is absolutely no room in his heart for you.

The numbers are adding up. Those he has refused to reach out to because they were in cities where mayors were Democrats, or they did not show the proper respect and appreciation for him. Ethnics are realizing in the world of Trump they will also and always be a lower caste. The African Americans who are tired of continual delays of the basic human rights afforded to every white person in America have realized beyond tokenism, they have no value to Trump. Dreamers are also realizing with Trump, there is no possibility they can have a pathway to citizenship in a nation they were brought to without their consent.

Years ago I heard this story about a young guy who attacked a mountain of poop with an energy and determination that the adults marveled at. When asked why he was working so hard, he replied, “With all this poop, there has to be a pony in here somewhere.”

There is no pony. With Trump there has never been a pony—just poop.  

Toxic Power of Hatred

The mishandling of COVID-19 has been expressed to me in several ways. You might not know this but I need pictures and graphs and then explanations of what those pictures and graphs mean.

We passed 202,000 deaths from COVID-19 today. Another way to think about that is think of 66+ days of 9/11 fatalities. Think of more than the war dead from Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

That has been the cost of the incompetence of our President, his administration, and his party as this very real virus has decimated our numbers, our economy, our cohesion as a nation, and our resiliency as a people.

There really is absolutely no excuse for these deaths. President Trump and his Republican enablers must take responsibility for the shambles he has made of this nation, and the fabric of our nation. His poisonous venom has unleashed the dark powers of hate buried in shallow graves throughout this land waiting for a dark night in which to rise and once again become the scourge of this promising nation. Zombies, Werewolves, and Vampires are our mythical creatures of the night which scare us but are figments of our imaginations, but the real danger is a vibrant hate which is stoked, and fanned, and fed until it consumes our better selves.

These times of palpable hate are the times in which we are living—not all of which can be laid at the feet of Donald Trump, but much can be laid at his feet.

Hate festers when opportunity is denied.

Hate festers when disrespect is saturating our world.

Hate festers when we are so insecure in ourselves we cannot extend respect to another if they are different from us.

Religious hatred is the worst because it blocks a person from getting a true picture of the God who has created the world, and in Jesus Christ offered salvation to all through his own sacrifice of His life. People cannot see the Cross for the hate and the haters.

Hate festers when there is no hope.

Hate festers when nothing changes and talk does nothing but make noise.

Hate festers when day after day, the struggle to live takes every ounce of strength one has.

Hate festers when one is hated for what they cannot change such as the color of their skin.

Hate festers when one is always, always on the outside looking in to the party one can never be invited to or attend.

Hate festers when the simple presence of the other parent is not possible but never understood.

There is no limit to the limitless bottom of hate which can be stirred up thinking one can actually control the hate.

It cannot be done.

Hate has its own course, its own power, and its own agenda.

As we have learned from the past, hate can engulf the world with catastrophic consequences.

That path of hate is the path of this president, and his enablers who choose not to challenge his statements, his actions, his malevolent thoughts and his narcissistic pathology.

We must realize, we must all realize, we are better than this, we want more than this, and it is within our power as citizens of this United States to make that happen. We can change the course the trajectory of this nation and once again find our positive place in this world.

I hope we do. I pray we do.

 

Trump and the Coming Election

Folks who know me or have read my posting know that many, many behaviors of President Donald J. Trump have troubled me.

However, recently, he has given the impression if the national election does not go in his favor, he may not accept the results of the voting. He has gone on to disparage the election process, mail in voting, the US Postal Service's ability to handle in a timely way the mass of mail in votes that could come because of COVID-19.

His allegations of massive fraud stretching back to the 2016 national elections have not been substantiated. The Heritage Foundation(a conservative think tank) has monitored election fraud since the 1980s with less than a fraction of the votes counted since these records have been kept deemed fraudulent. Go here to look (https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud/search). If that were not enough, this president has attempted to hobble the USPS to such an extent that would not be ready for the election windfall of votes returned by mail.

Having previously worked elections early in my pastoral experience, I was impressed with how poll workers looked at their jobs. I doubt much has changed. Folks give their time to ensure voters ballots are cast and counted. That is our system which has worked since the beginning of the Republic.

However, we have never had a president like the one we have today. DJT dips deep into his presumptive power, enjoying every possible nuance with which he believes he is entitled. Less so, is he as passionate about his responsibilities as the leader of not just this nation but the free world.

This president feels free to use every opportunity to increase his wealth and extend his brand. Early on in his presidency, I joked that the White House would become the “Trump House” with gaudy flashing lights like one of his Atlantic City, New Jersey Casinos. Less so is he focused on the struggle of ordinary Americans living from paycheck to paycheck many of whom are people of color or living in the shadows as illegal immigrants. He and his Republican party are unwilling to extend more aid to struggling families facing eviction or foreclosure. In fact, COVID has been a blessing to him because he doesn't have to shake hands with “those disgusting people.”

This president feels no constrains to use his “bully pulpit” to castigate his enemies whether they be Democrats, Blacks, Hispanics, immigrants, or people who disagree with him. He refuses to use that same pulpit to encourage, exhort, entreat the American people to their best selves during this pandemic which has settled on our land and on the world.

This president has withheld vital information about COVID-19 acting as if we are children who cannot handle the truth, the results of which have confused his base and put at risk the health of a nation. His explanation of not wanting to cause a panic rings hollow when he had trafficked in fear( a caravan headed to the US of criminals and rapists from Central and South America) blaming peaceful protesters for the destruction caused by violent tail guards following behind. He has moved away from cherished allies into the unseemly company of international thugs and despots and found them welcoming to him and their friendships comfortable.

Trump has reduced complex policies, issues, and treaties to 280 character tweets. He has fired men and women who have served him faithfully with a tweet embarrassing them in front of their peers, while extolling the virtues of those who should be condemned.

He has berated the courts of the land and the judges who rule again his interests but still runs to the protection of the courthouse when he chooses to renege on a contract or stiff a contractor.

So, the president is not sure if he will accept the results of the November 3, 2020 election if he loses. Constitutional scholars indicate that would amount to treason. Since he is facing so many other charges if he loses, I would not suggest he add that one to the list of his crimes.

Wash your hands, wear your mask for others, mind the gap, and be kind

 

Trump the Tyrant

Folks who know me know I am a kind and mostly considerate listener. I am willing to hear a variety of opinions even those I believe are wrong. However, having said that, I am increasingly troubled by what the experts are saying about this time in which America is living through.

The Trump years are more than a successful businessman's presidency because they are first aligned with a man whose business record is far from successful. He is a “legend in his own mind” but facts tell a difference story. One author, Rick Wilson, captured the real truth about Trump when his book was titled “Everything Trump touches Dies.” Second, Trump believes in a tyranny in which what he does is alright and what ever is done against him is wrong. Jonathan Chait in “Lock Him Up,” (see the link earlier in my timeline) makes the case for prosecuting Trump for all his crimes. To do less is to step further down the road to totalitarianism.

I would not ever present myself as an “expert” in American history, but I know more than the average person about this nation, its inception, its struggles, and its present history. When I say there has never, ever been a presidency like the Trump years, I believe it is verifiable by simply following the presidents (44) previous to this president.

What troubles me is Trump is more like a dictator than a president. The counsel of his Cabinet, the advice from the Intelligence community, the input from his Department of Justice(prior to Barr), all point to a person who does what he wants when he wants without regard to treaties, law or established norms. To some, that is his appeal. He is not shackled by the constraints of former presidents, but rather does what he believes is best. And who tells him that—his gut. However, there is a price to be paid.

All bills come due. The bill for flagrantly, ignoring the Constitution and the rule of law will come due. Like all bills(except in the Trump world of stiffing the little man) they must be paid. America is already paying a high price for the unrestrained, unprincipled, lack of leadership of this president. Make no mistake, we are already paying the price. With COVID-19, over 190,000 have died unnecessarily because Trump withheld vital information to the American people about the seriousness of this virus. In his own words to Bob Woodward, he admitted as much. Knowing the lethality of this virus, he played it down because according to Trump, “he did not want the American people to panic.” This president is the same one who has taken every opportunity to create fear toward others, and incited racial divisions and panic.

I guess I struggle with the idea that our history can go one of two ways as the election of a new president comes to pass. We can elect Trump again which means further steps toward totalitarianism or deal with his diatribes the election was fixed against him. Whichever happens, it will not be good for America. Some see another term as a step toward dictatorship and as much as I don't want to believe such a thing is possible, I think those folks are spot on. In the waning days of this president's final year, I see more corruption, more influencing in the wrong direction, more deflection, more refusal to take responsibility, and closer alignment to tyranny.

I cannot believe this is what the American experience is about. It is about setting a new direction for government, one that is not of the people, not for the people,and not by the people-- and really not about the people of this nation, instead about a tyrant, about one person and his leadership.

I have never said this or thought this, but this coming election is really about the future of America. Will we be a free people, electing those who represent us in local, state, and national houses of legislation, or will we be a people who are controlled by a single leader or his party? Will we be a people who are governed by representatives who are elected by the people, for the people, and by the people, or will it be a elaborate show disguising a tyranny at work? Will we begin to rebuild the integrity of our institutions or allow them to slip further into ruin? Will we stand up to an amoral, unprincipled, despot, or will we allow his pathology to overtake us all?

That is the question of the hour!

Wash your hands, wear your mask for others, mind the gap and be kind. 

Jesus the Loser

Having finished Michael Cohen's book on his relationship with DJT for 10 years, I am left with several questions. One bubbled up this morning in worship as our Pastor began a series on the “Return of the King” highlighting the themes of Revelation.

I have watched the Trump train wreck for over four years and cannot understand why so many religious people flock to this man or worse call him “a great Christian.” I saw that comment on a Texas Congressman's FB page about his work on brokering a peace agreement between the UAE and Israel.

I have often wondered about sociopaths/psychopaths in regard to their souls. It would be easy to call these people “soulless except Genesis 2:7 reports “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” What NIV translates “living being” the Hebrew word is nephesh. The term נפש‎ is literally "soul" That is, man does not have a soul, he or she is a soul. So, it would seem one's very existence requires a soul. Existence does not tell us the condition of one's soul, just that human life = soul.

I mention this because there is wide expert evidence and conviction that DJT is a sociopath—among his other personality features.

What was it that surfaced in my mind this morning during worship? Well I have been pondering why Trump has no problem with taking the endorsement of religious conservatives and Mormons, even when he does not believe or worship God or follow Christ. Then it hit me. He has no use for Jesus because in his world Jesus was a “loser,” a “sucker,” “stupid” in the extreme. Those three descriptive words are frequently in the twitter world of Trump. He mentioned the military men and women who died in France in WWI as “suckers” and “losers.” How much more would it appear to apply to Jesus.

Of course Trump could not really articulate it using the Bible because it is a book with which he is unfamiliar. But, it documents his way of thinking about Jesus. First, Jesus gave up the glories of heaven to become a lowly child of impoverished parents. What's up with that? Why leave all that behind? Think of the riches and power He set down. That would be stupid; beyond Trump's ability to understand.

Jesus's life would demonstrate a minimalist approach to life. No great home, no camels loaded with possessions, surrounding himself with “other losers and suckers” using his amazing powers to help others, to heal others, to feed thousands, to stop storms on the sea, but never for himself and never taking an offering. He was self denying—what's up with that?

Of course the biggest stumbling block would be two fold. First he would teach a life of humility, service to others, and obedience to God manifesting in the fruits of the Spirit: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23)

Perhaps the most troubling to Trump would be the Cross. If Trump thinks Marines who died in WWI were losers and suckers, what does he think about Jesus who died as a ransom for many? Especially if he read about the opportunities Satan presented Jesus in the temptations. The opportunities presented: bread enough; power enough; all without suffering.

If this president cannot understand the simple, powerful sacrifice of a soldier for his country, how can he grasp the blood bought sacrifice Christ willingly provided him for his salvation?

Wash your hands, wear your mask for others, mind the gap, and be kind. 

Patriotism and Trump

Reading Michael Cohen's book “Disloyal: A Memoir” confirms and expands what I already know or have suspected about our President Donald Trump.

As a therapist and a former Substance Abuse Professional, I have often used a variety of test instruments to get a clearer picture of the client with whom I am working. That same approach has allowed me to gather a clearer picture of who Donald J. Trump is and is not by reading books of those who were closest to him or interviewed those who were closest to him. It is rather a frightful picture.

Reading Cohen's book about his experience of ten years being Trump's fixer, sent me to thinking about this word “patriotism”—as in “What does it mean to be a patriot? Or what is the essence of American patriotism?”

You would think DJT would be a model of patriotism, but that would be incorrect. He is the antithesis of a patriot and patriotism.

Let me tell you why I believe that is true. There are some qualities wrapped up in this word patriotism which can be identified and expanded upon.

First, I would say that a patriot loves her/his country. For the Christian, that love would be perhaps 3^rd in a list of “loves:” love of God first, love of spouse/family second, love of country third. The love of country can be expanded to include the features that make the United States uniquely the United States. For me there are many things that come to mind. I love a government that is supposed to be populated with the people who are in the United States. So that national, state, county, local government is a mix of the people who reside within the limits of those jurisdictions. I love the diversity of this nation and like Ronald Reagan suggested people can come from around the world to America and become Americans. I love the freedom of religion, the freedom of the press, the right to bear arms, the right for redress of wrongs. All of those are a slice of the nation I embrace. More than that, I love and respect those who join the military, serve honorably, often heroically, because they believe in the vision cast by our founders for this great nation. All of the above are things in which Donald Trump does not participate in or hold affection for. He loves himself, money, and his brand. They are his “trinity.”This last week has shown us he only has contempt for our military and its leadership. They are “losers” and “suckers.” My father was a vet from the Marines fighting in the South Pacific during WWII. Awarded two purple hearts for injuries sustained in battle, he was anything but a loser, a sucker or stupid. I have lost count of how many veterans I have worked with through my practice and I have not seen a single person I would describe in that way. Instead they are men and women of heroic courage on which my gratitude and the gratitude of a grateful nation rests upon their shoulders.

I would also say a patriot is loyal. I would say I am not a “America right or wrong” kind of patriot, but rather a loyal citizen who both embraces who we strive to be and challenges the blind spots in our nation. I have only one higher loyalty and that is to the Kingdom of God. After that, my love of this nation and what it has historically stood for in the world still draws my admiration, fully aware we are not perfect. Sadly, Trump has no loyalty to this country. Simply, he is loyal to his own self interests, money, and the brand. Have you heard that before? That one reality is why DJT is dangerous. If he could make a really good deal with Putin, he would betray us in a moment.

I would say a patriot respects: the institutions that define and make this nation workable; the people who are within our borders whether legal or illegal; gender differences and those who feel pushed away and marginalized. Patriots respect life in all its forms especially other human beings. DJT simply respects nothing beyond himself. It is difficult for me to understand the level of disrespect DJT carries each and every day for others. He respects no ethnic group, no race, no gender, no social class beyond his own. He does not even respect his own children. Cohen often mentions how much abuse Don Jr. takes from his father, but that is not surprising because DJT saw that same treatment toward his oldest sibling, the father of Dr. Mary L Trump. His father called Mary's father's love of flying, enlisting in the Air Force “stupid.” It is not surprising that apple has not fallen far from the tree.

A patriot obeys the laws of the land. Everything from voting laws to speed limits, we define ourselves by how we related to the laws of the land. We also show ourselves as we adhere to the covenants we make and the covenants we break. You cannot be arrested for having an affair, but you have broken a covenant with your spouse. DJT defines himself by the way he has lived his life as a man of utter and complete lawlessness. The most foolish action any person can take is to get into a contract with Donald Trump on anything. He continually threatens, sues, and obstructs those who get in his way. Cohen acknowledges the tax records of DJT are a mix of low balling the value of his properties for IRS purposes, and inflating the real value for loan purposes. That is why he fights so hard to keep his taxes from being made public. That is also why most US banks will not loan him money. Instead he has to turn to Deutsch Bank apparently because they skate very close to the edge in their business dealings. Trump fits right in with that bank.

Finally(this is not an exhaustive list) I would put patriotism is about goodwill. We are a nation of immigrants. Immigrants bring with them their language, their heritage, their culture, their customs, their foods, and their religion. One of the most incredible articles of the Bill of Rights was Article I “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The history of Europe and Britain has often been written in the blood of religious wars between the State church and others. The genius of America was to remove the state from the affairs of the church and remove the church from influencing or controlling the state. People who whine about “God being taken out of the schools” have no understanding of the presence of God or what real prayer is. God cannot be extricated from the public schools because he comes to school with every believer, and saturates and indwells every space within the school. As I told my folks years ago, “God is equally present in all things at all times.”He is not subject to the ruling of the Supreme Court. He indwells all and is in all.

Because of that, Christian people need to be people of good will. It is the welcome mat both of this nation and of our faith. There really is no other place where someone can come with all their possession in a sack and because of the opportunity of this nation become people who contribute and succeed in this nation of good will. DJT is not a person of good will in any stretch of the definition. He is a racist. Of that I have no doubt. His inflammatory invectives toward non White Europeans and Scandinavians is frankly a disgrace. His pejorative words toward African Americans, and Hispanics demonstrate to me his hatred of both. In fact, his rhetoric is not only toxic in what he says but he gives license for those whose movements are hate fueled to surface and parade their toxic hatred.

In sum, DJT does not know the meaning of the word patriotism. Michael Cohen confirms that. And yes, like a mafia guy who turns and cooperates with the state, there is reason to test his words and his accounts. Sadly, with all that I have previously read, his perceptions are spot on.

Sadly, this President does not get the patriotism thing.

Wash your hands, wear your masks for others, mind the gap and be kind.