"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.

 

The Times They Are a Changing

Today, Tuesday, driving into Austin was probably a look at the new world we are becoming.

Before COVID-19, if I were going to Austin, I avoided I-35 as long as I could. I would often take another route because going into Austin and coming from Austin was guaranteed to raise my blood pressure and occasionally give me a “near death” experience.

However, since working from home is still the thing, traffic was very light. There were no slowdowns, no wrecks and basically no problem. It was the same coming home.

When I say the “new world we are becoming” I mean that certain industries have studied the productivity of their employees who work from home and seen there is little difference from those who commute in and back and those who work from home. I have talked with the middle son about how that could transform the culture of work as well as the overhead of companies and corporations. Certainly, not every job can be done from home, but many can. For those who can, it could mean huge savings for companies which have to spend enormous sums on space, parking utilities, etc. Working from home can help the company streamline and reduce overhead. It might even translate into higher salaries, and greater profits.

It is not all roses though, because if there are fewer people commuting, transportation costs may slowly come down as the cost of fuel, car payments, upkeep, insurance all make the adjustment. Even our transportation infrastructure might see less need to keep building highways, if we find other ways to work which do not necessitate driving to a location every day. Which may mean lost jobs as the economy adjust to the changes. It may just change the way we see our culture which generally is “always on the move.”

On the upside, walking from a room in the house to join the family is a far different scenario than a nerve racking drive home in bumper to bumper traffic only to have missed dinner and quality time with the family.

Like all change, this has created problems and opportunities. The problems seem to be with domestic violence and child abuse. Before covid teachers were on the front line of reporting child abuse. Now that line has been dissolved. As a result, it is assumed there are children who are being abused or neglected with no one to advocate or report for them. Spouses are also finding their mates may be increasingly abusive with the issues of staying closer to home, lost jobs, lost income, and the problems such real issues bring. Many families have no resiliency so when the least change happens, it sends them into a serious spiral. We are also seeing the limits of “teletherapy” in that children who need “play therapy” are unable to access that particular kind of therapy. It does not translate well across a computer screen.

On the positive side, healthy families are finding themselves spending more time together, and enjoying their lives for which they have worked so hard to achieve. I continue to enjoy the parade of parents and children out riding, walking, running in our neighborhood, and the kind of joy I see on the face of all in the family. Just this week as I was coming home from the store, I saw an Indian(I think) family out riding bicycles. The father was leading and attached to his bike was a smaller bike on which the youngest child was riding. Behind were two girls, and then the wife bringing up the parade. They were happy, and enjoying being outside. I don't know, but I would not be surprised if the father was involved in the tech sector, and was enjoying the extra time with his family. I have thought about taking the time to sit outside and just watch as my neighbors walk by, run by, ride by on their bikes. Saturday, while Tim was over Saturday afternoon, we saw a father drive by on some kind of cycle with two children behind on the mini-cycles. I smiled, Tim mentioned that was illegal. It is the different perspective of the grandfather and the policeman.

At Cityview, I am so proud of our church leadership because they have cautiously made deliberate steps that keep our congregation safe, and yet return to in-person worship when it is wise.

I am saddened by church members who feel an “obligation” to return to worship services at the church when it may not be safe because the pastor and staff are putting pressure on the congregation to get back together. I know this has been a point of contention between some churches who believe the governing authorities are depriving them of their 1^st amendment rights, but I am reminded of the words of Jesus in John 4:24 when Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” While I believe in corporate worship and long for it, I know you can get together unwisely and be concerned all the while about your health, or watch from your living room focused on worship. We will get back to corporate worship, but leadership needs to be wise. Ours is.

So COVID is changing our world, or our nation at least. Perhaps it has helped make us grateful for the life that has been stopped or temporarily taken away. Perhaps it has made us think of others and how our decisions can harm a neighbor. Perhaps it has created a longing in the believer to return to worship. Perhaps it has helped us understand why getting together and worshiping God is so very vital to our life of faith. Perhaps it has taught us a renewed sense of the value of our family. Perhaps our relationship with our children have deepened in ways they would not have if this pandemic had not engulfed our world. Perhaps we will emerge from this time with a deeper appreciation for those who have risked much to keep us safe and well, and feel more kindly toward our neighbor. Perhaps our relationship with God has grown exponentially because in uncertain times, He is the certain One.

Time will tell what is temporary and what remains. 

The Paranoid President

According to several news sources(the bane of this president) he has been in a rather foul mood since the Atlantic's explosive report last week sourcing comments the president has said about soldiers who died in combat.

Some might say his mood is because he doesn't like being portrayed as a heartless, soulless, manipulative person which he is, but I think it is more profound that that.

There are several things I believe are going on. First, people around the President are beginning to come to terms with this President and what he had done to America, what he has said about immigrants, Hispanics, African Americans, Black Lives Matter, the poor, Democrats, those who disagree with him, or just anybody who annoys him. Perhaps it is the realization that DJT has ignited hate groups and surfaced long buried but very real militant extremism in this country. They have seen from day one the real Trump but somehow believed that he could do good things even though he was “not perfect.” As time has gone on, they are realizing the damage he has done to every segment of the nation. Perhaps the great awakening began when he bungled the COVID-19 response politicizing it, minimizing it, distracting others from focusing on it, doing everything but leading the nation to aggressively address the virus and contain it and move on. Perhaps it was his evasive disregard for human lives lost to the COVID-19 virus(190,000+) and older Americans in nursing homes who died because of the extraordinary lengths these facilities had to go to protect those in their charge. Or perhaps it was the continual publishing of books documenting the “real” Donald Trump. The latest released today written by his personal fixer, lawyer, and “former friend,” Michael Cohen, “Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump.”

Cohen you remember was charged, convicted, and sentenced for some of the crimes which grew out of his work for Trump. It can be argued by the purist that Michael Cohen has shown himself to be a liar, and that would be true, but successful prosecutors of the Mafia will tell you the best witness is one who was a part of the organization and now has flipped and is cooperating. That would be Michael Cohen. However, his book is not measurably different from the book Dr Mary L Trump wrote about her uncle, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, or Bob Woodward's book, “Fear,” or his newest book to be release next week, “Rage.” All tell a consistent story. Historians will tell you that when one researches a topic, they look not just for the pertinent facts, but collaboration of those facts. All these book collaborate each other as they examine DJT from different angles.

Another thing I believe is going on as we come closer to the election, is simply the people around him are willing to talk. When they do, it becomes a profound warning to us all of what is often hidden within the walls of the White House or massaged by the people around him to take the edges of his worst comments and ideas. Trump gives a speech to the military telling them how much he has done for them, but later, remembrance of the sacrifice of WWI soldiers buried in France is not worth getting his hair wet, or standing out showing respect for “losers and suckers.”

And last, Trump is not a very deep thinker, but it may be dawning on him that increasingly, the loyalty he demands but does not return is melting away because those around him can no longer be silent to the dangerous man he is. In other words, as paranoid as Trump is, he may be realizing that even in his most trusted advisers there are people who are out to get him. Long the chief of conspiracy theories now he is in the middle of a conspiracy very real and very sobering. These sources are not out to “overthrow” him, just to let the public know who this man really is beneath the carefully coiffured blond comb over.

Sadly that has to be Hell for him. However, it is a Hell of his own making.

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

 

Southern Baptists and Racism

Two things crossed my mind and heart this week.

First, reading through “The Warmth of Other Suns” helped me see the poison of racism that awaited African Americans who escaped the “Jim Crow” South for other parts of the United States in what was called the “Great Migration.” The poison of racism had leeched into the cultures of the North as well as the West. So African Americans found their promised land had been corrupted with some of the same issues they faced in the South with the exception they were not told what the rules of racism were in the North and West. They knew the rules for African Americans in the South. They had lived it and felt the weight of the oppression, the disparity of being Black, the limited opportunity, and the violence that kept them in their place.

The North and West, however, did not have a clear code so African Americans learned by living in the North and West some of the rules from the South applied but were inconsistently enforced.

The other bit of news I saw in the Baptist Standard was evidence has surfaced which identifies R.C. Buckner as a slave owner. Baptists don't have “patron saints,” but we do venerate many Baptists from the past by naming institutions, offerings, and hospitals after these trailblazers. R.C Buckner was one of those. His name is attached to the international ministry of Buckner Benevolences.

I don't know why we should be surprised at this revelation because, well, the Southern Baptist Convention was born out of a split between Northern Baptists and Baptists in the South over slavery. It's founding was in May of 1845. What that means is: Southern Baptist churches were attended by people in the South who owned slaves. Not all Baptists owned slaves, however the culture could look to Southern Baptist theologians and pastors to give Biblical grounds for the owning of slaves. The seminal leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention were more likely to be slave owners than not. Research using the 1860 census helps us sketch this out. The 1860 census shows a total population in the United States as 31,443,321. Of that, 12.6% were identified as slaves. However, that stops short of painting the real picture. Since slavery was illegal in many states in the Union at that time, more than 4.9% of people in slave holding states owned slaves. More specifically, if one targets the slave holding states, the demographics change significantly. 19.9% of family units in slave states owned slaves. 24.9% of households (which are a broader category than family units) owned slaves. Go here for the data:(https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/aug/24/viral-image/viral-post-gets-it-wrong-extent-slavery-1860/)

More than that, after the Civil War, churches in the South either by silence or participation helped enforce Jim Crow laws until the back of that system was broken beyond repair by federal law and enforcement. Of course law enforcement was also recruited to keep slaves and later African Americans in their proper station in the caste system of the old South. As with Baptists, law enforcement has a legacy of racism. We are seeing that explode on the national front today.

The point is Southern Baptists even before breaking from their Northern Baptist brethren, were at the forefront of giving a Biblical foundation for slavery. The research which now uncovers the luminaries of our Southern Baptist Heritage were implicated in the holding of slaves and justification of slavery should not surprise us. What should surprise us is how long it took for us to connect the dots.

Sadly, I don't believe R.C Buckner was alone. In the days and years to come, we will see a more severe accounting of our participation and sanctioning of the poison of slavery, and the hate which grew from it and continues today in parts of our nation and in parts of Southern life and Southern Baptist life.

I credit a metaphor I remembered from my middle son, Dr. Joseph Chancellor, when he and his family were in the UK working on a post doc at Cambridge University. He told me, “Dad, until you get away from America, you cannot imagine how slavery has poisoned our national life, and our national experience.”

Talking with one of our pastors after his sermon on “Race and Grace” where he spoke of growing up in Alabama, I shared with him I understood his experience. Growing up in West Texas was perhaps not as toxic as Alabama, but it really comes down to “lots of poison or just enough poison.”

How bad was the hate and racism? Look at what it took to break the back of Jim Crow. Brown vs Board of Education was the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated “separate but equal.” The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at that time was Earl Warren. It is more interesting to note that two phrases were added about the same time to our pledge and currency. 1954 saw the addition of the words “Under God” to our pledge, and 1956 saw the addition to our currency of “One Nation Under God.” Perhaps as a reaction to the Warren Court and desegregation, and later the Warren Court responsibility for ending school prayer, with two cases in 1962, and 1963. The Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Together those victories in the Supreme Court and Legislation broke the back of Jim Crow laws. It is interesting to note that growing up in West Texas, I heard that Earl Warren was an atheist. These rulings perhaps with invalidating “Separate but Equal” and invalidating “state sponsored school prayer” contributed to the perception that Chief Justice Earl Warren was an enemy of the faith. I personally cannot document that rumor.

However, it is important to note that Southern Baptist Churches were and are a force in the South. It was their home turf and it, to me, is inescapable that my roots have always been deep in the soil of racism. Many of my heroes of my Baptist faith were no doubt slave owners. If the founding fathers (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and twelve others) owned slaves,

(https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Founding-Fathers-and-Slavery-1269536), how likely was it that Baptist theologians, pastors, deacons, and members were a part of that institution. Eventually, it will come out as researchers take a renewed interest in our roots and who supported and owned slaves.

So the question is, “In this day of racial reckoning, how will Baptist move forward? How can we repent of our legacy? How can we cast off the sin of racism that has so easily beset us, and become a trustworthy and safe Gospel source for all people? How can we open wide our hearts as Jesus opened His heart and sacrifice to us? How can we humble ourselves and hear the stories of our African Americans without defensiveness and condescension? How can we at last as a covenant people join with the struggle for equal rights allowing our African Americans to lead and teach us about oppression, the closed doors of opportunity, the stigma of being black, the glass ceilings in industry, and the inequity in income, medical and mental health services currently in America?”

Those, to me, are the questions of our time for the Baptist faith community. 

Squirrels and Trump

Today I joined Anna as she sat in the back yard on her porch swing watching birds, golfers, and the occasional squirrel. Yesterday we discovered our first golf ball on the path right beyond our fence. I had never worried about getting a window knocked out because 1. It is not my house; and 2. No one can be that bad a golfer. I was mostly wrong. There is a fairway that runs down a stretch of ground which separates us from the neighbors across the way. I have learned this is the 7^th hole, but in order for a golf ball to get anywhere near us, the ball would have to be sliced with it careening across the rough, across the pond, across the rough on our side and on to the path or into our yard. It must have been a really, really bad shot.

I am a man with great sympathy for bad golfers. I was one once. Struggling to find a sport I could do with Tim and Joseph, a couple of the guys in the church in Shamrock helped me as much as one could to learn to play golf. I wanted to be good enough to take Tim and Joseph out to play. We would pack up some snacks, throw our golf clubs in the car, drive basically across the street to the clubhouse where we would play a round. It took Tim three tee offs to get the hang of the game, and right down the fairway he went. Joseph wasn't too interested in golf but loved snacks and driving the golf cart. I, on other hand was a masterful golfer hitting the mowing machine twice in the same place, and a cow in the next field.

Today, though, sitting on the swing, Anna and I witnessed a commotion next door. We have this neighbor dog—a rather big brown dog who doesn't like men. So if Lucy is outside, and I go outside she starts barking. JD has got her to roll over and let him pet her on her stomach. Today, Lucy and a squirrel were in the middle of a chase. Lucy was barking and running after the squirrel which was on the fence making a commotion the likes of which I have never heard. The squirrel was shrieking, jabbering and running back and forth on the fence top. I thought perhaps they were playing, but finally the squirrel still shrieking and jabbering ran into our yard past us and up to the tree closest to us. It did not stop till it got about two thirds of the way up the tree, and then from a safe place looked down at me and kept talking. I literally could hear it wheezing, and jabbering. So, I did my counselor thing(as Tim calls it) and my St Francis of Assisi thing and talked to the little scared squirrel. I have had so my experience in calming distraught folks down, I just started talking calmly and kindly to God's little creature. Obviously a minor squirrel, I tried to use my happy, kind voice, and for a few minutes we were actually talking at each other. I know that because I am a trained therapist and I recognize when people are talking, not understanding, and not listening. Yep, that was what was happening.

Oh, and our President went to Kenosha this afternoon. Against all requests to stay away, against any real rational reason for his presence in that volatile situation, Trump flew to Kenosha. Now of all the things Trump needs to do, being in Kenosha is not one of them. As one professor said, “Trump going to Kenosha is like filling up Air Force One with gasoline and and bringing fuel to the fire already there.” Trump is a fire starter, and I am not alone believing his incendiary statements, blatant racism, his demonizing immigrants, his disrespect for Hispanic professionals, have all created the perfect storm we are seeing as another round of race riots. His setting himself up as the “Law and Order President” is an oxymoron. DJT and “law and order” do not go in the same sentence. His life of corruption, his undermining of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Separation of Powers, the Department of Justice, our Military—nothing really has escaped his corruption.

On another note this evening, I saw on one of my news feeds that President Trump has been to four “dignified transfers” at Dover Air Force base since he has been President. His first was after he green lighted a special forces attack in Yemen President Obama had refused to authorized. Worse his decision was made over a dinner party not with his National Security Team in the Situation Room. It was at this first attendance at Dover the father of a slain William Ryan Owens, Bill Owens refused to shake the President's hand and told him he was responsible for the death of his son because he refused to consider the risks of that raid. Trump did not return for two years. And has only been three other times since that encounter. The truth is our Presidents should include Dover Air Force Base because the President needs to see the stark costs of the decisions he and Congress make. I think Congress should be there as well. They need to see the sacrifice, the human cost, the broken families that military action entered into too easily brings the families of this nation. Every man and women sent into harms way is a son or daughter of someone who will be immensely proud of their service, but broken by their unnecessary deaths. Trump played the coward and was scared away because he met raw grief(probably which he has never experienced) and was the focus of anger from a wounded father.

No president is perfect. None have been in the history of this nation. Some have been more noble and heroic than others, some have been more mediocre than others, some have been really, really bad. It is amazing in the history of this nation, few have fallen into the really bad category. Some have had great moral failures, and others great moral character. However, I will not be surprised if this current President becomes the #1 most immoral, corrupt, bad, incompetent president of them all.

He believes he belongs in a category of his own—Well Mr President, you succeeded. In this category you are without rivals.

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