Trumpism, Explained

Posted on February 24, 2020 by jilldennison under education, Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Jeff has shared a guest post by his friend, Jerry Gramckow that is an excellent summation about the definition of ‘Trumpism’. Thanks so much, Jeff & Jerry … this clarifies a bit more the mentality of those who blindly follow “the leader”, without understanding the damage he is doing.

On The Fence Voters

The following is another post from my friend Jerry Gramckow, who’s spent the majority of his life in the evangelical community. We value his insight and reflection. Thank you Jerry!

What is Trumpism?

by Jerry Gramckow

I’ve read several definitions of the term Trumpism. Some definitions, such as the one posited by Victor Davis Hanson in National Review, give it a mostly positive spin. Others, like this one in The Hill, are more critical. And some, like this one in the Los Angeles Times, pull no punches in making the term (and the movement) synonymous with dangerous, mind-numbing cultism.

Here’s my definition and analysis of Trumpism:

Definition: Trumpism is a movement made up mostly of willfully ignorant traditionalists whose self-centeredness makes them oblivious to the oppression or neglect of anyone outside themselves and their closest companions and willing to defy historic ethical norms to achieve their desired goals.

Analysis:…

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True Believer Pompeo Drives Iran Policy

Posted on January 9, 2020 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, religion, Social commentary

The United States is a secular nation, one that welcomes people of all or no religions, but does not govern based on the beliefs or principles of any religion. At least, that’s the intent as laid forth by the U.S. Constitution. Today’s “leaders”, the people driving public policy, seem painfully unaware of this principle. Our friend Jeff over at On the Fence Voters has written an excellent post about this, the greatest hypocrisy. Thank you, Jeff …

On The Fence Voters

It’s an open secret that the evangelical community has forged a somewhat uneasy alliance with the current president of the United States. He gives them the judges they want, gives them lip service supporting ‘religious liberty,’ and does a travel ban on Muslims. All of this overrides the fact he’s perhaps the most un-Christian president in history who’s a pathological liar and who publicly bullies people he doesn’t like.

To them, while he’s an imperfect leader, he’s the ‘chosen one’ who might get them the ‘end days’ they so desperately crave. And while that’s enough to make me grab a shot of whiskey (even though I’m a beer drinker), even more frightening is that the two men driving his Iran policy are Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Both consider themselves proud members of the evangelical community.

I’ve known about Pence for sometime now. He’s a pretty…

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Are Evangelicals Turning Against Trump?

Posted on December 20, 2019 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, religion, Social commentary

The magazine Christianity Today was founded by the late Reverend Billy Graham in 1956, and today has a readership of about 260,000. It is an evangelical Christian periodical often referred to as “evangelicalism’s flagship magazine”. When Graham founded the magazine, he said he wanted to “plant the evangelical flag in the middle-of-the-road, taking the conservative theological position but a definite liberal approach to social problems”.

Yesterday, Mark Galli, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, published an editorial about Donald Trump titled Trump Should Be Removed From Office, and I’d like to share a portion of that piece.

The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.

The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.

We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath. The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see. This damages the institution of the presidency, damages the reputation of our country, and damages both the spirit and the future of our people. None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.

Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election—that is a matter of prudential judgment. That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.

To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?

To use an old cliché, it’s time to call a spade a spade, to say that no matter how many hands we win in this political poker game, we are playing with a stacked deck of gross immorality and ethical incompetence.

I don’t profess to know whether Mr. Galli’s words can be taken as an indicator that the evangelical community is losing some degree of their admiration for Trump or not, but one can only hope. Those evangelicals who have slavishly supported Trump, came quickly to his defense once the editorial was published. Billy Graham’s son, Franklin, about whom I’ve written before, claimed that …

“He [Billy Graham] would’ve been very embarrassed that the magazine he started would call for something like this when there are no crimes committed. It’s a totally different magazine than what he started. For Christianity Today to side with the Democrat Party in a totally partisan attack on the President of the United States is unfathomable.”

And, of course Trump had to tweet his rambling, ranting and irrelevant two-cents worth …

“A far left magazine, or very “progressive,” as some would call it, which has been doing poorly and hasn’t been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years, Christianity Today, knows nothing about reading a perfect transcript of a routine phone call and would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President. No President has done more for the Evangelical community, and it’s not even close. You’ll not get anything from those Dems on stage. I won’t be reading ET again!”

In a conversation with Mr. Galli this morning, he told The Washington Post that the email response to his editorial had been overwhelmingly positive, though he had received at least one threat. Threats are, after all, the favoured tool of Trump and his faithful followers.

It is my hope that this is a sign that Trump is falling out of favour with at least some of the evangelicals, but I’m not counting my chickens before they hatch on this one.

WTF is “Natural Law”???

Posted on May 31, 2019 by jilldennison under Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Mike Pompeo is the nation’s Secretary of State.

Created in 1789 by the Congress as the successor to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of State is the senior executive Department of the U.S. Government. The Secretary of State’s duties relating to foreign affairs have not changed significantly since then, but they have become far more complex as international commitments multiplied. These duties – the activities and responsibilities of the State Department – include the following:

Serves as the President’s principal adviser on U.S. foreign policy;

Conducts negotiations relating to U.S. foreign affairs;

Grants and issues passports to American citizens and exequaturs to foreign consuls in the United States;

Advises the President on the appointment of U.S. ambassadors, ministers, consuls, and other diplomatic representatives;

Advises the President regarding the acceptance, recall, and dismissal of the representatives of foreign governments;

Personally participates in or directs U.S. representatives to international conferences, organizations, and agencies;

Negotiates, interprets, and terminates treaties and agreements;

Ensures the protection of the U.S. Government to American citizens, property, and interests in foreign countries;

Supervises the administration of U.S. immigration laws abroad;

Provides information to American citizens regarding the political, economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian conditions in foreign countries;

Informs the Congress and American citizens on the conduct of U.S. foreign relations;

Promotes beneficial economic intercourse between the United States and other countries;

Administers the Department of State;

Supervises the Foreign Service of the United States.

In addition, the Secretary of State retains domestic responsibilities that Congress entrusted to the State Department in 1789. These include the custody of the Great Seal of the United States, the preparation of certain presidential proclamations, the publication of treaties and international acts as well as the official record of the foreign relations of the United States, and the custody of certain original treaties and international agreements. The Secretary also serves as the channel of communication between the Federal Government and the States on the extradition of fugitives to or from foreign countries.

That is the official job description for the position of Secretary of State, taken from the U.S. Government’s own website. Please note that NOWHERE in all that verbiage does it say that the Secretary of State is in charge of setting the moral guidelines for the citizens of the United States!

Without the usual pomp and circumstance that usually accompanies announcements by the Trump regime, yesterday the State Department quietly announced the formation of a new committee to be called the Commission on Unalienable Rights, to be headed by Mike Pompeo. According to the notice, the “nature and purpose” of the commission is …

“The Commission will provide the Secretary of State advice and recommendations concerning international human rights matters. The Commission will provide fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights.”

Ponder on this one for a moment, if you will. “… departed from … founding principles of natural law”??? What is “natural law”? One definition is …

“Natural law is a philosophy asserting that certain rights are inherent by virtue of human nature, endowed by nature—traditionally by God or a transcendent source—and that these can be understood universally through human reason.”

Mike Pompeo is one of those evangelicals who are anti-everything … anti-abortion, anti-women’s rights, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim … and the list goes on. On April 3^rd, Brunei legalized the stoning to death of LGBT people. Most of the western world was appropriately outraged. Actor George Clooney called for a boycott of hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei. The governments of the EU and UK publicly called on Brunei to abandon the law. Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo were silent. When pressured by the media to comment, Pompeo finally said he was “concerned”, but neither he nor Trump condemned the brutality.

And now, Mike Pompeo, the evangelical, the man who is only ‘concerned’ about the brutal murder of people in the LGBTQ community, is in charge of a commission on ‘natural law’. Be afraid, people … be very afraid.

In recent weeks, we have seen numerous states infringing on women’s human rights by passing draconian laws banning a woman’s right to an abortion, even if to save her life. We have seen laws repealed that prohibited the discrimination of LGBTQ people in almost every area, including health care. In short, we have seen that this regime does not respect the rights of either women or the LGBTQ community.

The State Department already has an entire bureau devoted to the issues of human rights. Human rights advocates and activists are worried that the true purpose of this commission is to strip both women and LGBTQ people of protections against discrimination.

The most worrying part, to me, is that term “natural law”, which is typically associated with religion. The United States is a secular nation. Some will claim it is a ‘Christian nation’, but that is not the way the Constitution, the framework for our government, is designed. We welcome people of all or no religions to practice whatever religion … or none … they choose, but … BUT we do not design our laws in accordance with Christianity or any other religion.

For Mike Pompeo, who holds strong and narrow-minded religious views, and a group of his choosing to have input into the legal processes of this nation is a dangerous proposition … it poses, in this writer’s view, a distinct threat to the concept of separation of church and state, and it poses a threat to women and the LGBTQ community at the very least.

Few facts are available about what the commissions goals and processes are to be, and the State department refused to provide further details to the media, but this is something to keep an eye on, folks. This may well go the way of Trump’s “Voter Fraud Commission” in 2017 and simply fade into oblivion, but what if it doesn’t? Think about it.

U.S. Rules The World???

Posted on May 17, 2019 by jilldennison under Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Rants, religion, Social commentary

As I noted in a post earlier this week, there is a movement among republicans and groups who misnomer themselves as “pro-life” to overturn Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision from 1973 that gave women the right to make their own medical decisions when it comes to abortion. A growing number of states have passed or are attempting to pass highly restrictive laws that contradict Roe v Wade and would take away women’s rights. I had not planned to revisit this issue this soon, but something came to my attention that stirred my anger yet again …

Trump is trying to impose his and the evangelical’s heinous views on other nations as well, cutting off all funding to any overseas organization or clinic that will not agree to a complete ban on even discussing abortion. The ban, dubbed the “global gag”, was actually instituted by Ronald Reagan, but has been revoked by every democratic president, and re-instated by every republican president since then. And along came Donald Trump. Donnie, so eager to please the only people who support him, the radical right-wing evangelicals, has decided that he (or rather people like Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham) knows what is best for the 7.7 billion people living on planet Earth.

In March, the US extended the gag, stating that any organization counselling women on abortion and using funds from elsewhere – even from its own government or a donor in another country – will no longer be eligible for any US funding. Take, for example, an international health care agency that provides women’s health care, possibly including family planning and abortion counselling, but also treating kids with HIV in other countries … countries where there is no women’s health planning, for it is illegal. Those organizations will no longer be eligible for any funds from the U.S., not even to take care of sick children in African nations.

My friend Jeannie, who lives in the Netherlands, told me the other day that “The Netherlands have one most liberal laws about abortion in Western Europe, but the number of actual abortions are amongst the lowest worldwide.” Think about this, folks … facts, not fantasy. A study published last year by the Guttmacher Institute found that countries with the most restrictive abortion laws also have the highest rates of abortion and that easier access to birth control drives down abortion rates.

A 2012 study found that when women got no-cost birth control, the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions fell by between 62 and 78 percent. But political appointees under Trump advocate for abstinence-only approaches, which have been shown not to affect unplanned pregnancy rates. Not to mention that they are impractical.

This isn’t just about abortion, people … this is about making women second-class citizens around the globe. This is about men’s dominance over women. In many nations women already have few independent rights, but in the Western world, women have come a long way in the past century or two. In the U.S., we are now allowed to vote as we choose, to own property, and there are laws to ensure we receive equal pay and treatment in the workplace, though the reality is often something different. And for the past nearly 50 years, we have been able to make our own health decisions. We cannot … we must not … allow this abomination to continue.

The United States is a secular nation whereby the government does not favour any one religion over another, and no religious organization or cult should be able to influence the law of the land to the detriment of all others. The United States is one of 195 nations on this globe, and we do not have the right to set policy in other nations. It is the height of arrogance to think that we do. It is time for the evangelicals to understand that they may have a place in this country, but that their beliefs are not shared by us all, and that the rest of us have rights also. It is time for government to base decisions on facts, not the religious fantasies of one group.

If abortion rights are taken from us, the abortion rates won’t drop, but more women will die as they seek back-alley or do-it-yourself abortions. That is an undisputable fact. Let this nation legislate based on facts, and let other nations decide their own policy … nobody died and left the right-wing white evangelicals leaders of the world. They will take us back to the Dark Ages if we let them.

The Face of Ugly

Posted on May 5, 2019 by jilldennison under education, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, religion, Social commentary

I generally try to avoid ranting. As a rule, my ‘snarky snippets’ are enough to release the pressure that builds as a result of the chaos and corruption of our government and the idiocy of our society, and then I can go back to breathing and writing more well-reasoned pieces. But sometimes a number of issues converge, and it is blowup time. I can either blow up at my family, who do not deserve to be the brunt of my temper, or I can let the steam off here on my blog in an all-out rant. I choose the latter, so please bear with me.

There are two professions that should be above politics, though there is a necessary correlation: Teaching and Medicine. There is only one valid reason to enter into either of these fields, and that is a genuine desire to help people, to make a difference in this world, to be a humanitarian. Anybody who enters either of these professions for any other reason … well, they ought to get out. If you have any other motive, then I do not want you teaching my grandkids and I don’t want you being responsible for my life or that of a loved one.

Of late, it seems that some in the medical profession have decided they only want to treat people of one sort, while excluding some of the people who may need their services most. They are bigots and homophobes, and they ought to go work in an auto plant or a bank, for they are not humanitarians. I am talking, of course, about the recent push by some to allow health care workers to legally discriminate against the LGBT community.

Discrimination is against the law, just in case anybody has any doubts. We have something called ‘civil rights’ in this country, or at least we did until just over two years ago. I would also remind you that this is a secular nation, meaning our government is not tied to any specific religion and does not make laws that discriminate pro or con any specific religion. Until, that is, the evangelical Christians and Donald Trump came together. Suddenly, under the Reign of Trump, it is said to be okay to refuse health care to LGBT people.

Why, you ask? Because the bulk of those who support Trump are these evangelicals and Trump believes he only needs to serve his supporters, not the majority of us who cannot stand the ‘man’! So, along come the ‘evangelicals’ and they say to Trump, “Hey, Don, our bible says that sex between two men or two women is a sin, and so we want to have nothing to do with those gay and transgender people. Can you help us out here?” And so Don helps them out.

From the New York Times …

President Trump on Thursday announced an expanded “conscience rule” to protect health care workers who oppose abortion, sterilization, assisted suicide and other medical procedures on religious or moral grounds.

The rule establishes guidelines for punishing health care institutions with the loss of federal funds if they fail to respect the rights of such workers.

“Just today, we finalized new protections of conscience rights for physicians, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, students and faith-based charities,” Mr. Trump said in a Rose Garden event for the National Day of Prayer. “They’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.”

The ‘rights of such workers’??? What about the rights of a sick person or a child??? What about the human rights to an education and health care? What about civil rights??? Only about 25% of the population of this nation identify as evangelical, and yet that 25% … that minority … now gets to decide on the laws of the land for us all?

As those of you who have followed this blog for a time are aware, I am not religious, but I respect the religious views of all others, including Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Jains, and all others. I shy away from discussing religion on this blog for that very reason … I recognize that there are many different sets of beliefs out there and I would never willingly offend any. That said, there is only one qualifier: don’t shove your religion on others, including myself! This latest move by King Trump is doing just that. It is saying that a nurse can refuse to take the blood pressure of a gay person, an ambulance driver can refuse to transport an accident victim who happens to be transgender and instead may leave him by the side of the road to die.This nation was founded in part on religious freedom, and yet now, some 230 years later, the current regime is attempting to force this entire nation to believe as a mere 25% of the population believe. What is wrong with this picture???

I want you to think about a question: What’s next? Yes, what’s next … we know there will be a ‘next’, for when Trump gets his way once, it emboldens him to go on and push for more. So, by autumn will he sign a new rule saying it’s okay to deny an education or medical treatment to African-Americans? Far-fetched, you say? I think not. The bulk of his supporters are evangelicals, and they got what they wanted. The bulk of his supporters are also white and believe that this nation should favour Caucasians. Will they get their way also?

Bigotry takes on many forms from homophobia to misogyny to Islamophobia to racism and in every instance it is a result of fear … in every instance it is the face of ugly. I look around this country … a country I’ve lived in all my life, a country I thought I knew … and more and more I see the face of bigotry, the face of ugly. I see the arrogance of those who think they are somehow superior based on the colour of their skin, or their religion, or even their gender. I don’t like what I see, do you? Think about it.

The Conversation — Part II

Posted on November 30, 2018 by jilldennison under education, Free Press Issues, Political commentary

This is Part II of the series I started yesterday afternoon, in response to a very thoughtful and thought-provoking comment I received from friend Mary on Tuesday. Mary’s comments are in normal text, mine are in blue. The conversation continues …

¹When I look around and see the support trump still has after 2 years, I believe it is hopeless … truly. I do hope I’m wrong, but I have a feeling. ²Education is not getting better, ³politics are even more corrupt, greed is rampant, ⁴our government supports killers over their own intelligence agencies, selfishness is rampant, ⁵far right religion is out of control with their end times desires and pushing their own special brand of bigotry, ⁶fires being blamed on not raking leaves, wars without end, ⁷the real fake news (Fox and their ilk) are taking over the simple minded and on and on… Let me take these one-by-one:

Trump’s support is still the minority. His approval ratings have never, since his first week or two in office, come above about 43%, and typically run in the mid-to-high 30s, lower than any other president in modern times. The thing about his supporters is that they are loud and obnoxious, have radical and hateful ideas, so, as the saying goes, “the squeaky wheel gets the oil”. They are given the attention of the media, making them seem much larger than they actually are.
Education has been in decline for more than a decade, though I agree that under Trump it is certain to decline further. Betsy DeVos would make college available to only those in the upper 1% of the income bracket and would siphon funds meant for public schools serving the many, into charter and religious schools serving only the elite few. The problem, however, traces to parents who prefer their children to be schooled in a skill or a trade, so that they are prepared for a specific sort of job when they leave school, rather than receiving a liberal arts education that gives them a broad scope of knowledge, and most importantly, teaches them to think, to ask questions, to find solutions to problems. Thus, the future leaders of this country, as well as the future scientists and inventors, will likely come only from among the very privileged. It is a problem, certainly, but not one without a solution. The solution is that we, as parents and grandparents, must step up to the plate, must demand that our children be given the same opportunity as the children of the Koch family. And we must motivate our children, for today’s youth is the future of this country. Spend time with them, teach them what they need to know, teach them to reason, to ask questions, not to simply accept the easy answers.
Yes, Mary, politics are as corrupt as they have ever been. The first thing that needs to be done is to take the money out of it. Citizens United was the single worst decision ever made in terms of campaign finance, and even a few Supreme Court Justices have since regretted their vote. It has left the door wide open for large corporations and lobbying groups, such as the fossil fuel and arms industries to buy members of Congress. Today, it isn’t about the candidate’s platform and ideologies, but rather about how much money he can bring in. I would personally like to see a system where donations are made to a central organization and divvied equally among all candidates. Not going to happen, but it’s the only way we can ensure that our elected officials are truly representing us, We The People, and not in the pockets of the wealthy, industries, or the NRA. Another suggestion I have is that we expand the current two-party system to either make it easier for an independent to get on the ballot, or to have a multi-party system such as many European nations have. The United States is the only nation that has a duopoly, a two-party system where all power rests with those two parties.
It appears that it is Trump’s decision alone to support Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and to ignore the evidence of his role in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Members of both parties in Congress are displeased with this decision and I cannot imagine that any other president would be so unwilling to listen to his own intelligence agencies, but Trump … well, he thinks he knows more than anybody else.
The far-right religion, the evangelicals, as a whole are a problem for our nation only to the extent that the government and the courts allow them to be. Trump promised his followers that he would nominate justices to the Supreme Court that would be willing to overturn Roe v Wade and Obergefell v Hodges, and thus far he has seated two such judges. It is to be hoped that he does not get the opportunity to nominate others, and that the rest of the court has respect for the decisions of past courts. Our laws call for separation of church and state for good reason. Ours is a secular government and has no right to interfere in any religion, but by the same token, religions must not have the right to determine law.
I agree that Trump’s response to the forest fires in California was abominable. The good news about that is he surely didn’t make any friends or find any new supporters in that state! The only thing he did do was prove his own ignorance, as if we needed further proof.
Trump’s close ties with Fox News are indeed worrisome, especially when he is said to call Sean Hannity for advice! And to add insult to injury is his demonization of the legitimate press, calling them the “Enemy of the People”. I must admit that, while I see the danger quite clearly, I am at a loss as to how we can make people think for themselves, make them wake up and realize that Fox News is naught more than state-sponsored television that panders to Donald Trump. I think we must rely on the organizations that are established for the purpose of being the watchdogs to monitor freedom of the press, such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and hope they do their job and get the word out.

And once again I am at over 1,000 words, so I shall stop here and wrap up with Part III later today. Please feel free to join in the conversation with your own ideas! And thanks for not throwing those rotten tomatoes! 🍅 🍅 🍅

Link to Part I in case you missed it: The Conversation — Part I

Re-defining “Liberty”

Posted on August 13, 2018 by jilldennison under Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, religion, Social commentary

Two weeks ago, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of a “religious liberty task force” to help protect the right of every American “to believe, worship and exercise their faith in the public square.” Religious liberty … what exactly does that mean? To me, it means the right of every person to believe as he or she sees fit, to belong to any church of their choice, or none at all. It is, as I see it, an individual ‘right’. It is not, however, the right to inflict your own beliefs upon others.

George Marsden, a religious historian at the University of Notre Dame, describes religious liberty as ‘inclusive pluralism’, a society in which no religion is preferred over another, and all believers can worship as they see fit. Sounds about right, don’t you think?

But by Trump’s, Sessions’ and the evangelical’s definition, it changes to connote freedoms and privileges granted mostly to Christians — specifically, the white conservative Christians who form a vital part of the Republican base. Instead of inclusive pluralism, it now stands for exclusive primacy of the Christian faith. Politicized religion.

In 2016, as he stumped along the campaign trail, Trump met with a large group of nearly 1,000 evangelicals, and here is what he said …

“This is such an important election. And I say to you folks because you have such power, such influence. Unfortunately, the government has weeded it away from you pretty strongly. But you’re going to get it back.”

I have two questions:

Why should any religious group have ‘power and influence’ in a secular government? Or society?
What the Sam Heck did the government “weed” away from the evangelicals?

In the same meeting, he also promised them that they would be allowed to say “Merry Christmas” again. Excuse me, but nobody ever said they couldn’t!!! Some businesses asked their employees to use “Happy Holidays” instead, as a courtesy to those of us who are not Christians, but are Jews, Muslims, Hindus or atheists, but nobody stopped anybody from saying “Merry Christmas”!

Then, to add insult to injury, Trump promised them that if they voted him into office, he would abandon the Johnson Amendment that forbids tax-exempt organizations from campaigning for a political candidate. It doesn’t say that members of a church cannot campaign for a candidate as individuals, only that the church itself cannot endorse a specific candidate if they wish to maintain their tax-exempt status. It is intended to keep religion out of politics – remember the concept of ‘separation of church and state’?

And that is precisely what he did with the religious liberty executive order he signed in May, bypassing Congress altogether … again. Not that it would have mattered, for when he says “Jump!”, the boot-lickers in Congress ask “How high?” And when he signed the bloody order, he commented, “We are giving our churches their voices back.” They. Never. Lost. Their. Voices.

Only about 70% of the American public profess to be Christian. What about the other 30% of us? Religious liberty as defined by this administration and its supporters is liberty only for white Christians. In a recent Supreme Court decision, the Court granted Christian business owners the right to refuse service to LGBT people. The next logical step is that Christian business owners will be granted the right to refuse service to a Jew, or a Muslim, or a non-believer. Perhaps business owners will be allowed to refuse service to African-Americans … or Latinos.

Envision a nation where your drivers’ license has a section for religion. For gender orientation. Remember Trump’s comment a week or so ago about having to have a photo ID to buy groceries? Maybe he was projecting into the future he envisions where an ID distinguishing religion, ethnicity, gender identification, and length of toenails are revealed. Or perhaps … or perhaps all non-Christians will just wear a yellow star and have a number tattooed on their forearm like the one my Uncle Leon had.

Far-fetched? Maybe, but … seemingly innocuous phrases like “religious liberty” and “family values” have become buzzwords for discrimination against any whose ideas or lifestyles differ from the Christian community. It has become harsh and discriminatory. ‘Values’ and ‘Liberty’ have somehow become something very ugly.

When Sessions announced his ‘task force’, he had a little celebratory ceremony … yes, by all means, let’s celebrate widespread discrimination! He made a comment that was neither true nor sensible, referring to “nuns ordered to buy contraception” under President Obama. To set the record straight, no nun in the history of the U.S. has ever been forced to buy contraceptives under any president! And guess who was the guest speaker at Sessions’ little celebration? None other than the bigoted Jack Phillips, the baker in Nevada who was so offended at being asked to place a topper with two men atop a wedding cake that he went all the way to the Supreme Court and forever changed the face of the nation.

I recently read an OpEd that said the founding fathers would not recognize the definition of ‘religious liberty’ in this, the 21^st century. To be honest, I don’t recognize it myself. We have taken “white Christian privilege” too far, and this nation is headed down a very dangerous path. It is one you can find in the history books if you go back to the early 1930s in Europe.

Labels, Labels, LABELS

Posted on August 4, 2018 by jilldennison under Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, religion, Social commentary

Yesterday, a friend & reader left this comment on one of my posts:

“I don’t know if anyone has addressed this before, but it scares the bloomin’ hell out of a lot of us who USED to claim to be of the Christian persuasion. We don’t want to see this happen at all either. There are millions of us who feel that way. But the right-wing conservatives yell louder than we do. The rest of us are out there trying to push others to recognize the dignity of all people. So how do WE get the presses’ attention. I, for one, and most of my friends, am tired of being lumped into that crazy arse group of fundamentalists. (rolls eyes…) They horrify me. Ooo! Let’s crucify anyone who is gay, but we just have to pray for the Strumpet because he’s misguided, so we can excuse his behavior. What a load of crap.”

I must admit that it made me stop and think. This is the problem with labels for people. Labels on cans at the supermarket are a wonderful thing, for we would not otherwise know if we were getting corn or green beans. Labels on clothing help us know the proper wash water temperature and how to care for a shirt or pair of pants. Labels on most ‘things’ tend to be helpful and serve a purpose. People, however, are not ‘things’. We label democrats and republicans, but what do those labels mean? I know the basic ideologies of each of those two parties, but does that mean that every single person who is registered as a republican is against Universal Health Care? Or that everyone who calls himself a ‘democrat’ supports a woman’s right to choose an abortion? Think about this one for a bit.

We label men and women, heterosexuals and gays. But why must the label define the person? I have been as guilty as any of referring to republicans as ‘idiots’ and ‘fools’, though I count among my friends a few republicans who are good people, neither idiots nor fools, else they wouldn’t be my friends. I remember one time in college, when I was venting to a male professor who happened to be a mentor and trusted friend, and I said that all men were assholes (don’t ask!). His reply was, “Well, since I am a man, and you believe that all men are assholes, then either you think I am an asshole, or you think I am not a man. Which is it?” I have never forgotten that conversation, because I learned something that day. I learned a lesson that I have since forgotten on more than one occasion: don’t label people.

For the past decade or so, the political climate in the U.S. has been becoming more and more divided, antagonistic. There is, no matter who you are or what ‘side’ you are on, “them” and “us”. I hear it often … “well, he’s on our side, right?” And I know that I cannot change that divisiveness with a simple post of about 1,000 words. But I hope that I can make those who read these words stop for just a minute and let’s do some thinking.

European immigrants first came to this nation seeking religious freedom, freedom from persecution. That means, at least in my mind, that you can be a Christian, go to the church of your choice, and follow the tenets of your chosen faith. It also, however, means that Sal Rosenstein down the street can follow his faith, go to Synagogue as he chooses, and light the Menorah at Chanukah. It means that Ali al-Dabbagh has the right to pray to Allah and attend the Mosque of his choice, without fear. And it further means that if I choose to observe no religion, I am free to do so without condemnation or persecution.

Recently, in this culture of divisiveness we are experiencing, some within the Christian religion have expressed some fairly radical views – views that the majority in this nation do not necessarily support, and that even many within the Christian faith do not support. Without delving into the specifics, those views are largely discriminatory against any who are different in any way. This group of people have been obnoxiously loud and vulgar in voicing their views and have drawn the attention of the press and the public alike. Remember that old saying, “the squeaky wheel gets the oil”? It’s true. It’s not right, but it’s true.

To judge all Christians by the actions of only the evangelicals who would ban the LGBT community, rob a woman of the right to control her own body & destiny, and insist that the United States is a ‘Christian nation’, is wrong. It is just as wrong as it would be to assume that all women with blonde hair are dumb, or that all tall people play basketball!

We will never stop using labels, for they serve a purpose. If you are robbed at gunpoint in your home and you call the police, they will ask you for a description of the robber. Male or female? Black or white? Young or old? Tall or short? These distinctions are necessary in this case, not to discriminate, not to judge, but to identify. When we are discussing a group of people who behave in a certain way, it is simplest to label them as republicans or democrats, Christians or Jews, males or females. So no, the practice of labeling human beings is not likely to see an end any time soon, but … let us stop and think when we are writing or speaking, before we apply a label, before we generalize about a group, let’s at least try to make sure that we are not using such a broad label that the net catches those who do not belong. It’s tough, especially in today’s culture of ‘us’ vs ‘them’, but it’s only fair.

The majority of people in the world, I like to believe, are peace-loving, kind, caring individuals. There are some who are otherwise. Let’s try not to confuse the two. If we must judge, let’s do so based on actions and behaviours rather than on labels. Let’s try not to judge the whole based on the actions of the few.

*** Note to readers …. I think some have perhaps taken offense to my words in this post, and I want to set the record straight. I was pointing no fingers at all, unless it was the fingers I had pointed at myself. The reader who left me the comment, C, made me stop and think and realize that it isn’t fair to lump all Christians in with the evangelicals who are gay-bashing, white supremacist bigots. I realized just how many times I had done this, and I was ashamed. That said, I also understand how hard it is not to label or categorize people these days. Please, take no offense from this post, as none was intended.

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