Tag: Christianity and Politics

Stanley Hauerwas on the Place of Politics in Church

For my money, Stanley Hauerwas (retired professor of Duke University and prolific author) is the most important American theologian alive today.  And I don’t say that because he was kind enough to write a positive endorsement for my book, I Pledge Allegiance.

No one has a better grasp of the essential relationship between the Church and the Kingdom of God.  If only more of us could think and act as clearly as he does.

Below is an excerpt from Professor Hauerwas’ contribution to the recent Christian Century article, “Do politics belong in church?“.

“The only problem with [saying] ‘religion and politics do not mix’ is that the phrase is one of the strongest examples we have of political rhetoric. There is no escaping ‘the political.’ To refuse to take a political stance is to take a political stance. In particular, the presumption that the church is above politics underwrites the distinction between the public and the private that serves to relegate strong convictions, particularly if they are ‘religious,’ to the private. Private, moreover, is the word we use to describe a fictive political agent, that is, the individual whose political views are to be respected no matter what they may be.

“Moreover, the politics presupposed by the slogan ‘religion and politics do not mix’ is issue politics of election years. ‘Issues’ are what politicians use to distract ‘the people’ from considering the fundamental injustices of our political arrangements. We assume we can concentrate on the issues because given that we are a democracy all we need do is vote. Christians take it for granted that democracies are the Christian form of government, though they seldom ask what makes democracies democratic.

“So when Christians are in church they should be at their most political. But what is essential is how to avoid letting what passes as politics determine the political agenda of the church. Christians must learn again how to reframe issues in a manner that makes clear that the politics of Jesus is different. The church is its own politic, which means Christians cannot avoid being ‘political.’” (emphasis mine)

James K. A. Smith on the Place of Politics in Church

The Christian Century recently published a good article entitled “Do politics belong in church?“.  It is a compilation of 11 responses from pastors and leaders with a wide variety of backgrounds.

I plan to excerpt what I believe are the best of the bunch.  You can find the entire article here.

I begin with my friend and former colleague, James K. A. Smith.  Jamie wrote the foreword to my book, Encountering Jesus Encountering Scripture.  I also have reviewed his recent book Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology on this blog.

I greatly appreciate Jamie’s perspective:

“You might expect the obligatory nod to the challenge of preaching in our polarized climate—except for the fact that our congregations are comfortably partisan and have been engines of polarization, not some lingering holdout against it. Like our housing and education, Christianity reflects rather than resists what sociologist Bill Bishop calls “the big sort.” Congregations are predictable clusters of the politically like-minded. I expect that many pastors, whether on the left or right, can count on a certain slant of ‘us’ and reliably decry a ‘them’ on Sunday mornings.

“So the challenge is less how to avoid upsetting ideologically diverse congregations and more a matter of rightly upsetting the monolithic congregations in front of us. But how? What does faithful political discipleship look like?

“We don’t want to avoid being predictably partisan by falling prey to the illusion that the gospel is politically ‘neutral.’ If some partisan stands align with biblical concerns for justice, we shouldn’t soft-pedal biblical themes just to avoid appearing partisan. Here’s a way the lectionary is a gift. These biblical themes confront us. Preaching isn’t dictated by the pet priorities of a party but by the worldwide curriculum of the body of Christ at worship. And some days, by grace, that Word will come as a challenge to our own preferences.

“Nor does the unique ‘politics of Jesus’ give us license to sequester ourselves in alternative communities. Policy is how we love our neighbors, and purity doesn’t release us from the Great Commandment. The illusion of being nonpolitical is a luxury of privilege that only leaves the vulnerable exposed.”

 

“The Suffocation of Democracy” by C. R. Browning

Christopher R. Browning is an esteemed historian of World War II.  He recently wrote an article for The New York Review of Books entitled “The Suffocation of Democracy.”  In this article Brown compares both the

German President Paul von Hindenburg and Chancellor Adolf Hitler on their way to a youth rally at the Lustgarten, Berlin, May 1933

similarities and the differences between the current state of American politics and the rise of fascism in Europe during the 1920s to 1930s.

In certain ways, the United States in 2018 is not very different from the German Weimar Republic that eventually gave way to Adolf Hitler.  In other ways, we are very different.

I have posted Browning’s concluding paragraphs below.  The entire article is well worth reading.  Just click the link above:

“No matter how and when the Trump presidency ends, the specter of illiberalism will continue to haunt American politics. A highly politicized judiciary will remain, in which close Supreme Court decisions will be viewed by many as of dubious legitimacy, and future judicial appointments will be fiercely contested. The racial division, cultural conflict, and political polarization Trump has encouraged and intensified will be difficult to heal. Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and uncontrolled campaign spending will continue to result in elections skewed in an unrepresentative and undemocratic direction. Growing income disparity will be extremely difficult to halt, much less reverse.

“Finally, within several decades after Trump’s presidency has ended, the looming effects of ecological disaster due to human-caused climate change—which Trump not only denies but is doing so much to accelerate—will be inescapable. Desertification of continental interiors, flooding of populous coastal areas, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, with concomitant shortages of fresh water and food, will set in motion both population flight and conflicts over scarce resources that dwarf the current fate of Central Africa and Syria. No wall will be high enough to shelter the US from these events. Trump is not Hitler and Trumpism is not Nazism, but regardless of how the Trump presidency concludes, this is a story unlikely to have a happy ending.”

When Disobedience is a Virtue, 3 — Do We Inhabit a Moral Universe Created by God’s Kingdom?

Brett Kavanaugh was officially appointed to the Supreme Court on Monday.  One of the “evangelical” representatives present at the White House ceremony was Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.  Jeffress is one of the president’s “spiritual counselors.”

Remember, Kavanaugh’s Senate hearings offered us the opportunity to watch a woman named Christine Blasey Ford expose her private humiliation to the American public as she retold the ugly story of her sexual assault.  Afterwards, the American president publicly vilified Dr. Ford.  He laughed and ridiculed her at a campaign rally in Mississippi, turning a woman’s trauma into his own personal burlesque comedy act.

Her family continues to hide in an undisclosed location because of the torrent of death threats they receive.

In the aftermath of all this, Robert Jeffress’ went on Fox News to describe Kavanaugh’s appointment as a sign that “good had triumphed over evil.”

Jeffress added, “I think, in many ways, the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh represents conservatives finally standing up and saying, to quote the movie: ‘We’re as mad as hell and we’re not going to take this any longer.’'”

Robert Jeffress and I do not inhabit the same moral universe.

The following excerpt is from pages 107-109 of my book I Pledge Allegiance: A Believers Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans 2018).  I discuss Nazi Germany as one example of the ways different societies construct their own “moral universes” and the challenges these different social universes present to citizens of the kingdom of God.

The two books I refer to are:

 David Gushee, The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: A Christian Interpretation (Fortress, 1994)

Peter J. Haas, Morality after Auschwitz: The Radical Challenge of the Nazi Ethic (Fortress, 1988)

“Although the decision to break the law by rescuing Jews may seem an obvious choice to us today, we should not forget that only a few in Germany actually made that difficult decision. The majority of German Christians offered no outward objections to Nazi policies. For instance, not a single public protest was ever launched by a Protestant church leader against Germany’s euthanasia laws when they were implemented.  When push came to shove, bad theology, fear, rationalizing, and self-preservation all trumped actualizing the gospel message, which leads us to Gushee’s second, tragic observation.

 “Christian rescuers were few and far between.  Rescuers, in general, were the exception to the rule in World War II; but rescuers claiming to be motivated by their Christian faith were rare even among this small group of heroes. This lamentable fact (at least lamentable for me as a Christian) requires a deeper analysis than we can give to it here, but it certainly illustrates just how difficult and unusual it is for self-professed Christians to give themselves over completely to the thoroughgoing, inside-out transformation desired by Christ. The widespread nature of this spiritual challenge is illustrated time and again by the historians who study the Christian church in Nazi Germany. For example, Richard Steigmann-Gall’s research on Nazi views of Christianity concludes: “Christianity, in the final analysis, did not constitute a barrier to Nazism. Quite the opposite: For many . . . the battles waged against Germany’s enemies constituted a war in the name of Christianity. . . . Nearly all the Nazis surveyed here believed they were defending good by waging war against evil, fighting for God against the Devil, for German against Jew.”

 “This is a chilling conclusion for anyone who loves Jesus.

 “My point in turning our attention to Nazi Germany is not to single out the German church or to suggest that the Third Reich was the only disastrous political movement that has co-opted Christianity and bastardized the gospel.  I have chosen these examples from the history of Nazi Germany because this is one of the few episodes in modern history that is relatively free of partisan wrangling. Almost everyone, regardless of nationality, political persuasion, or religion, will agree that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi doctrine were a consummate evil. I am confident that the majority of my readers will agree—whether their politics are Republican, Democratic, independent, socialist, Green Party, libertarian, or anarchist—that the bulk of the German church, both Protestant and Catholic, allowed the rules of this-worldly citizenship to smother their responsibilities as citizens of God’s kingdom. No one in a church composed of true pilgrims, strangers, and aliens in this world could ever uniformly adhere to the policies of the Nazi Party.

 “From this shared starting point, let me go on to say something that is perhaps more provocative: There is a close analogy to be made between the behavior of the American church today and that of the German church in 1933. No, America may not face the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or National Socialism (whatever the current administration’s political opponents may say). But, like the people of Germany, we all live within a shared moral universe that defines both good and evil and then brings various forces to bear in pressuring us to conform. The Nazis managed to create a moral universe where racism and brutality were approved, even encouraged. The German people behaved accordingly.  Anti-Semitism and eugenics were morally good, while racial integration and opposition to the state were morally evil. Peter Haas rightly insists that ‘the Holocaust was not the incarnation of evil but instead reflected the human power to reconceive good and evil and then to shape society in the light of the new conception.’

 “Haas offers a crucial insight. Whether we recognize it or not, we all live within analogous ethical systems, where we blithely accept cultural definitions of good and evil without exercising any critical thinking. The issue is not the particular guise adopted by evil—whether it wears the face of Nazism, communism, consumerism, capitalism, imperialism, racism, or the class system—but the fact that evil always exists without always being self-evident to us. The moral universe created by twenty-first- century America is not identical with the moral universe envisioned by the gospel of Jesus Christ. But that will be shocking news to many members of the church in America.  This confusion makes the American church typical. The bulk of the German church did not fail because it was German but because it was human. The burdensome millstone hanging from the neck of world history is sinful human nature, a human nature that would rather create its own moral universe than live obediently in God’s. When given a choice, human nature always prefers to cling to its own precious, self-serving ideologies (no matter how idiotic, uninformed, xenophobic, or grotesque) over the self-renunciation, self-sacrifice, and servanthood demanded by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, all Christians of every nation must ask themselves in a spirit of repentance, humility, and self-examination: What kind of moral universe is the church inhabiting today? What redefinitions of good and evil have we accepted for our own cultural convenience? What kinds of immorality are we ignoring, or even heartily endorsing, because we are more heavily invested in partisan politics, nationalism, capitalism, consumerism, discrimination, and the many other idolatrous ephemera born of the kingdom of this world than we are in following Jesus Christ?”

When Disobedience is a Virtue, 2 – The Mind of Christ Confronts Propaganda

 

Several recent on-line conversations have reminded me, although I never actually forgot, about the basic tools that make propaganda effective.  Abusive leaders (and there are LOTS of them) speak propaganda not truth.

Propaganda is the repetitious spreading of misinformation and lies in order to manipulate the public into believing falsehoods and behaving in ways that are unjust.  Common methods include:

  • Relying on one and only one source of information
  • Listening only to voices that agree with you and confirm your preexisting bias
  • Repetition; either listening to or repeating the same information over and
    Joseph Goebbels was Minister of Propaganda for Adolf Hitler. He was an expert at his job

    over again

  • Offering only one side of an argument, ignoring any contrary evidence or argumentation

Among conservatives of all stripes today, the principle propaganda outlet is Fox News.  This network, and others like it, are a blight on American society.  It’s product is not journalism but propaganda.  Fox’s blatant role as an outlet for

Republican talking points has been public knowledge for many years (here and here).  Loyal viewers repeat what they hear on Fox News because it’s often the only source they trust.

This repetitious feedback loop is now firmly established.

The Nazis understood the persuasive power of repetition

In one of my recent online debates, a gentleman emphatically repeated the same claims over and over again, regardless of my replies.  I answered him by pointing out the misinformation in his statements and giving reasons for why his argument was incorrect.  Yet, as is typical of folks who only “know” what they hear via propaganda, he simply repeated his false claims and errors more firmly, never adjusting his argument or responding to my points.  In other words, he restated what he had been told to believe.

THIS IS NOT APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR FOR GOD’S PEOPLE.

Here’s today’s excerpt, from pages 105-106 of my book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans 2018):

“Persuasive messaging is vital to authority. Whether that message comes in the guise of politics, philosophy, theology, ideology, theory, or propaganda, an authority figure creates legitimacy through the power of a convincing explanation. Effective messaging allows listeners to believe that their obedience is serving a desirable end, no matter how distasteful their obedience to those demands may be. The ends justify the means, at least when the authority’s words are convincing. ‘Control the manner in which a man (sic) interprets his world, and you have gone a long way toward controlling his behavior.’

“If the message is repeated often enough, and the listener becomes convinced enough, the authority’s explanation is eventually assimilated into the person’s understanding of the world. It is no longer questioned; it is assumed and becomes the believer’s default position, so that any new evidence challenging or contradicting the accepted message is automatically dismissed or ignored.  Do you remember your last political debate with someone who only watches the news from one particular television network? How open was that person to new evidence or counter-arguments offered from a different perspective? Once the content of repetitious messaging has been excused from answering questions posed by critical thinking, then it has become indoctrination: that is, a strongly held belief having its own internal logic, self-evident only to believers, hovering above the messy world of counter-evidence and public demonstration.

“But politicians, demagogues, and advertising agencies are not the only ones who use the power of messaging. The Christian church also has a message that requires communication. We first hear this message through the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is then elaborated through regular Bible study into a comprehensive way of living, where obeying the Lord Jesus is life’s guiding directive. Christians discover what God asks of them by becoming familiar with the sound of his voice. Recognizing God’s voice is a gift to faithful, long-time students of his word who put the Lord’s directions into practice. This is how a depraved human mind is slowly transformed into the redeemed mind of Christ (Rom. 12:2). It is a process called sanctification, and it is neither easy nor automatic. Our human tendency is to cling to as much of the old, unredeemed mindset as possible, minimizing the amount of Christ-like upside-down transformation occurring and protectively maximizing the old-time, business-as-usual worldview preserved from our pre-Christian attitudes on life. It is a lifelong contest for supremacy.

“In this respect, every disciple resembles the character Gollum in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Gollum is a slobbering, pathetic subterranean creature, clawing and clutching feverishly at his ‘precious’ ring, unwilling to let it go. For Christians, our own ‘precious’ thing is the carnal mindset and consequent immorality that we spent a lifetime inhaling from the materialistic atmosphere swirling around us before we first met Jesus. Allowing these precious, unredeemed preconceptions to be challenged, torn down, and replaced by the new, regenerate mind of Jesus is so difficult that it sometimes never happens. Occasionally, a dramatic historical event will pull back the ecclesiastical curtain to reveal the truth about God’s people and about whose mind is truly precious to them.”

I am convinced that American Christianity is facing one such “dramatic historical event” right now.  It is the rise of Donald Trump and the ethos surrounding him called Trumpism.

Whether Trump’s presidency is a flash in the pan or the permanent entrenchment of all the worst qualities displayed throughout America’s history as an international bully is beside the point.  Conservative

Trump with a few evangelical supporters

Christianity’s gleeful embrace and puppy-dog loyalty to this pathological liar and malignant narcissist is more than enough to reach a verdict.

The conservative church in this country has not only failed the test, it has demonstrated that it never studied for the exam.  It has slept through every class.  Never taken a single note.  Ignored the teacher and burned down the school.

For all its Christian bookstores, Bible study videos, booklets and supposedly expository teaching, the truth of God’s word is a stranger to many, far too many, who say they are God’s people.

The “ecclesiastical curtain” has been torn asunder from top to bottom; the church’s priorities have been exposed.  Many things are precious to American Christianity, but the mind of Christ is not one of them.

When Disobedience is a Virtue, 1 – Every Christian Must Be A Dissident

This is an excerpt from my book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans 2018).  “When Disobedience is a Virtue” is the title of chapter 7.  I intend to offer a series of similar posts, all taken from this chapter of my book.

I give my attention to the nature of authority, its abuse and how easy it is – frighteningly easy – for people to fall prey to the most outlandish abuses by

Swastikas cover the altar of a German Christian church

dangerous authority figures.  The classic example, of course, is the German Christian church under the spell of Adolf Hitler.

No. I don’t believe that the US is now comparable to pre-war Germany, though I will refer you in an upcoming post to an American historian who convincingly argues that the two are closer than you might imagine.

What I do believe, however, is that the mindset controlling vast swaths of American Christianity today, especially in its more conservative sectors, reflects many of the same dangerous errors that eventually led the German Christian church to support Hitler.

Trump may not be Hitler.  But widespread Christian enthusiasm for a morally repugnant president who delights in dehumanizing others – reflexively, without inhibition or remorse – who demonstrates all the traits of a sociopath, suggests to me that conservative Christians in this country have managed to lobotomize the mind of Christ – at least within themselves. We have become expert at steeling ourselves against the work of the Holy Spirit, of silencing the Spirit’s voice, ignoring His conviction, and perhaps of expelling Him altogether.

Resistance is the spiritual imperative for every true disciple.  But who, what

Leshia Evans stands against police while standing up for Black Lives Matter

and where do we resist properly?  And how do we resist in a way that pleases our crucified Lord Jesus?

Here is the first excerpt, from page 98:

“…we all regularly face the challenge of knowing when to submit and when to disobey authority. Often the authority is as seemingly benign as public opinion, the status quo, cultural expectations, tradition, or peer pressure.  Yet, for a people who believe they have been called out of darkness into the light, who understand that living by the standards of God’s kingdom will frequently put them at odds with the practices and expectations of a fallen world, defying authority in some way should be common practice. Perhaps it means befriending the outcast shunned by everyone else at school. Or calling friends to account for laughing at a racist remark. Paul’s admonition in Romans 13:5—to act “because of conscience”—is one of the implications he draws from Romans 12:2: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (see chapter 4). Learning to defy the patterns of this world by renewing our minds after the model of Jesus and cultivating a genuinely Christian conscience requires learning when, where, and how to disobey any authority, no matter how familiar, issuing wrongful directives, regardless of the consequences. From this perspective, every Christian is called to be a dissident. Discipleship is the life of dissent from this world in the affirmation of Jesus and his kingdom.”

Don Lemon Exposes the Republican’s “White Men are Victims” Strategy for What It Is, Evil

Several days ago Don Lemon, an anchor at CNN, shared a moving testimony about how he was victimized by a pedophile when he was a young  boy.

Men like Mr. Lemon, and there are many of them, can easily identify with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s account of sexual assault.  They can also relate to the shameful Republican tactics, seemingly successful tactics, to silence the victim.  More than that, Republicans, with Donald Trump leading the way, have not only managed to silence Dr. Ford, they have erased her from their story altogether.

Please take a few minutes to watch Mr. Lemon’s excellent unveiling of the current Republican strategy for normalizing their disregard of sexual assault and all its victims:

Victims of sexual violence are non-entities today, at least in the realm of Republicanism.  They have announced that these women’s (and men’s) stories are not worth hearing.

Women like Dr. Ford are now mere specters floating in a moral vacuum.

Rendered invisible, even as she stands before us.

Made mute by the black magic of partisan voodoo.  Oppressive incantations intoned from the Senate floor.

Yet, if old white men like Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, Rush Limbaugh and many others are to be believed, this non-existent, mute, invisible, female  victim — who is really a non-victim in their eyes — poses a dire, existential threat to every man…every powerful man…every powerful white man in America today.

Of course, black men like Mr. Lemon don’t count.  And black women aren’t worth mentioning by the likes of these white, old Republicans who strut their stuff from the Capitol steps.

And all the while, white conservative America stands to cheer them on.

They laugh, smile, applaud and cheer as they stand with their young sons and daughters at campaign rallies, watching their Sexual Predator/Serial Adulterer/Misogynist/ Unapologetic Pussy Grabber-in-Chief mock this non-existent, invisible, mute, non-victim named Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

It goes without saying that most of those white men and women from the  Mississippi heartland, who were applauding the president’s demeaning imitation of a victim’s heart-rendering testimony, would call themselves Christians.  They go to church.  They even read the Bible, sometimes.  They listen to sermons from pastors who gloat as they destroy their old Nike gear in the pulpit.

“Heck of a visual aid, pastor,” they say.

But they know nothing about the victimized, brutalized, beaten, scarred and crucified Jesus of Nazareth, the man who loved abused women (and children), held them in his arms, wept over them, healed their brokenness, and made them equals to the men who followed Him.

Their is no true Christianity without discipleship.  Their is no discipleship that does not share in the sufferings of our Lord Jesus.  No one who shares in the suffering of Christ would EVER laugh at, mock, ridicule or dismiss the sufferings of another human being, whatever the circumstances.

We are watching the putrefaction of America’s false religion, most fully displayed in patriotic “evangelicalism.”  Only from the dung heap of idolatry can such a stench arise.

I’ll give Donald Trump this:  he has torn away the mask of evangelical, America-First piety and revealed this Beast for what it truly is.

EVIL.

Pure, unadulterated evil.

John Bolton is a Sociopath.  He and Trump are Cut from the Same Cloth

John Bolton, the current White House National Security Adviser, is one of

John Bolton

several demons whispering war-mongering advice from the shoulder of our presidential Devil in Chief.

Bolton was a staunch advocate for the disastrous Iraq War, remaining unapologetic for the many lies he told at the time about Iraq’s nonexistent WMDs.  He continually urges military action against and regime change in Syria, North Korea, Libya, and Iran.  He has never met an American war he didn’t love, regardless of the innumerable innocent civilians slaughtered in the process.

In 2002, during the lead up to the US invasion of Iraq, the Brazilian diplomat José Bustani was head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.  Bustani was negotiating with Sadaam Hussein about

José Bustani

allowing weapons inspectors back into his country in order to make unannounced inspections of Iraq’s facilities.  According to Bustani, Bolton made a surprise visit to OPCW headquarters in the Hague, bringing a direct threat from Vice President Dick Cheney.

Numerous family members and coworkers have substantiated Bustani’s story.  As The Intercept reported on March 29, Bolton said:

“Cheney wants you out.  We can’t accept your management style.  We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York.

 “You have 24 hours to leave the organization, and if you don’t comply with this decision by Washington, we have ways to retaliate against you.

 “We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York.”

Death threats against a man’s children.

That’s everything we need to know about John Bolton in a nutshell.  He is a ruthless, bloody-minded enforcer with no conscience.  He is the type of hit-man always eager to make the Mob Boss proud.  Which is exactly why Donald Trump elevated him to his current position.

Bolton is the cold-hearted thug breaking kneecaps behind closed doors while Trump flashes his creepy, malicious grin to the world’s cameras.  The only thing more disgusting than these evil twins is the mindless support their brutal foreign policies receive from American conservatives.

Please take a few minutes to hear Lawrence Wilkerson’s appraisal of John Bolton as the executor of Trump’s policies towards Iran. (The discussion about Bolton begins at the 9:00 minute mark).

Lawrence Wilkerson

Wilkerson knows Bolton very well.  They have worked together closely in the Bush administration.  Towards the end of this interview, he calls Bolton (and by implication Nikki Haley, as well) an immoral man without a conscience.

Recall that Wilkerson was Colin Powell’s chief of staff during the George W. Bush administration.  To my knowledge, Wilkerson is the only official to

Nikki Haley, president Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations

publicly confess the lies and manipulation perpetrated by Bush officials in the march to war against Iraq.

Wilkerson is that rare man of conscience who has been to the devil’s banquet table of political power and wisely walked away to warn others of the dangers.  He is a rare specimen. (I believe he is also a devout Roman Catholic).  Sadly, for America and the rest of the world, there does not seem to be another like him in the Trump administration.

Tragically for American Christianity, there are precious few like Larry Wilkerson among this country’s evangelical leadership.

Addressing the Pro-Kavanaugh Confusion About “Innocent Until Proven Guilty”

I have engaged in several frustrating online conversations recently where conservatives have emphatically insisted that Brett Kavanaugh’s “right” to be judged innocent until proven guilty is being trampled on by recent events at the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Let’s think about this accusation slowly and logically for a moment, setting  the hyperventilating aside.  We will take one step at a time:

  1. Yes, people who are charged with a crime in this country have the right to be considered “innocent until proven guilty.” This is a fundamental principle
    Blind justice

    of American jurisprudence. And THAT is the realm of its proper application – at trial in the courtroom.  Consequently, the prosecution bears the burden of proof, not the defense.  The prosecutor must persuade a jury that the accused is “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”

  2. The issue that conservatives and Republicans are now protesting is very different.  They are concerned with the habit of putting people accused of crimes on trial in the “court of public opinion.” That is a very long-standing problem in American public life with a history long ante-dating the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
    1. This unfortunate problem has intensified with the rise of mass media, particularly in early newspapers. By far, the leading contemporary culprit in this regard was Nancy Grace, host of a TV show by the same name on the HLN network.  Grace consistently insisted on the guilt of every person accused of a crime, long before any trial began.  Worse yet, she never apologized or admitted her errors when those falsely accused
      19 June 2006 – New York, New York – Nancy Grace. The 2006 American Women in Radio & Television’s Gracie Allen Awards Gala held at the Marriott Marquis. Photo Credit: Paul Hawthorne/AdMedia
      *** Local Caption ***
      (Newscom TagID: admphotos091437) [Photo via Newscom]admphotos091437_amp_GracieAllen06_037.JPG
      were finally proven innocent.  I suggest that any and all conservative fans of Nancy Grace now defending Brett Kavanaugh publicly denounce Nancy Grace and the HLN network with the same vigor they apply to lamenting the Judiciary Committee’s current “injustice.”
  3. The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is not a court of law. What may be happening in public opinion and what is happening in those Senate hearings are two completely different things.  No one’s legal rights are being violated, one way or the other.  There certainly are important concerns about kindness, honesty, humanity, consideration, and prejudice.  But none of those issues touches on anyone’s legal standing or their status as innocent until proven guilty when testifying before the Senate Committee.
  4. Therefore, all those folks yelling and screaming about the violation of Kavanaugh’s “legal rights” are no different from the elderly card player who jumped up and yelled “gin rummy, gin rummy” in the middle of a poker game. It grabs attention, but it is not relevant.  It’s the wrong concern in the wrong setting.
  5. As a matter of fact, complaining about Kavanaugh’s rights is a wonderful (and sadly effective) distraction from the real matters at hand. Frankly, I suspect that the closeted authors of Republican talking-points – which we know are distributed immediately to Fox News anchors – landed on this particular protest strategy for this very reason.  It is a distraction that diverts public attention from the real issues.
  6. Not only is this misapplication of legal language a distraction, it also serves as a roundabout way of minimizing, to the point of eventually dismissing, Christine Ford’s story of sexual assault. It’s as if the Senate Committee were a court of law, and Kavanaugh’s lawyer (that is, all of his Republican advocates) were standing on their feet yelling, “I object! I object!” in the middle of Dr. Ford’s testimony.
  7. In this way, Dr. Ford’s words are drowned out by the cleverly manipulative tactics of an illegitimate “opposing counsel,” with the ridiculousness only appearing when sensible people recall that this is not a trial; we are not in court.  A huge, collective hand is being forced over Dr. Ford’s mouth, stifling her attempts to speak.  The alleged rape victim is being shouted down once again, this time with words that sound ever-so official, professional, informed, compelling, reasonable, irrefutable – but it is a sham.  It is ignorant.  It is manipulative.  It is nothing other than a strong-arm attempt (ever so sincerely) to tell another woman to sit down and shut up.  These people are the modern-day equivalents of snake oil salesmen, dressed up to look like doctors, spoutin’ highfalutin, medical jargon that adds up to the fatuous equivalent of chewing tobacco prescribed for brain cancer.
  8. Of course, none of these ill-legal analysts have an answer for what other options Christian Ford might have taken. She contacted her local congresswoman and conveyed her story long before Kavanaugh was even nominated, while he was still only a new name on the short-list, in fact.  Yes, she asked to remain anonymous, but what the congresswoman, or later, Senator Feinstein, did with her complaint was beyond her control.  So, now we should tell her that she has no business telling her story because the powers-that-be waited till they did to release her story to the press?
  9. Yes, it would have been better had the news of her story been circulated earlier than it was. Better yet, it would have been wonderful had the Senate Committee asked the FBI to investigate her charges immediately.  But, for whatever reasons, those things did not happen.  So, now she should not have the opportunity to speak out because the timing is inconvenient for the Republican, public relations machine?
  10. Both Republicans and Democrats must share the blame for the messiness surrounding these Committee hearings, but anyone who has followed the timeline carefully can only conclude that the lion’s share of the circus atmosphere is due to Republican power-mongering.
    1. The Republicans have done everything possible to conclude Kavanaugh’s appointment before the midterm elections. Mitch McConnell has stated openly that his proudest moment as Senate majority leader was the derailment of president Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland.  Now is his long-awaited opportunity to conclude that intensely partisan reappointment process with another conservative judge.
    2. This is why McConnell initially urged Trump NOT to nominate Kavanaugh in the first place.  McConnell complained to Trump that, with the Kavanaugh’s long history in Republican politics, his paper trail was so incredibly voluminous that the Committee would never be able to digest all the documentation and complete the confirmation process before the upcoming midterms.  But Trump nominated Kavanaugh anyway.
    3. Consequently, the Republicans have done everything possible to cram this nominee through to a final Senate vote as quickly as possible, regardless of the manipulation or dishonesty required to do it. These hearings have been sabotaged from the outset by an unreasonably short time-frame, controlled by Republicans who would not allow any new or unexpected information to be submitted, no matter how important it might be.
    4. Thus, if Kavanaugh and the Republicans look like petulant little kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar, they have no one to blame but themselves. The sole desire of Senators Grassley, Graham, Hatch, Cornyn and Cruz has been to get another conservative Republican on the Supreme Court bench by hook or by crook before they (conceivably) lose their Senate majority.  Damn the truth; damn fair-play; damn an honest hearing process; damn the torpedoes; full steam ahead!
  11. The result has been, damn Christine Blasey Ford; Kavanaugh is innocent until proven guilty!

Caitlin Johnstone Discusses the Attraction that Power Has on Manipulators

Caitlin Johnstone has a good discussion at her blog “Rogue Journalist” of why we rarely ever hear politicians apologize for anything, no matter how outlandish.  It is a timely piece, well worth considering at this moment.

I have copied an excerpt below.  You can read the entire piece here.

“…in the highest levels of the most powerful governments on earth, where thousands of human lives can be snuffed out by a single unwise decision and ecosystems and economies destroyed on a whim, apologies are almost unheard of. You only ever see them when a leader is cornered in a complete political checkmate with no other options available to them.

“This is because the highest levels of the most powerful governments in the world are dominated by highly manipulative people. If you serve truth, humanity and the world, you are almost certainly delightful to be around and you will almost certainly never have a career in federal politics. The system is set up to serve a ruling class of plutocrats and their lackeys, so the way to get to the top of the political ladder is in the exact opposite direction of serving the weak and defenseless and being truthful and compassionate. To win elections you first need to win the blessing of the ruling class, and the way to do that is by kissing the right asses while regurgitating the right sound bytes whenever the cameras are rolling.

“This is why all the top career politicians all seem so fake; the Hillary Clintons, Ted Cruzes and Nancy Pelosis didn’t get to where they’re at by serving truth and justice, they got there by manipulating and deceiving in the service of the powerful. They are not interested in honesty and sincerity, they are interested in getting up another rung on the ladder.

“Anyone who has ever had a close relationship with someone who is highly manipulative has probably noticed how they never apologize for anything if they can avoid it, but if you apologize to a manipulator for something they will never, ever let you forget it and will bring it up any time you step out of line…”

Sound familiar?

Notice that Donald Trump did not apologize to the ABC reporter he cruelly mocked yesterday at his press conference.

Do you think he has called Dr. Ford to apologize for the way he ridiculed her today at a campaign rally in Mississippi?

I am certain you can come up with numerous, relevant examples of your own…

Tintoretto’s portrayal of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet

For those who follow Jesus, the issue involves self-examination, confession and repentance.  Jesus tells us, not only that we are to confess our specific sins to the Father and ask for forgiveness daily, but that we should go to the one(s) we have sinned against, acknowledge what we have done, and ask for their forgiveness face-to-face.

Let’s not follow the model of those who seek power, but the example of our Lord and Savior who washed the disciples’ feet.