Tag: Court Evangelicals

In addition to its historical significance, the primary reason I decided to write a few posts about Trump’s impeachment trial is because of ongoing heavy investment of evangelical Christian energies into the president’s defense.

The overwhelming majority of white evangelicals continue to support Trump, regardless of his behavior. The majority of conservative Christians are equally (if not more) conservative in their politics. Which means that their major source of political information is Fox News.

I have no idea what percentage of American viewers are watching the Senate trial, or how many watched the witness testimony collected in the House committee hearings. But I suspect that few Americans watch the testimony and arguments live and in full.

Rather, public opinion is formed by the short clips and editorializing provided by favorite news stations. Again, for conservative Christians this source of information is gained overwhelming from Fox.

One of President Trumps defense lawyers is Jay Sekulow, an evangelical

Christian and media darling of Fox News. He is Fox’s natural go-to guy for commentary on the Senate trial proceedings.

Sekulow is also the host, with his son, of a radio/television talk show broadcast on various Christian media outlets. I  listen to Sekulow’s program regularly.

There is nothing particularly “Christian” about it. Instead, Sekulow’s show serves as one more supposed news outlet, like Fox, that exists to repeat Republican  party talking-points.

Which is why I am saddened, but not surprised, to see Sekulow and others on Trump’s defense team stand up on the Senate floor and lie to the American people.

I cannot believe that they do not know exactly what they are doing. Deliberate lying is the only way to describe Sekulow’s behavior.

While all of Trump’s legislative supporters are doing it, Sekulow claims to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And THAT makes Sekulow’s lies especially abhorrent.

Lying is one thing, but lying deliberately in defense of a favored politician is inexcusable for anyone who claims to follow Jesus Christ.

I will mention only two examples to illustrate Mr. Sekulow’s problem:

First, Sekulow’s opening statement to the Senate repeated the Republican complaint that the president was denied due process during the House investigations, saying that Trump and his lawyers were shut out of the committee hearings. Watch Sekulow repeat this charge here (beginning at the 1:00 minute mark).

This is an oft repeated Republican lie.

This lie has been repeatedly rebutted by the Democratic impeachment managers. In fact, you can watch a news report below describing the Judicial Committee’s invitation to President Trump, asking him to attend their meetings in November, 2019.

I remember watching a segment of the House investigation where they explained that the president had been invited to tell his side of the story with his own lawyers present (calling Jay Sekulow!) so they could cross-examine witnesses!

Yet, Sekulow and others repeat this lie shamelessly. The fact is that Trump declined the invitation and instructed everyone in the Executive branch to ignore all Congressional subpoenas.

Second, Sekulow was interviewed yesterday about his upcoming strategy. He said that he intended to rebut the Democratic charge that the president had solicited Ukraine for a “quid pro quo;” that is, you scratch my back (by announcing an investigation into the Bidens) and I’ll scratch yours (by releasing the hold on the weapons that you want).

Sekulow strangely insisted that this charge is phony because the first article of impeachment never says anything about a quid pro quo. What Sekulow fails to mention, however, is that the article explains, in plain English, how the president’s request of Ukraine amounted to an actual quid pro quo.

Watch this clip with Jake Tapper exposing Sekulow’s lie by putting the actual article of impeachment on the screen explaining how Trump’s quid pro quo worked, without using the words themselves (beginning at 1:40).

These two examples are only the tip of the iceberg of egregious lies constructed by the Republicans and repeated on partisan “news” programs by lawyers, like Jay Sekulow, who are willing to deceive the public with a straight face.

I am sorry, but this is not the behavior of a Christian lawyer.

As Trump’s impeachment trial approaches, Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, continues his draconian measures to prohibit any new evidence from being including in the Senate proceedings.

Unlike past impeachment trials, which have allowed additional witnesses to be called (in fact, during the Clinton impeachment Republicans insisted they be allowed to call new witnesses), McConnell is refusing to permit additional witnesses to testify before Congress.

He has good reason to fear for his president, but his actions only contribute further to his reputation as the most corrupt Republican majority leader in recent history.

John Bolton (former National Security Adviser who referred to Trump’s Ukrainian quid pro quo scheme a “drug deal” he wanted nothing to do with) and Lev Parnas (Rudy Guliani’s business associate who operated as Rudy’s “fixer” in coercing Ukrainian government officials to yield to Trump’s demands) have both said they are willing to testify if asked.

Furthermore, a boatload of new documents have also been handed over to House investigators which not only confirm the previous House testimony against Trump, but adds new information as well.

For instance, copies of whatsapp messages reveal that one Robert F. Hyde, a Republican congressional candidate from

Connecticut, had the US ambassador Marie Yovanovitch “under physical, and possibly electronic, surveillance.”

At one point, Hyde suggested that he could increase the pressure on Yovanovitch (who was working to end political corruption in the country) but it would require enlisting Ukrainian security forces — an obvious threat against the ambassador’s personal safety.

Here is an excerpt from an article in The Guardian explaining this section of the texts:

“In March 2019, Hyde wrote to Parnas, ‘Wow. Can’t believe Trumo [sic] hasn’t fired this bitch. I’ll get right in [sic] that.’

“The two men then exchanged a string of messages about the ambassador’s whereabouts.

“’She under heavy protection outside Kiev,’ Hyde wrote to Parnas, adding two days later: ‘They are moving her tomorrow.’

“’The guys over there asked me what I would like to do and what is in it for them,’ wrote Hyde, who has posted pictures of himself with Trump and Giuliani on social media. ‘She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off. She’s next to the embassy. Not in the embassy.’

“’They are willing to help if you/we would like a price,’ said Hyde.

“’Guess you can do anything in Ukraine with money … what I was told,’ Hyde wrote in another text, to which, Parnas responded: ‘LOL.’”

The State Department finally removed Yovanovitch from Ukraine because, she was told, they had information indicating her safety was at risk.

Hmmmmmm. I wonder who was threatening her safety?

Remember the reconstruction of Trump’s Oval Office call with the Ukrainian president? Remember when he told President Zelensky that Yovanovitch “was going to go through some things”?

What a coincidence…

Lev Parnas has obviously struck a deal since his recent arrest and is talking freely with reporters. Watch this interview by Anderson Cooper where Parnas not only implicates Trump but states that Trump was in regular communication with him and Giuliani being updated on everything the two were doing in Ukraine.

Parnas confirms what honest observers have always known: Donald Trump is a liar. More than that, he is a pathological liar, and he lied when he said he didn’t know Lev Parnas.

But, never mind, because Mitch McConnell is working overtime to prevent any of these documents and witnesses and from contributing to Trump’s impeachment trial.

Why muddy the waters with more evidence of the truth?

And this explains why I find myself surprisingly “nostalgic” for men like Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater (I can’t believe I just wrote this sentence).

On the eve of Nixon’s impeachment proceedings in 1974, Senator Barry Goldwater (a fire-breathing conservative if there ever was one) led a delegation of his fellow Republicans to meet with Nixon in the Oval Office.

These three Congressmen told Nixon that he had lost all Congressional support. There was no way he could survive an impeachment process. His presidency was over, one way or the other. The meeting came to be called the “Goldwater moment.”

President Nixon announced his resignation the next day.

Senator Goldwater, whose politics I abhorred, represents a very different

period in the evolution of the US Congress. His was an era where party loyalties were not always allowed to eclipse the evidence of White House criminality.

Goldwater reminds us that highly conservative, Republican politicians can maintain their personal integrity in times of political crisis. Politics need not always blind its players to the facts.

Sadly, these are qualities of personal character are sorely lacking in today’s players. Mitch McConnell, Rep. Jim Jordan and their partisan ilk are political barbarians — clever and crafty, no doubt; but bloody barbarians, nonetheless — when compared even to a Manichean madman like Barry Goldwater.

And what about Nixon?

Nixon’s decision to resign his presidency revealed that even “Tricky Dick” had some semblance of shame. He knew when to quit, when it was time to stop lying.

Tragically, today’s White House occupant has no sense of shame whatsoever. He is a malignant narcissist hard-wired to lie. Lying is Donald Trump’s raison d’être.

And the nation’s Congressional barbarians have grown corpulent feasting at the White House trough.

Even Nixon and Goldwater are rolling over in their graves.

For some reason, religious conservatives in America insist on viewing themselves as a persecuted minority.

Gene Veith complains regularly about the persecution of American Christians at Patheos. His most recent post in this vein is entitled “Dehumanizing Christians.”

Though he thankfully, and quite necessarily, exhorts Christians never to dehumanize anyone, the focus of his piece centers nonetheless on a supposed increase in the dehumanization of traditional Christians in this era of expanding “neo-Marxist” politics.

Veith’s arguments depend largely on a related piece by Alfred Kentigern Siewers at The American Conservative entitled “What Christians Face in a Neo-Marxist World.”

There is MUCH to be explored here, but I will limit myself to only two brief  points:

First, my current bedtime reading consists of Professor Jason Stanley’s book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (Random House, 2018). It’s a good book, not hard to read, and I highly recommend it.  Professor Stanley offers a boatload of historical material, both old and new, to illustrate his description of fascist politics and its affects throughout modern, western history.

Last night’s reading consisted of Stanley’s many examples of right-wing, fascist political parties expanding throughout Europe today.  An attentive reader can’t help but notice close similarities to the current atmosphere in American politics during this era of Trump’s presidency.

Stanley’s is not the first book I’ve read in the past few years discussing the history and characteristics of fascism — think of guys like Hitler, Mussolini and Franco.

I confess that I had a difficult time falling asleep as I contemplated, with a very downcast frame of mind, the many features of American public life that make this country overly ripe for our own slide into fascist territory.  In fact, some would say we have been there for some time.

So, here is a BULLETIN for Veith, Siewers, and similar conservative fear-mongers: the world is not threatened by the spread of neo-Marxism at this moment in history, neither are American Christians a primary target of extremist violence.

To begin with, there is no Marxist movement of any sort, whether neo, paleo, crypto, or psycho, in America today. Period.

In fact, the United States does not have a genuine leftist, left-wing, authentically liberal political party any more, despite the faux warnings of people like Laura Ingram, Shawn Hannity and Tucker Carlson.

Leftist strains of American politics died as viable political options long ago, with the demise of leaders like Frances Perkins (FDR’s Secretary of Labor), Dorothy Day, (Founder of the Catholic Workers Movement), Eugene Debs (5

times presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America), and Henry A. Wallace (vice-president for FDR).

However, we DO face the very real and very dangerous threat of fascism. But conservative pundits will rarely, if ever, recognize the dangers posed by this problem because of their own authoritarian  instincts. (One of the great failings of the American church, in my view, is its strong preference for authoritarianism and social control over freedom and liberty, but I digress.)

The fascist threat has already expanded throughout central and eastern Europe, and it could easily emerge vestigially in this country too, like the creepy, embryonic crab creature that latches onto your innocent face and then bursts your bowels in the Alien movie franchise.

Don’t be too skeptical. Large sectors of the American public have thrown their arms around fascism more than once in our history. Recall Sinclair Lewis’ famous (purported) statement, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

The right’s fraudulent neo-Marxist label is merely the favorite boogeyman

conjured up by conservative pundits in order first, to scare their followers and second, to smear whomever they wish to attack at the moment.

Notice, for instance, how the neo-Marxist “threat” is also the favorite whipping boy for another current conservative phenom, Jordan Peterson. (Personally, I can’t understand his popularity, especially in the church.)

Second, as numerous studies have documented, the greatest rise in domestic terrorism and politically motivated violence in America has come from the right wing, not the left.

In 2009, the Republican-controlled congress suppressed and eventually pressured the Department of Homeland Security to repudiate its own report warning about the growing dangers of extreme right-wing violence in American. (see here, here and here).

You can read the full DHS report here; it’s entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”

Well, folks. What they predicted in 2009 is coming true in 2019.

I clearly remember the times when candidate Trump encouraged and even praised public violence at his campaign rallies.

Trump applauded those who punched his critics and pledged to pay their legal expenses.  I watched the coverage at the time. He stoked his followers’ anger at the news media, calling out specific journalists covering his campaign, and “blessed” anyone who would teach them aside in order to teach them a thing or two.

In 2018, the Anti-Defamation League published a report entitled “Murder and Extremism in the United States” documenting the sharp rise in politically motivated, violent crimes in this country. The report’s executive summary begins with this sentence:

“2018 was a particularly active year for right-wing extremist murders: every single extremist killing — from Pittsburgh to Parkland — had a link to right-wing extremism.” (emphasis mine)

 I urge you to read the report for yourself. You will never hear about the dramatic increase of this problem from conservative pundits or cable news.

God’s people are called to deal in truth, which requires investigating the facts, all the facts. It means being honest; doing our best to critique our own biased tendencies; remembering that our primary allegiance is to God’s kingdom, not a political party, an ideology, or secular movement of any stripe.

We can never deal in fear-mongering or false accusations. The truth of the gospel is our standard of communication.

So, here are the simple facts:

First, neither Christians nor political conservatives are the primary, or the expanding, targets of politically or religiously motivated violence in America. To say otherwise is to perpetuate a myth.

The prize for being targeted by political violence goes to American Muslims, African-Americans, other people of color, and immigrants — including legal immigrants.

The bottom line is, white Christians need to stop their whining and abandon their self-pitying victim mentality. It is more than unbecoming. It is ungodly.

Second, you and I are about as likely to be harmed (whether physically, emotionally, psychically or rhetorically) by a rabid “neo-Marxist” as we are to be hit by an asteroid.  In fact, we are more likely to be struck by lightning.

If any of us (God forbid) is ever injured in an incident of domestic terrorism, the perpetrator, in all likelihood, will be a right-wing, ultra-conservative conspiracy theorist (who will probably imagine that he has been victimized by various and sundry neo-Marxist assailants.)

I firmly believe that Christian social and political engagement is important. But we need to understand what is actually going on in the world.  We dare no live in a dream world.

Such understanding requires stepping outside of the Christian media mis-information bubble, reading widely, studying broadly, and keeping our eyes focused on the kingdom of God.

Our only hope is in Jesus, and he never asks us to mislead others or to misrepresent the facts.