Meeting his match

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

—     Proverbs 16:18

When Donald Trump said upon accepting the Republican Party’s nominee for president in 2016, “I alone can fix it,” that spoke volumes. And my first reaction was: “No, you ain’t.”

And we’re seeing that incompetence complicated by arrogance on an almost daily basis now.

The first rule of politics is that sometimes you have to go along to get along. Trump was elected by people who believed — wrongly, as things turned out — that the rules didn’t apply to him and ruled, not just governed, as such. Then came the 2018 midterm election — and, in large part because of revulsion toward him, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi going back to her old post. I fully expected her to put him in his place, and she’s not disappointed so far.

Now, remember one of Trump’s campaign boasts — that he would commission a wall between the United States and Mexico to keep “criminals and rapists” there. He was demanding $5.7 billion for its construction, never mind it wasn’t nearly enough money and that a wall wouldn’t work anyway, and was sure that he could intimidate Congress into going along. Pelosi said, in effect, “Nothing doing” — even after a partial government shutdown now finishing its fifth week that has caused a great deal of pain all around. Trump even had the temerity to invite more “moderate” Democrats to lunch to try to get around her, but none of them agreed.

Trump’s impotence was underscored by Pelosi’s unwillingness to open House chambers for the annual State of the Union speech, traditionally given by the president in late January, to give him the TV attention he craves because it’s how he reaches his supporters.

So as a result we’re seeing someone twisting in the wind, and with today’s arrest and indictment of associate Roger Stone on seven charges, we’re dealing someone who’s lost a major battle and, because his ego’s being deflated, will lose many more over the next two years provided he finishes out his term.

Let’s hope that we Christians don’t make the mistake in thinking that we’re God or that we or someone we favor represent Him, because this is ultimately all about worship. The LORD has a way of taking people down a peg or two to let everyone know that He’s ultimately in control. It’s why we had the TV evangelist scandals beginning in the late 1980s — leadership didn’t want to be accountable to anyone else. We still see the ramifications.

The best men can be: The Gillette ad and 'toxic masculinity'

Recently the Gillette Co., which has the longstanding motto "The Best a Man Can Get," released an ad, "The best men can be," warning about “toxic masculinity” that, though in my view totally on the one, has raised hackles among a number of conservatives — many of whom are saying that they’re boycotting the company — for attacking masculinity in general. (It doesn’t affect me personally because I’ve always used electric razors.)

I’ve seen the ad, which denounces catcalling and unwanted touching of women and bullying against anyone; I’ve personally seen the former and experienced the latter. Going further, I’ve been around “toxic masculinity,” even in my home, and want no part of it myself (indeed, that in part drove me to the Christian faith in the first place).

Thus, to call the ad an attack on masculinity itself is flatly ridiculous. After all, as disparate entities as The Good Men Project, an internet community, and Christian author John Eldredge, who writes about masculine development, have mentioned some of the very same things in their writings. What’s the difference?

It seems to me that the ad goes to the basic fear of conservatives: Cultural change that they didn’t order. You see, it was inspired by the #metoo movement, which was started by liberal women — and if there’s anything conservatives hate, it’s promoting social and cultural change that’s seen at their expense or without their permission.

Recently Dennis Prager, as part of his “PragerU” propaganda series, released a video praising the virtues of masculinity. But the narrator doesn’t even touch the actual — and legitimate — issue of abuse that the ad addresses, and that’s probably by design.

And let’s not forget another entity here: President Trump, the current epitome of toxic masculinity for reasons I've already rehearsed in other posts.

(I know what people are saying: “What about Bill Clinton?” Never mind that — because of Hillary.)

Interestingly enough, the PragerU video praises masculinity and encourages men to take responsibility. Nothing wrong with that.

So does the Gillette ad, by the way.

Has Trump hit the wall?

For years, many people have complained that we need an “outsider” in government to grab the reins of power from “special interests” and the “Beltway crowd” and return them to “the people.”

Well, in 2017 we got one with Trump. And, concerning the wall that he wants to construct along the border with Mexico, he clearly doesn’t understand the politics involved, which is why we’re in the midst of a partial government shutdown as I write.

Yesterday he reportedly left a negotiating session in a huff when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t promise him the $5.7 billion he wants for the wall. What he doesn’t quite understand that she can’t get the votes to approve that expenditure (although, in fairness, she probably doesn’t want to do so anyway). But none of the folks in Congress who represent the border areas directly affected want the wall, either, for numerous reasons.

It may be that Trump has, if you’ll excuse the expression, hit the wall. In his position you can’t simply snap your fingers and get things done the way he has always had things go.

Another issue is that too many Trump supporters confuse their personal ideology with America’s interests, never mind that too many Americans disagree strenuously with Trump’s agenda (witness not only the midterm elections in November but also related anti-Trump vehemence, Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s comment that “we’re gonna go in and impeach the motherf---er" only the strongest).

And according to Univsion TV anchor and author Jorge Ramos, writing in The New York Times, “Trump promised it in 2015, in the same speech in which he announced his candidacy, the same speech in which he called Mexican immigrants rapists, criminals and drug traffickers. His goal was to exploit the anxiety and resentment of voters in an increasingly multicultural, multiethnic society” — especially given that “people of color,” even those of an evangelical bent, tend to vote Democratic.

In other words, concerns about “border security,” especially considering that such border cities as San Diego, Calif.; Tucson, Ariz.; and El Paso, Texas, are among the very safest in the country, represent a xenophobic excuse.

The fight over the wall might very well be Trump’s Waterloo in that folks who oppose him are not only willing to fight, as indeed they always were, but also have received the political power to do so effectively. If they can leverage that power, they can make Trump look as weak as he already is.

And then we’re back to Square One.

A taste of their own medicine?

"And when your son looks at you and says, 'Momma, look you won, bullies don’t win,' and I said, 'Baby they don't,' because we’re gonna go in and impeach the motherf---er."

That is the context of the remarks that newly-installed Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan made last week at a gathering by the progressive group MoveOn.org that has many conservatives apoplectic.

Now, that epithet is a word I don’t and wouldn’t use, but it’s a symptom of just how low political discourse has fallen, and it’s by no means Tlaib’s fault. Conservatives have taken potshots, often personal attacks having nothing to do with policy, at their critics for decades, so it shouldn’t surprise that at some point those critics would start firing back. President Donald Trump, the target of her ire, himself has used language every bit as salty, even on the campaign trail and even as president, so he and his supporters don’t have the authority, moral or otherwise, to lecture anyone else on his or hers.

This is a case of “what goes around, comes around” or “you reap what you sow.” Rather than getting ticked off at Tlaib, perhaps such people ought to consider exhibiting some repentance for the atmosphere they helped to create.

"Your kingdom come ... "

I think it may be time for Kingdom of God-loving Christians to pray that President Donald Trump is removed from power.

In part because of any anticipated blowback, I do not say this lightly.  Those of you who know me know that I have never had any love for him; I’ve always felt that his arrogance, thin-skinnedness, unwillingness to work with those that disagree with him, coddling of dictators and other things have put this country at risk.

But this isn’t primarily a partisan issue to me. My reason for saying so is simple: In idolizing Trump — and let’s call it by its name, idolatry — too many Christians and their leaders, whether in the pulpit, media or political arena, have sold God out for the sake of temporal political power and in the process blasphemed Him. As a result, He’s eventually going to put much of evangelicalism on the shelf, which He does when people rebel or otherwise become useless for His purposes.

Well, what about Paul’s command to pray for our leaders (often used as an excuse to divert from Trump’s corruption)? Well, that comes with a caveat: One of the purposes of prayer is to transform the person praying and that in doing so God’s character shines through. Besides that, in those days the corrupt Nero was emperor in Rome and the early church had no power to change political leadership, so part of prayer was to remain strong for the purposes of withstanding persecution. Eventually, the Roman Empire was essentially destroyed not by power or might but because the faithful outlasted it.

Some others might think: Don’t you want Christian principles to hold primacy in our nation again? No, because it simply isn’t, and never has been, the political system’s or the culture’s job to reinforce what we believe. Expecting the laws and such to do so represents nothing less than lazy evangelism, if for no other reason that conversion takes place only when people see that lives are changed.

Not coincidentally, I see no sign of repentance from Trump despite the insistence of some that he’s a “baby Christian.” As Michael Gerson wrote in The Washington Post, “The very thing that should repel evangelicals — Trump’s dehumanization of others — is what seems to fascinate and attract some conservative Christians. It is yet another example of discrediting hypocrisy.”

Well, what about abortion? (That's an issue because Trump has nominated justices who belong to the right-wing Federalist Society to the Supreme Court.) Wouldn’t overturning Roe v. Wade please God? Not necessarily. Several things about the abortion issue that folks don’t understand: 1) Until the late 1800s abortion was actually legal; 2) When it was made illegal it was done so by that day’s liberals, with God, faith or religion playing virtually no role; and 3) Evangelical Christians didn’t even become heavily involved until the late 1970s — and it turns out that many were prodded by segregation, with abortion being used as moral cover.

We need to remember that, ultimately, the Kingdom of God is about love, not simply what Martin Luther King Jr. called “emotional bosh” but in the Greek known as agape, which can be translated as “justice,” whatever is right and best not only on a personal level but for society as a whole. That’s what we should be seeking, not political power to push people around with, as Gerson wrote, “the ultimate harm … to the reputation of faith itself.”

As I have said before, it’s either Jesus or Trump. We need to choose wisely because eternity is at stake.

Bad theology

Yesterday’s print edition of The New York Times carried an op-ed “Why Trump Reigns as King Cyrus” by a Katherine Stewart, who, according to the newspaper, writes regularly about the political activities of evangelicals and other religious groups and is the author of “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children.”

The analogy linking the first king of Persia and current President Trump is that the king allowed ancient Israel to rebuild itself to what it saw as its former splendor, and numerous evangelicals see Trump as the same.

So what does this come down to? Bad theology. And by that, I mean that much of the Bible has been twisted to justify his perfidy, constant falsehoods, overt racism and xenophobia for the sake of regaining or maintaining total political power. In essence, what they believe that anyone who believes differently from them isn’t fit to rule.

Ironically, it’s such arrogance that disqualifies Trump’s worshipers — and yes, they do worship him, whether they want to admit it or not — from a legitimate voice not only in society but also in speaking for God Himself, primarily because they blaspheme Him as a despot rather than as the loving Father that He is. It’s a direct rejection of the First Commandment that “You will have no other gods before Me.”

The thing is that the “religious right” isn’t, and in fact never truly was, interested in governing according to the spirit of the Scriptures; according to Stewart, “The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. [It isn’t] fighting a culture war. [It’s] making a direct attack on democracy itself.” In other words, it loves Trump because it subscribes to dictatorial norms in its desire to push people around.

In another bit of irony, however, many of your millennials are emptying out of evangelical churches because they’re not willing to put up with that garbage.

Which leads to another issue: Israel was sent into exile for disobedience, including its mistreatment of foreigners and exploitation of workers, both of which are expressly prohibited in even the Old Testament but that Trump has repeatedly committed, the latter for decades. Indeed, God created Israel to live by His standards and, in the process, be a blessing to the world — but Israel forgot that, ultimately turning inward and focusing on its own survival. As does the “religious right,” Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, asking in 2016, according to the article, “When are they going to start rolling out the boxcars to start hauling off Christians?”

If that’s what’s required to make Christians more penitent, perhaps we should be hauled off in boxcars, just as Israel was. And it had, at least temporarily, the desired result.

Remember one thing: God will not be mocked and doesn’t take lightly anyone trading on His name. As my pastor has said, “He may not settle his accounts right away, but He does settle his accounts.”