This weekend our family took a quick roadtrip that included Coronodo Heights, just north of Lindsborg, KS. Here's the backstory: in 1541, Coronado was looking for his cities of gold, and legend has it that as he climbed this little hill on the Kansas prairie he looked out and said to his friends, "Screw it, boys...it's time to go home." Almost four centuries later some transplanted Swedish scholars at the college in Lindsborg found a piece of Spanish armor on top of this hill and declared that this was where Coronado had made his fateful decision. Thus they dedicated the place to the principle of "Give Up...It's Good For You!" and built something of a castle monument on top of it that looks out over the prairie...thus the name Coronado Heights. Likely there's very little to substantiate the claims that Coronado made his decision on this hill. But it makes for a nice story and it allows tourists like me to to go up on this hill and recount some kind of vision of history, no matter how true or incomplete it may be.
I got to thinking about this today, in light of the marches and counter-marches and general forms of hand-wringing that seems to have consumed our country in recent weeks. Basically all over the south (and elsewhere) cities are bowing to pressure to remove statues that stand to honor the 'heroes' of the Confederacy, men like Robert E Lee or Stonewall Jackson. Many white southerners are very upset and have had their feelings hurt about this, claiming that this is simply whining on the part of people who don't want their own feelings hurt, that we shouldn't be 'erasing history' after all these years Proponents of taking down these statues claim on the other hand that these statues should never have been built, as they give public honor to those who rebelled against our country and supported a slave system that is immoral.
I've come to the firm belief that, while some people are overly sensitive about all things and this can turn into a slippery slope that would even take down Jefferson, Washington, and other slave-owning leaders who fall out of favor of history, it's a good thing to take down these statues. What clinched it for me was reading about how many of these statues were erected. Most were built in the 1910s and 1920s during a time in which the Ku Klux Klan was on the march in this country; Woodrow Wilson and other leading politicians were openly anti-negro (Wilson closed off much of government employment to blacks, for instance) and the impending death of the last Confederate war veterans prompted many who fondly remembered 'the good 'ol days' to build these statues as a memorial to the 'lost cause'. It was not only not politically incorrect to publicly proclaim white superiority, it was almost expected and even demanded. And so, with claims that restoring Southern Heritage was vital, these statues of heroic Confederate war heroes, always in military pose and dress, were erected.
Needless to say, blacks and other minorities did not have a say at this time...indeed, they were politically powerless to stop the building of statues. To do so would have meant great danger and even lynching...remember, Jim Crow laws were at their height during this time, and approved of people in the highest of offices in our country. And so these statues were erected, and have now stood for almost a hundred years.
But of course now we live in a different age. Racism is no longer openly accepted by most, and the rise of 'alt-right' Klansmen and Nazis brings about universal condemnation (except by the President, but that's another post). Many who still support these statues are by no means racist...they genuinely do feel that this is a part of their heritage that outsiders do not understand, and they feel that they are being singled out for ridicule and contempt. They are correct in saying that race is not only a southern problem, but a national one...indeed, many northern cities such as Chicago and Boston have faced equally challenging racial issues over the years and often have a shameful history of their own.
Yet simply crying 'Heritage!' is no longer good enough. The heritage that is being supported is naive at best and immoral at worst, because it's a form of heritage that looks back to a time in which 'blacks knew their place', a time in which southern values openly tolerated belittlement and hatred of certain people simply because of their skin color and ancestry. How on earth these things could have been considered Christian continues to amaze me; and the fact that many people still defending these things claim Jesus as Lord shows me that this blind spot is still very real. Shouldn't Christians want to break down walls of hostility rather than build them up? Shouldn't followers of Jesus Christ look to the good of others instead of their own in all things? Yet in this instance Christians have fallen woefully short of living out their faith.
I wonder what would happen if revisionist history came to inspect Coronado Heights. Again, there's very little real evidence that this hill is anything more than an interesting geological spot on an otherwise flat landscape. But what if Native American groups decided that Coronado was a villain and a thief, would we need to change the name of that hill? Would the good people of Lindsborg fight valiantly to keep that name and claim that it's about heritage?
Honestly, I doubt anybody would care that much. 5 centuries in the past is a long time, and nobody has a vested interest in keeping Coronado's name alive; remember, the people who wanted to lift up Coronado were Swedes, not Spanish. But I'm sure that somebody would fight to the end as a matter of their self-identity, and spout all kinds of foolishness and falsehood to keep the spirit of Coronado's 'heritage' alive. Maybe they would even claim the economic argument, that this place brings about tourism and jobs and other forms of what has become the conservative religion. Rather than realize that true history is dependent upon actual scholarship and truth, creating symbols that have nothing to do with reality seems to be the way many want to live out their history. People will always have a way of getting worked up about the dumbest of things.
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Thursday, July 27, 2017
A Pox On Both Your Houses
I am so sick of America right now. Not the beauty of it, not the idea of it...but the reality of 300+ million people screaming at each other. We're still overwhelmingly wealthy but we run around bitching and moaning about everything. It's like we're tired of being happy.
We find this the most in our current political situation. On the one hand there exists Trump and his enablers in whatever remains of the 'conservative' movement. These are the people who have all the political power and are seeking to use that power only for the benefit of themselves. These people are easy to mock, though they see themselves as the virtuous persecuted moral majority. They have lost all spiritual and political credibility with many of us, but their desire to Take Back America, to Make America Great Again continues on in their self-righteous pea-brained minds. On the other hand is the 'liberal' movement. These people actually have the upper hand in the culture wars at the movement. Americans as a whole are tolerant and increasingly acceptable of all that they stand for in sexuality, in lifestyle choices, in whatever is the issue of the moment. They may have no political sense at this point beyond just screaming about how unfair the other side is, but they are winning the long game. I have no home here, either. Calling wrong right will never be right. Accepting all things, and demanding others do the same, is no way to get me on their side. Some things are simply wrong, and deserve to be called wrong.
Both sides have so much of what they want, but they're never happy, and led by the increasingly shrill ideological press telling people what they want to hear, they just get angrier and angrier. And their yelling is giving me a headache. I'm tired of both, and just once I'd like somebody who is a good solid moderate, like I still think 70% of American really are, who will speak on my behalf. Who will say,
-I don't really like big government and taxes, but we have to pay for things like roads and schools and national security so that we don't burden the future generations with our bills. Having to do stupid fundraisers so that after-school activities is not healthy. Letting our infrastructure crumble because we've had to gut the transportation budget so that we can again cut taxes is stupid. Things cost money, and squeezing these things down until government does the job poorly and then claiming that all government is inefficient and wasteful is, shall we say, moronic. Let's figure out what we need to buy, get the money to do it, and do it well. I couldn't care less about the big government vs. small government argument anymore...I just want good government.
-I accept that people may have different lifestyle choices. This is America, after all, the land of the free. I need to accept that you may live differently than I do, and though I may not like it, I can accept it. But by gosh, stop telling me that I'm a bigot if I think homosexual behavior is a sin; this is not the same thing as racial civil rights! Fine...you can be married and have all the legal rights you want, but stop telling me I have to approve of it. And stop saying I'm a Nazi if I think people should use bathrooms that their genitals suggest they should. Stop it with this politically correct nonsense that the military, a place of group cohesion above all things, has to accept everybody's individual cross-dressing choices.
-I am thankful that we still have a great social safety net in which the poorest and neediest amongst us are provided for; it's a God-given blessing to take care of some, and in fact there will always be people like this. But stop thinking I have to enable people to live lazy, fat, unhealthy lives. I'm sick of making charity calls at people's houses when they can't pay their utility bills and noticing that they have a 60" TV in the front room. They make their choices in freedom...but don't expect me to pay for them.
-I think it's great that America is a land of opportunity. Technology and entrepreneur risk allow people to become wealthy. But stop telling me that it's fair that we keep suppressing wages of the poorest amongst us even as we say that a rising tide lifts all boats. No, it doesn't. Too many people are sinking out there because tiny boats are flooded by the wakes of all the yachts. Raise the minimum wage already. If it means a billionaire has to sell a yacht once in awhile, fine. And stop with the argument, "If people on minimum wage just had more ambition, they wouldn't be on minimum wage." That's just stupid. There's a reason we don't let some people into medical school. Some people ain't smart. Some people are not good at many things. But they still have a right in the wealthiest culture in history to be able to live without worrying all the time, even if maybe we ought to make them take a personal finance course once in awhile.
Just looking at my above gripes makes me completely ineligible for public office. Somebody will call me intolerant or a libtard or think I am contradicting myself or something else...I'd be shouted down before I even got to the third line of my stump speech. But more than anything, I just can't be heard through the roar of the tumult. I'm not screaming these things out in ALT-CAPS and so my voice isn't going to be nearly as loud as the idiots that have taken to Breitbart or Vox. There's simply too much common sense for people in an ideological rage to hold onto. My political career would be over long before it started.
Yet somewhere out there somebody has enough sense to unite those of us in the middle who are sick of both sides screaming at us and making us afraid, and they can do it better than I do without offending everybody. Maybe we're too far gone, I don't know...but as it stands now, I'm just about sick of it all.
We find this the most in our current political situation. On the one hand there exists Trump and his enablers in whatever remains of the 'conservative' movement. These are the people who have all the political power and are seeking to use that power only for the benefit of themselves. These people are easy to mock, though they see themselves as the virtuous persecuted moral majority. They have lost all spiritual and political credibility with many of us, but their desire to Take Back America, to Make America Great Again continues on in their self-righteous pea-brained minds. On the other hand is the 'liberal' movement. These people actually have the upper hand in the culture wars at the movement. Americans as a whole are tolerant and increasingly acceptable of all that they stand for in sexuality, in lifestyle choices, in whatever is the issue of the moment. They may have no political sense at this point beyond just screaming about how unfair the other side is, but they are winning the long game. I have no home here, either. Calling wrong right will never be right. Accepting all things, and demanding others do the same, is no way to get me on their side. Some things are simply wrong, and deserve to be called wrong.
Both sides have so much of what they want, but they're never happy, and led by the increasingly shrill ideological press telling people what they want to hear, they just get angrier and angrier. And their yelling is giving me a headache. I'm tired of both, and just once I'd like somebody who is a good solid moderate, like I still think 70% of American really are, who will speak on my behalf. Who will say,
-I don't really like big government and taxes, but we have to pay for things like roads and schools and national security so that we don't burden the future generations with our bills. Having to do stupid fundraisers so that after-school activities is not healthy. Letting our infrastructure crumble because we've had to gut the transportation budget so that we can again cut taxes is stupid. Things cost money, and squeezing these things down until government does the job poorly and then claiming that all government is inefficient and wasteful is, shall we say, moronic. Let's figure out what we need to buy, get the money to do it, and do it well. I couldn't care less about the big government vs. small government argument anymore...I just want good government.
-I accept that people may have different lifestyle choices. This is America, after all, the land of the free. I need to accept that you may live differently than I do, and though I may not like it, I can accept it. But by gosh, stop telling me that I'm a bigot if I think homosexual behavior is a sin; this is not the same thing as racial civil rights! Fine...you can be married and have all the legal rights you want, but stop telling me I have to approve of it. And stop saying I'm a Nazi if I think people should use bathrooms that their genitals suggest they should. Stop it with this politically correct nonsense that the military, a place of group cohesion above all things, has to accept everybody's individual cross-dressing choices.
-I am thankful that we still have a great social safety net in which the poorest and neediest amongst us are provided for; it's a God-given blessing to take care of some, and in fact there will always be people like this. But stop thinking I have to enable people to live lazy, fat, unhealthy lives. I'm sick of making charity calls at people's houses when they can't pay their utility bills and noticing that they have a 60" TV in the front room. They make their choices in freedom...but don't expect me to pay for them.
-I think it's great that America is a land of opportunity. Technology and entrepreneur risk allow people to become wealthy. But stop telling me that it's fair that we keep suppressing wages of the poorest amongst us even as we say that a rising tide lifts all boats. No, it doesn't. Too many people are sinking out there because tiny boats are flooded by the wakes of all the yachts. Raise the minimum wage already. If it means a billionaire has to sell a yacht once in awhile, fine. And stop with the argument, "If people on minimum wage just had more ambition, they wouldn't be on minimum wage." That's just stupid. There's a reason we don't let some people into medical school. Some people ain't smart. Some people are not good at many things. But they still have a right in the wealthiest culture in history to be able to live without worrying all the time, even if maybe we ought to make them take a personal finance course once in awhile.
Just looking at my above gripes makes me completely ineligible for public office. Somebody will call me intolerant or a libtard or think I am contradicting myself or something else...I'd be shouted down before I even got to the third line of my stump speech. But more than anything, I just can't be heard through the roar of the tumult. I'm not screaming these things out in ALT-CAPS and so my voice isn't going to be nearly as loud as the idiots that have taken to Breitbart or Vox. There's simply too much common sense for people in an ideological rage to hold onto. My political career would be over long before it started.
Yet somewhere out there somebody has enough sense to unite those of us in the middle who are sick of both sides screaming at us and making us afraid, and they can do it better than I do without offending everybody. Maybe we're too far gone, I don't know...but as it stands now, I'm just about sick of it all.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Evangelism and Bible Study
This one will be unpopular. Hold on.
The opening line in any Church of Christ evangelistic move is always the same: "Would you like to have a Bible study?" Throughout my life I have acquired dozens, if not hundreds, of pamphlets that all center on a study of the Scriptures in order to bring somebody to the point of baptism. Though they all have their quirks, all jump from Scripture to Scripture along this journey. This was how I was trained to do 'personal work', to bring people to Christ.
As I have gotten older, however, I am finding that this is not the best method for today. Quite simply, in my opinion beginning with Bible sutdy focuses far more on the head, about finding out about Christ and about the church than it does on the heart, in which somebody follows Jesus.
It's not that I think Bible study is bad...far from it. But I do wonder whether or not we should rather focus upon Bible study more after somebody is baptized rather than when somebody is simply learning God's will for the first time. Because my experience is that learning to be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ is not so much about knowing all the right things to know, but rather a heart that loves Jesus and sees his impact in the lives of other believers. Isn't this what Hebrews 1:1-2 is saying about how God speaks to people today, or how John 1:1-5 speaks of Jesus as being the 'word' of God? Most of the people I have had the honor to baptize in my life chose to be baptized not because of a perfect kind of head knowledge, but rather because they had seen in me (and in others) the power of a changed, sanctified life. Later on they would study Scripture and want to know more detail of what that life looks like...but I wonder whether or not we have baptized a lot of heads and not so much their hearts.
Here's an example: many of the pamphlets I have looked at will have a long section about the need for the church. And that's absolutely right...the church is the body of Christ, and a new (or any) Christian cannot hope to thrive or grow without the church. But most pamphlets will speak about the church: the 'qualifications' of elders, what makes God happy in worship (prayer, the Lord's Supper, giving, Bible study, and especially non-instrumental music), and perhaps, in some of the more modern ones, the need for love. Yet again, while these things might be right in their teaching, often they do little to really draw somebody into the church. If a preacher or a church member has a private Bible study with somebody and that person is then baptized, most often to this point there has been little or no real contact with the church. No chance to see it as a place of love, fellowship, and good works. It's no wonder, then, that many new Christians quickly fall away from the church, because they never had a chance to know it!
Another problem with these kinds of studies is that many people today are not so willing to follow along the proof-text path. One might bring up a subject like the inspiration of Scripture...and usually most studies will jump straight towards 2 Timothy 3:16-17 or 2 Peter 1:20-21. Fair enough, this is how I was taught and I believe these truths. But then there are questions...reading the context, these Scriptures are speaking of the Old Testament, not the New, what then? Or should we immediately accept the statements from Scripture itself about its inspiration? Don't all religious texts (the Quran, the Book of Mormon, etc.) do this to some extent? Quickly this leads us down a path of subjects that many even faithful Christians do not know about. Simply following along the old paths that many were trained with are no longer enough.
I am more convinced than ever that evangelism, in this day and age, is not easy, but it is possible if we will allow time for people to see the life of Jesus within us. But we're not usually ready for that...we'd rather have them buy our understanding of things, and shake the dust off of our feet when they are not so ready to accept it.
We are Bible-believing Christians, but first and foremost we ought to be Jesus-following disciples. If we really live like this, people will be able to see him in us and that will make all the difference.
The opening line in any Church of Christ evangelistic move is always the same: "Would you like to have a Bible study?" Throughout my life I have acquired dozens, if not hundreds, of pamphlets that all center on a study of the Scriptures in order to bring somebody to the point of baptism. Though they all have their quirks, all jump from Scripture to Scripture along this journey. This was how I was trained to do 'personal work', to bring people to Christ.
As I have gotten older, however, I am finding that this is not the best method for today. Quite simply, in my opinion beginning with Bible sutdy focuses far more on the head, about finding out about Christ and about the church than it does on the heart, in which somebody follows Jesus.
It's not that I think Bible study is bad...far from it. But I do wonder whether or not we should rather focus upon Bible study more after somebody is baptized rather than when somebody is simply learning God's will for the first time. Because my experience is that learning to be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ is not so much about knowing all the right things to know, but rather a heart that loves Jesus and sees his impact in the lives of other believers. Isn't this what Hebrews 1:1-2 is saying about how God speaks to people today, or how John 1:1-5 speaks of Jesus as being the 'word' of God? Most of the people I have had the honor to baptize in my life chose to be baptized not because of a perfect kind of head knowledge, but rather because they had seen in me (and in others) the power of a changed, sanctified life. Later on they would study Scripture and want to know more detail of what that life looks like...but I wonder whether or not we have baptized a lot of heads and not so much their hearts.
Here's an example: many of the pamphlets I have looked at will have a long section about the need for the church. And that's absolutely right...the church is the body of Christ, and a new (or any) Christian cannot hope to thrive or grow without the church. But most pamphlets will speak about the church: the 'qualifications' of elders, what makes God happy in worship (prayer, the Lord's Supper, giving, Bible study, and especially non-instrumental music), and perhaps, in some of the more modern ones, the need for love. Yet again, while these things might be right in their teaching, often they do little to really draw somebody into the church. If a preacher or a church member has a private Bible study with somebody and that person is then baptized, most often to this point there has been little or no real contact with the church. No chance to see it as a place of love, fellowship, and good works. It's no wonder, then, that many new Christians quickly fall away from the church, because they never had a chance to know it!
Another problem with these kinds of studies is that many people today are not so willing to follow along the proof-text path. One might bring up a subject like the inspiration of Scripture...and usually most studies will jump straight towards 2 Timothy 3:16-17 or 2 Peter 1:20-21. Fair enough, this is how I was taught and I believe these truths. But then there are questions...reading the context, these Scriptures are speaking of the Old Testament, not the New, what then? Or should we immediately accept the statements from Scripture itself about its inspiration? Don't all religious texts (the Quran, the Book of Mormon, etc.) do this to some extent? Quickly this leads us down a path of subjects that many even faithful Christians do not know about. Simply following along the old paths that many were trained with are no longer enough.
I am more convinced than ever that evangelism, in this day and age, is not easy, but it is possible if we will allow time for people to see the life of Jesus within us. But we're not usually ready for that...we'd rather have them buy our understanding of things, and shake the dust off of our feet when they are not so ready to accept it.
We are Bible-believing Christians, but first and foremost we ought to be Jesus-following disciples. If we really live like this, people will be able to see him in us and that will make all the difference.
Saturday, July 1, 2017
The American President
Yesterday we arrived home after a much-needed week-long vacation out into the mountains. It was nice to get away, and nice to be 'off the grid' for a few days as I could not get cell phone service many places we went. Not being able to Twitter or Facebook was healthy for me.
Of course, coming back in yesterday there was once again an instance where my first reaction was "Trump said WHAT?" Once again, our adolescent president took to his Twitter handle to say something stupid and vulgar about people whom he feels hurt him. Regardless of when you are reading this, you don't have to check the date, as likely he will say something just as offensive a month or a year from now, just as he said something stupid a month or a year ago. It never ends with this man. Even his supporters may shake their heads and say that he shouldn't say that, but they continue to support this man and so enable his idiocy.
However, after a week of seeing America, even as I enjoyed our trip and am blessed to live in a country with beauty everywhere, I am more and more convinced that he is truly an American President. That is, he actually represents a good percentage of my fellow citizens. A few hours west of here driving through a small town I saw a huge sign that had in crude printing, "Hillary Urine A**hole". I have no idea what that means, exactly, but I am sure that it is not word of praise.
A few days later, I was driving a state highway doing 75 in a 65. A huge pickup was behind me and obviously wanted me to drive faster. When he finally got past me, he gave me the middle finger...not just for a moment, but for a good 15-20 seconds...he wanted me to know for certain how much he hated that I was only going 10 miles above the speed limit.
And then the other day we were visiting an amusement and water park in a large American city. Such places, as I get older, are more and more uncomfortable for me because of the teeming masses of people (I'm a bit of a claustrophobic), but it's not just that there are people there, but that these people who represent so much of America are really quite disgusting. Young couples who have no shame of PDA while waiting in lines, guys who have T-shirts with middle fingers on them to show how rebellious they are, and all kinds of people with terrible tattoos that they have to expose. Near the end of the day I was waiting in the overcrowded waterpark for my kids and a youngish woman with blue hair was screaming on her cell phone, "Mom, it's all just f***ing s**t!" I started to listen in as she screamed for a good ten minutes about how this had been a terrible day because all her friends started going their own directions. No great tragedy, I think, but for her it led to a profanity-laced tirade towards her mother.
Yes, this is the America that voted for Donald Trump. Vulgar, rude, and often disgusting. If we get the president that truly represents America, I don't think we could have made a better choice.
Of course, coming back in yesterday there was once again an instance where my first reaction was "Trump said WHAT?" Once again, our adolescent president took to his Twitter handle to say something stupid and vulgar about people whom he feels hurt him. Regardless of when you are reading this, you don't have to check the date, as likely he will say something just as offensive a month or a year from now, just as he said something stupid a month or a year ago. It never ends with this man. Even his supporters may shake their heads and say that he shouldn't say that, but they continue to support this man and so enable his idiocy.
However, after a week of seeing America, even as I enjoyed our trip and am blessed to live in a country with beauty everywhere, I am more and more convinced that he is truly an American President. That is, he actually represents a good percentage of my fellow citizens. A few hours west of here driving through a small town I saw a huge sign that had in crude printing, "Hillary Urine A**hole". I have no idea what that means, exactly, but I am sure that it is not word of praise.
A few days later, I was driving a state highway doing 75 in a 65. A huge pickup was behind me and obviously wanted me to drive faster. When he finally got past me, he gave me the middle finger...not just for a moment, but for a good 15-20 seconds...he wanted me to know for certain how much he hated that I was only going 10 miles above the speed limit.
And then the other day we were visiting an amusement and water park in a large American city. Such places, as I get older, are more and more uncomfortable for me because of the teeming masses of people (I'm a bit of a claustrophobic), but it's not just that there are people there, but that these people who represent so much of America are really quite disgusting. Young couples who have no shame of PDA while waiting in lines, guys who have T-shirts with middle fingers on them to show how rebellious they are, and all kinds of people with terrible tattoos that they have to expose. Near the end of the day I was waiting in the overcrowded waterpark for my kids and a youngish woman with blue hair was screaming on her cell phone, "Mom, it's all just f***ing s**t!" I started to listen in as she screamed for a good ten minutes about how this had been a terrible day because all her friends started going their own directions. No great tragedy, I think, but for her it led to a profanity-laced tirade towards her mother.
Yes, this is the America that voted for Donald Trump. Vulgar, rude, and often disgusting. If we get the president that truly represents America, I don't think we could have made a better choice.
Friday, June 9, 2017
The Adolescent President
It's been said many times before, but we have a 12-year old boy in the White House. No, it's not Barron Trump (I think he still lives in New York with his mother). It's the president, Donald Trump. Watching him the last year or so has called to mind the Tom Hanks character in Big, a little boy who makes a wish for a big boy body and wakes up to find himself an adult. For awhile, it's fun. He gets to plays like a big boy until he finds out that it's not all that he thought it would be. The only difference between Josh Baskin (the character in Big) and Trump is that a)Baskin eventually starts acting like an adult and b)then returns back to being a child again without all of his big-boy responsibilities.
How else can we explain a character like Trump? Whether it is him bragging about getting a second scoop of ice cream (while everyone else gets one), or is never happier than while pretending to drive a semi, or harassing women by grabbing them by the p***y or walking in on them while they are getting dressed, or obsessing about how many people came to his party, he's a little boy who thinks that the world revolves around himself and throws tantrums when this doesn't seem to be the case.
Many liberals see Trump as a much more sinister, evil character, but after watching him for a year, I don't think he really is. Compared to a character like Frank Underwood in House of Cards, who is simply about power and seems to have a Palpatine vibe, Trump is a lot more about the pretend world of what he imagines power and influence to be. I'm not convinced after all this that he is smart or mature enough to get away with many of the things he is accused of doing. That's why he so nakedly tried to tell James Comey to stop snooping around (and then screams out DID NOT! when he finds out this is illegal); that's why he can't keep a poker face and keeps tweeting whatever is on his mind (or whatever he saw on Faux News); that's why so little of what he wants (big walls! tremendous growth! the best people!) will eventually come to be (though, of course, the GOP/Tea Party in Congress seem to be getting everything they want). He's just not capable of being the evil overlord that many fear him to be.
In the end, the strongest feeling I have for Trump is to feel really sorry for him, and I really do need to pray for him more. All his life he's gotten away with doing what he wanted and faced very few consequences. Nobody who has been as emotionally challenged as he is should be forced to do what he is doing. There's a reason we don't let horny, immature, self-involved 12-year-old boys drive cars or make important decisions, let alone run the country. For their own good, we patiently wait for them to grow up. Too bad we didn't do this with Mr. Trump.
How else can we explain a character like Trump? Whether it is him bragging about getting a second scoop of ice cream (while everyone else gets one), or is never happier than while pretending to drive a semi, or harassing women by grabbing them by the p***y or walking in on them while they are getting dressed, or obsessing about how many people came to his party, he's a little boy who thinks that the world revolves around himself and throws tantrums when this doesn't seem to be the case.
Many liberals see Trump as a much more sinister, evil character, but after watching him for a year, I don't think he really is. Compared to a character like Frank Underwood in House of Cards, who is simply about power and seems to have a Palpatine vibe, Trump is a lot more about the pretend world of what he imagines power and influence to be. I'm not convinced after all this that he is smart or mature enough to get away with many of the things he is accused of doing. That's why he so nakedly tried to tell James Comey to stop snooping around (and then screams out DID NOT! when he finds out this is illegal); that's why he can't keep a poker face and keeps tweeting whatever is on his mind (or whatever he saw on Faux News); that's why so little of what he wants (big walls! tremendous growth! the best people!) will eventually come to be (though, of course, the GOP/Tea Party in Congress seem to be getting everything they want). He's just not capable of being the evil overlord that many fear him to be.
In the end, the strongest feeling I have for Trump is to feel really sorry for him, and I really do need to pray for him more. All his life he's gotten away with doing what he wanted and faced very few consequences. Nobody who has been as emotionally challenged as he is should be forced to do what he is doing. There's a reason we don't let horny, immature, self-involved 12-year-old boys drive cars or make important decisions, let alone run the country. For their own good, we patiently wait for them to grow up. Too bad we didn't do this with Mr. Trump.
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