A virtuous Facebook friend posted “Have We No Decency? A Response to President Trump” from three reverends (Right, Very, and Plain) at the National Cathedral.
The content is conventional:
The escalation of racialized rhetoric from the President of the United States has evoked responses from all sides of the political spectrum. On one side, African American leaders have led the way in rightfully expressing outrage. On the other, those aligned with the President seek to downplay the racial overtones of his attacks, or remain silent.
But the authors are presumably believers in a benevolent and omnipotent God. Here was my response:
If God hates Trump (and why wouldn’t she?), why did God allow Trump to be elected?
I’m wondering how it is possible for this trio of reverends to simultaneously believe in their powerful and benevolent God and also in the existence of President Trump.
Maybe you never talked with these religious folks but everything on this mortal plane is some kind of sick test to the faithful. That way you can rationalize all the bad stuff that happens to them. Trump is here because Adam ate the apple pretty much. Same idea with karma.
One possibility raised in the Book of Job is that while God is omnipotent he is not entirely benevolent. This would seem more in accord with human experience. But the again as God said to Job, “Where were you when I created the universe”? Indicating that the order of things is beyond human compression.
Karma theory is somewhat different. A good analogy could be the Matrix in the 1990s movie, because it was influenced by eastern philosophies.
Per the theory, you can get out of the mess if you want, but if you don’t, then you can stay as long as you like (rebirth!). And you don’t even have to believe in any particular thing/god, but work things out yourself (“no one can be told what the matrix is, you have to see it for yourself”).
God forbid democrats ever discover where there should be a god, there are just noble gasses & carbon compounds.
Trump gets condemned by Roman Catholic clergy, yet enjoys significant, perhaps majority, support among native-born Catholics. The evangelical Protestant community is his strongest base. He is so beloved in Jerusalem that a soccer team, Baidar Trump, is named after him there; suggesting that among devout Jews adore him. There is a disconnect between church leadership and their flocks.
It is odd that an Episcopal clergyman speaks against nationalism when the Episcopal church was founded as an explicitly American church, when it split from the English national Anglican church, in 1776, so that we might form a new nation under God.
tl;dr: Let perdition greet these sons of Eli — Trump is our King David and Pat Buchanan our Samuel.
“Catholic Social Services” in my city are big beneficiaries from immigration, receiving govt funds for immigrants they house+feed+entertain during the initial months they arrive. So they bash Trump and anyone who questions increasing immigration. Yet the Catholics I know (mostly Trump supporters) wonder why more care isn’t instead given to our homeless (many who appear to be immigrants). Maybe there is a second “Great Schism” forming in the Catholic church?
Yes there is. Just not official yet.
Trump is the Pope of another religion? Master of the MAGA cult? I had dinner with two acolytes last night and it is truly baffling – they quote Hannity like a prophet. I remember when he was proprietor of a window-washing company.
As of January 9, 2019:
“NEW YORK (Reuters) – Assets managed by U.S. Catholic foundations have more than doubled over the last three years, propelled by increased donations and stable market performance, according to a study by wealth advisory firm Wilmington Trust.”
I wonder how this is going to go.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-investment-charities/as-u-s-catholic-churches-struggle-their-foundations-investments-thrive-idUSKCN1P32HW