Well. Here’s a puzzle for theologians.
According to no less than Jim Bakker, who has suffered more than most men for his Godly Works, blaspheming Donald Trump is a sure sign that the End Times are imminent.
Bummer. I, personally, have probably hastened The End by 3– or 4-years.
Hold that thought, because now comes an evangelist named Mary Colbert to alert us that criticizing Trump means a curse will be visited upon you and your children and grandchildren. She made this claim — No kidding — on Jim Bakker’s television show. Since Bakker didn’t immediately stop her and explain that The End is imminent thanks to people who go around blaspheming Trump, I have to think he agrees with her.
So: Criticize The Donald, and Our Invisible Friend will curse you, your children, and your grandchildren. Blaspheme The Donald and the hammer is coming down on everybody.
Y’all can see the problem, I’m sure. A verbal distinction to which you attach no importance — “He shouldna tweeted that” vs. “Goddam him” — has consequences which range from merely local to global, and in any case implicates people who are blameless — perhaps even people who love The Donald.
Is that just? Is that right? Even granting that I am the 16th or 17th most wicked person who has ever lived, I cannot accept that as just.
Theologians, I imagine, being unconstrained by evidence or even reason, can probably explain this satisfactorily, might even serenely agree that it is exactly what one would expect. Who knows? They might be nodding their heads and grimly muttering “’bout time” over there at Southeastern Seminary even as I type.
Another thing: If this is correct, why would He use intolerable nuisances like Jim Bakker and Mary Colbert to let humanity know that they had better knock it off with the griping and start showing The Donald the deference that Our Invisible Friends expects us to show? It’s not as if any sober-minded adult actually cares what either of them says. Hell, Bakker can’t even sell any of that ridiculous survival chow.
Seriously: In the Trump administration there must be an entire generation’s worth of busywork for theologians.