Civil Commotion

If you are watching this at home, and you are a Republican member of Congress, consider the fact that when the sun sets on your career and they are writing your story of all the good and bad things you did in your life, the thing you will be remembered for is whether in this moment with this president you found the courage to stand up to him, or continued to put party over country.

Pete Buttigieg

Easily the best moment of last evening’s debate.

You might not know what it’s like to be told to “go back where you came from.” But nearly every immigrant, child of immigrants and person of color in America does. What must they think of an evangelical movement that claims to follow Christ but continues to support (or ignore) such bigoted demagoguery?

Meanwhile, an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released July 22 tells us that 73 percent of self-identified white evangelical Christians continue to approve of Trump’s performance.

Erich Bridges, SBC Voices

As I said shortly after the 2016 election, supporting Trump will be fatal to the Evangelical Right — and I was not wrong; they just can’t hide their mean-spiritedness, their ignorance, their bigotry any longer. If you want some insight into how bad it actually is, how oblivious they are, just go read the comments at the linked post.

Donald Trump — all the energy he puts into maintaining gaudy, obvious fictions, all the (barely) subterranean malice, all the racism, all the lies, all the ignorance … Donald Trump is the truth about who and what the Evangelical Right actually are, the evangelical id given flesh.

As Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings is is a position to actually harm Donald Trump. Accordingly, Trump spent the weekend trashing him. A typical tweet:

That inspired his witless lemmings to shrieky choruses agreeing that Cummings is probably the Worst. Congressman. Ever. A typical tweet:

That didn’t have the expected effect, though. Almost immediately, The Donald came under fire from Republicans, too, who pointed out that Congress doesn’t do pest control and all-but-unanimously vouched for Cummings’ work ethic and character.

What do you know? The First Felon was rescued by Al Sharpton, who grandiosely announced that he was going to Baltimore — Cummings’ district. Heh … one cynical opportunist rescued by another cynical opportunist.

Trump naturally shifted his sight from Cummings to Sharpton.

Right. Ol’ Al and The Donald are buddies who go to the fights together, and “got along well.”

Well, yeah — they’re both amoral con artists.

Does anybody remember the Tawana Brawley scandal? W-a-a-a-y back in 1987 she was 15-years old and at the center of sensational rape claims — that 6-white men, including a police officer, had raped her, smeared her body with feces, and written slurs all over her body.

When civil rights activist Al Sharpton, with attorneys Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason, began handling Brawley’s publicity, the case quickly became highly controversial. Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason generated a national media sensation. The three said that officials all the way up to the state government were trying to cover up defendants in the case because they were white. They further suggested that the Ku Klux Klan, the Irish Republican Army and the Mafia had conspired with the U.S. government in the alleged cover up. Harry Crist Jr., a police officer who committed suicide shortly after the period when Brawley was allegedly held captive, became a suspect in the case.

As it played out, it developed that Brawley had made-up the entire story, that she was merely another screwed-up kid who ran away and then fabricated a sensational story to cover-up her bad behavior.

Sharpton was successfully sued for libel, and spent years evading payment.

Cummings has invested the civil rights movement with dignity — and Sharpton is the cynical, amoral opportunist who makes so many whites wary of race activism. But Donald Trump, who is not exactly a nuanced thinker, can’t tell the difference and prefers the company of the latter.

As if to prove that some people are simply incapable of learning anything …

Christianity is plainly dying and losing its influence, and ignoramuses who smugly predict hell for the others who refuse to join their degenerate vengeance-cult is doubtless part of the reason. So keep it up, pal.

I sometimes marvel that God chose me to serve in the ministry. I realize that God knows me better than I know myself. Still, I know my sins and shortcomings, and I would not choose myself. There must be lots of guys of better character and giftedness than me.

Mark Terry, SBC Voices

I’ve no reason to suppose that Pastor Terry is anything but sincere and well-intended, but … seriously? He who set at least 100-billion galaxies in place, each comprised of 100-billions stars, uncountable billions of those stars with solar systems (and, probably, life), peered down through all that cosmic clutter and thought to himself, “I’m going to use that infinitesimally teensy speck of dust right there as one of my publicists.”

After all … he is so unworthy!

It’s a nice précis of the madhouse implications, and inherent degradation, of Christian teachings.