Civil Commotion

God said it, I believe it, that settles it.   – Popular bumper sticker

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.   – Friedrich Nietzsche

My Twitter feed seethed all weekend with links to two closely-related stories. The first concerned Mike Huckabee’s resignation from the Country Music Association Foundation (CMAF), and the second concerned Scott Pruitt’s faith-based rejection of well-established science.

The nexus is that both men exhibit the same character failure: Willful, resolute, ignorance.

When CMAF appointed Mike Huckabee to its Board, his dismissive attitude toward LGBT rights triggered an immediate outcry; it was so intense that, less than 24-hours later, he resigned. This, in turn, triggered a lot of huff-and-puff about Christian persecution. There are two distinct threads here that need to be separated. Yes, it is true that Huckabee’s hostility toward homosexuals is grounded in his Christian beliefs. But it is also true that his Christian beliefs are wrong; the evidence is dispositive that being gay is not a wicked lifestyle choice, but a fact of biology.

Huckabee exhibits, further, indifference to America’s secularism, its Constitutional rejection of religious teachings as a basis for making public policy.

We are not talking here, then, about differences of opinion, but willful ignorance, a refusal to face facts that is grounded in deference to the meditations of some Bronze Age anonymity; that has adverse consequences for others, and is a character failure.

Similarly, a recently-discovered radio interview reveals that Scott Pruitt does not believe in evolution and favors a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage (among other things). So: The head of the EPA, a science agency, rejects the foundation of all modern biology, and wishes to enshrine the Old Testament in the Constitution. Again, then, resolute ignorance of science, and a rejection of our secular Constitutional heritage — the same character failure, with adverse consequences for others.

“Facts,” John Adams once said, “are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” Evolution is a fact. Sexual orientation is fixed before birth, and that is a fact. Our Constitutional design is secular, and that is a fact, too. These are well-known facts, facts whose proof is available to any interested person with just a few minutes of searching in any good public library or on the Internet; they are simply not susceptible of any educated, serious-minded dispute.

The Inerrant Bible is … wrong, case closed — and the refusal to face that, however painful, is about character. Huckabee’s and Pruitt’s characters come up wildly short, and neither man has any rightful place in public life.

Paul Ryan was obliged to take down a tweet a few weeks ago which celebrated a secretary’s tax cut benefit: At $1.50 per paycheck, she would be able to afford a Costco membership.

It’s true that the membership will allow her to save a few hundred dollars per year, assuming she has room to store gallon jars of mustard and such, but it pointed toward a major defect of the bill: The benefits skewed principally to high income households. The rich get richer, and all that.

Little discussed during the bill’s hasty passage is the near-certainty that it will stoke inflation. After all, the economy is already at full employment, which tracks closely to full output. If you have an increase in the dollars chasing a constant volume of goods and services, prices go up — you get inflation. This is, like, Econ 101.

Inflation is going to eat the secretary’s tax cut benefit, which will expire in a few years. The Koch brothers, y’all will be comforted to learn, are going to be just fine; their tax cut will outpace inflation and, since the very wealthy have most of their money in stocks and bonds rather than their debit card, their tax benefit will persist because the corporate tax cut is permanent.

And now come tariffs on steel and aluminum — 25% on steel, 10% on aluminum. That means increases in the cost of an automobile, and white goods such as refrigerators, washers, dryers, on and on. And if you borrow money to buy those things, your cost is going to go up because interest rates will be bid up as Uncle Sam borrows money to pay another $1.5-trillion added to the national debt.

Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy six times (so it’s not as if he’s an expert on turning a profit), stiffing the people who trusted him. This time, he is once again putting the money in his own pocket — and stiffing the entire country.

Trump likes to read the words of an old Al Wilson song at his rallies:

“I saved you,” cried that woman
“And you’ve bit me even, why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die”
“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin
“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in
“Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake

Unfortunately, the fools at his rallies were so enthralled by his contemptuous attitude toward the same people they despise — YAAAAAAAY! — that they didn’t see he was laughing at them.

Jim Bakker — who somehow persuaded church secretary Jessica Hahn that Jesus wanted him to have sex with her (though Tammy Faye was at home putting-on makeup, and ready and willing), who got sent to prison for defrauding investors out of millions in connection with operation of a South Carolina resort, and who now peddles survivalist biscuits — has alerted his fans that Billy Graham’s death means that the End Times are now upon us.

“I mourn for him because I believe [it’s] the end of an era, and not only the end of an era but perhaps the beginning of the Last Days,” Bakker said. “This is what many prophets have told me before this day; they said when Billy Graham dies, it’s going to signal the beginning [of the End Times].”

That does sound alarming, but another group says that Billy Graham’s death signals the beginning of a global revival.

“There’s never been anything on planet Earth like what’s about to happen,” said host Dutch Sheets at Thursday evening’s opening session, predicting worldwide spiritual revival as well as political and spiritual transformation of the United States as a result of the event and the prayers that preceded it. The death of Billy Graham, whose body rested in the U.S. Capitol during the conference, was described as confirmation of the spiritual significance of the gathering, with Graham’s anointing being placed on a new generation of spiritual warriors.

[ … ]

Now, according to conference leaders, it’s time for the church to move from pleading with God to ruling with him — and with Trump, who one speaker described as “the father of this nation.”

Billy Graham was 99-years old when he died. I think his death means only that clean-living pays off.

I dunno. Wouldn’t you think The Creator Of The Whole Big Universe could do a better job of explaining himself?