Civil Commotion

If there is any one thing that never loses the ability to shock church activists, no matter how long they’ve fought religion’s serial indecencies, it is that churches almost always rally to the pastor who rapes their children. Even when the pastor admits his criminal actions, congregants will cast out his victims and swamp the court with appeals for leniency.

I don’t know of a single case where the congregation gutted the sumbidg and hung the steaming entrails over the door as a warning to the pastor’s replacement. Seriously: Not one.

In India, the government had to call-out troops to maintain order after a guru was sentenced to prison for raping multiple young women:

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh wept and begged forgiveness as a judge read out the sentence against him on Monday: 20 years for raping two young disciples in 2002 at his compound in the northern Indian state of Haryana. The self-proclaimed Sikh guru received 10 years for each offense, to be served consecutively.

The burly, bearded 50-year-old wailed that he was innocent and had to be carried out by marshals, according to reporters at the prison hearing.

[ … ]

Security was the order of the day throughout the entire state. Thousands of troops were deployed in Haryana to keep the peace that was shattered on Friday.

On Monday, a small convoy of army vehicles moved through Panchkula’s streets in a show of force meant to discourage Singh’s supporters from staging more violence. After his conviction on Friday, they vandalized train stations, burned cars and motorbikes and damaged government buildings. More than 30 people died in the violence.

It’s hard to believe some days that religion gets away with the claim that it’s indispensable to moral behavior.

The Ignoramus-in-Chief issued guidelines for implementing the ban on transgenders in the military Friday, and multiple civil rights lawsuits aiming to overturn the policy have already been filed.

Because of the military’s unique job and place in American society, I incline toward indifference to the ordinary civil rights arguments. My view will probably annoy some people, but has the virtue of being simple: If it helps military effectiveness, or has no effect, then transgenders should be allowed to serve. If it injures military effectiveness, transgenders should not be allowed to serve.

Since I myself never served, I’m in no position to make a first-hand judgment about the likely consequence. The Joint Chiefs are surely competent to make that judgment, however, and they seem to think — along with more than twenty other countries’ military chiefs — that it isn’t a problem. That’s good enough for me.

That makes intuitive sense, too. I’m too old for bar fights but, just in case, I know for a fact I’d rather it happen on a night when I’m out drinking with Caitlyn Jenner than Barney Fife.

According to reporting by the Washington Post, The Donald attempted to intervene in the federal prosecution of Joe Arpaio.

As Joseph Arpaio’s federal case headed toward trial this past spring, President Trump wanted to act to help the former Arizona county sheriff who had become a campaign-trail companion and a partner in their crusade against illegal immigration.

The president asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions whether it would be possible for the government to drop the criminal case against Arpaio, but was advised that would be inappropriate, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation.

After talking with Sessions, Trump decided to let the case go to trial, and if Arpaio was convicted, he could grant clemency.

As everyone knows by now, Trump granted Arpaio a pardon as Hurricane Harvey stormed into Texas.

Arpaio famously, and repeatedly, ignored a federal court order to stop accosting people he thought might be here illegally and demanding proof of citizenship. Apparently, Trump thought it finicky to expect a county sheriff to observe the 4^th Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Am I the only person to note the irony that immigrants, legal or not, probably appreciate America and its freedoms a lot more than Trump, Arpaio, or that strange pastiche of freaks and pious nutjobs who are the alt-right? I think, in fact, that makes a strong case for immigration — and lots of it.

After all, millions of Americans voted for a man who proposed a religious test to enter the United States, and publicly speculated that a Muslim registry might be just the thing. A man unrelievedly hostile to freedom of the press. A man who freely advocated violence against people whose speech he doesn’t like. A man who needs a script to condemn neo-Nazis.

I’d trust an immigrant with my freedoms a lot faster than I’d trust a Trump supporter.

Oh … Puh-leeze. Who is rounding-up Christians and shipping them off to concentration camps? Who is talking about such a thing? And wasn’t that Franklin Graham and Ben Carson who introduced Trump at his rally in Phoenix a few days ago?

And what about the tasteless irony that evangelicals are rock-solid in their support for The Donald, who had difficulty criticizing the neo-Nazis who marched through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, denouncing Jews — who really do know a thing or two about concentration camps? Or that this embarrassing tweet was re-tweeted by Mac Brunson, who underhandedly and unlawfully sicced the police on a blogger who criticized his dubious financial dealings?

Christians are in no danger of concentration camps. They are in danger of ridicule from people like me, people who will no longer defer to their pretensions of character and knowledge even as they peddle a narrative that any bright child knows is nonsense, and as they subvert healthy family relations because they threaten the cult’s total ownership and control of their sheep.

Get used to it, Holy Men.

I guess that settles that.