Civil Commotion

I pointed a few days ago to a New York Times piece about a controversial article published by a Vatican magazine that trashes the close relationship between conservative American Catholics and the Evangelical Right. The article specifically criticized their support for Donald Trump.

What do you know? Johnnie Moore, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, wants to meet with Pope Francis so that he can set him straight.

Evangelical Trump supporters want meeting with Pope Francis

Evangelical supporters of President Donald Trump on Monday requested a meeting with Pope Francis over a recent critical article in a Vatican-vetted journal.

Johnnie Moore, a leader of Trump’s evangelical advisory board and a spokesman for some of its members, said he sent the request to Rome in response to an article published last month that accused some American Catholics of building an alliance of “hate” with evangelicals who backed the president.

Ho-ho — I would spend actual money for a ticket to that meeting. After all, the average Southern Baptist will tell you that Catholics aren’t Christians at all.

Moore: Hey! Pope-buddy! You got Donald all wrong! I have looked into his heart, and he is a fine and godly man.

Pope [turning to an aide]: Who is this noisy man? [Pope frowns as aide whispers in his ear]

Pope: You think I am not a Christian, but Donald Trump is?

Moore: Well, I got a problem with him letting Bruce Jenner use the ladies room, but Donald is a baby Christian. A good man anyway, dislikes all the same people we do — them smarty-pants perfessors, bossy women, nigras, moozlims, spics …

Pope: Do you know that Jesus was probably not a white man?

Moore: I’ll pray for you.

I’m sure that Pope Francis has better things to do than entertain yahoos like Moore but, geez, if it should come off I sure hope somebody leaks the transcript of that conversation to the Washington Post.

The alt-right feels an especial affection for Charlottesville, Virginia, and will be assembling there this weekend to spew its racist, nutjob ideology.

After a series of raw-throated public confrontations earlier this year, Charlottesville is bracing for an influx of white nationalists from across the country to Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally.

[ … ]

The location for the rally, Emancipation Park, is no accident. Until February, the 45,435-square-foot green space was originally known as Robert E. Lee Park. When renaming the public park, the Charlottesville City Council also voted to remove the statue of the Confederate general, but it remains in place because of a court injunction that halted its removal, The Washington Post has reported. Another hearing on the matter is slated for later this month.

In recent years the park has become a hot spot for controversy.

The irony is that Charlottesville was the home of Thomas Jefferson, and the University of Virginia was founded by Jefferson to serve as the center of an “academical village.” So, naturally, it has become a magnet for deeply un-American sentiments. This makes sense only when you understand that the alt-Right is animated by malice, by a need to soil what they can’t understand or participate in, by hatred for a world that has left their smug, self-satisfied ignorance behind.

This is fun. Though fewer and fewer people want to get married in a church, plenty are willing to seek a retired judge to oversee the nuptials.

For a long time, people dreaded seeing Justice Alan D. Marrus.

Justice Marrus spent 30 years on the New York State Supreme Court, so meeting him often meant something had gone terribly wrong.

In his retirement, Justice Marrus has become one of five Judges for Love, a group of former New York Supreme Court justices who perform civil marriage ceremonies for couples who want more pomp and circumstance than is provided by a quick trip to City Hall.

Y’all will probably not be surprised to learn that Albert the Pious is displeased by the news.

Is it a commitment to the lifelong covenant of marriage? That’s not really likely because these very judges are part of a judicial system that has made possible what’s called no-fault divorce. No, it’s more likely merely that this is what Peter Berger, the late sociologist called, a rumor of transcendence. In his book The Rumor of Angels, he discussed the fact that even in a secular society wants to continue with the trappings of transcendence and that becomes especially acute at ceremonies such as a wedding. There’s no shortage of irony in this story, but this is where Christians have to understand that we know that people are not just seeking a rumor of transcendence. They are actually, whether they know it or not, seeking the real thing.

The judge lends an air of gravity to the proceedings, which it deserves. And he does that without some nuisance Holy Man reminding everybody that it’s a sin to attach more importance to the wedding vows than his club.

It isn’t the preacher’s say-so that makes it a marriage; it’s the mutual loyalty and shared ambitions, the striving together to build satisfying lives. Christian teachings, when taken seriously, are an obstacle to that. Win-Win, looks like to me.

What do you know? The Washington Post suspects Trump is preparing his base for an insurrection when the myriad investigations now underway determine — Surprise!! Surprise!! — that Trump has committed a long train of crimes against the United States.

Because Trump is undermining our democratic norms and processes in so many ways, it is often easy to focus on each of them in isolation, rather than as part of the same larger story. But, taken together, they point to a possible climax in which Trump, cornered by revelations unearthed by Robert S. Mueller III’s probe and by ongoing media scrutiny, seeks to rally his supporters behind the idea that this outcome represents not the imposition of accountability by functioning civic institutions, but rather an effort to steal the election from him — and from them.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway yesterday dismissed the “entire Russia investigation” as a “total fabrication” to “excuse” Hillary Clinton’s loss. This echoed Trump himself, who recently told a rally that the probe is an effort to “cheat” his supporters out of their legitimately elected leadership (i.e., him) with a “fake story” that is “demeaning to our country and demeaning to our Constitution.”

I’ve said repeatedly that Trump won’t leave office quietly.

The only really interesting question is this: Will Trump leave office peacefully, or will he try to stay? I think he’ll try to stay and, aided by Russian skill at manipulating the booboisie, the Cliven Bundys and Robert Spencers and David Dukes and Franklin Grahams and Sean Hannitys and sundry commonplace morons will rally to the White House.

And …

I can easily imagine Trump provoking a Constitutional crisis by challenging the Congress to send armed U.S. Marshals to remove him from office. I can’t imagine him prevailing in such a showdown, but I can imagine him provoking it. I can just as easily imagine him pardoning everybody in his orbit, including himself, declaring his work successful and finished and himself the most accomplished president in the history of the country, and decamping to some corrupt oligarchy where amoral and authoritarian buffoons like him are appreciated.

I say again: We are careering toward an unprecedented Constitutional crisis. When this goes to impeachment — and I am confidant that it will — the government will have to take steps to secure the White House itself.

Tells you who most Holy Men are working for, I guess.