Civil Commotion

Fox News’ Fox & Friends show on Sunday showed a preview of an interview in which soon-to-depart Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said Donald Trump was God’s “chosen one” to be president of the United States.

In the interview conducted as Trump faces an impeachment inquiry, Perry implied that Trump is imperfect and that is fine.

“God’s used imperfect people all through history,” Perry said, naming several Biblical figures. “King David wasn’t perfect, Saul wasn’t perfect, Solomon wasn’t perfect.”

Perry added that he gave Trump “a little one-pager on those Old Testament kings” about month ago.

“I shared it with him and said, ‘Mr. President, I know there are people that say you said you were the chosen one and I said, ‘You were,'” Perry remarked. “I said, ‘If you’re a believing Christian, you understand God’s plan for the people who rule and judge over us on this planet in our government.'”

Rick Perry, in Newsweek

I know that a lot of evangelicals think this way; you can hardly surf around the Internet without tripping over some idiot saying this or something comparable. I have always supposed, however, that the people actually running the country are smarter. My bad, I guess.

Apparently, Americans are reaching a clear-headed understanding of who Evangelicals actually are.

Thirty percent of adults in the United States have a “positive” perception of evangelicals as Americans increasingly view the religious demographic through a political lens, newly released Barna Group research indicates.

According to the evangelical polling firm, evangelicals make up about 6 percent of the U.S. population but have assumed a “unique place in national discourse.”

“Based on a nationwide study of U.S. adults, we found that, though many people still view evangelicals as a committed group of believers who put their faith first, their political connotation puts the future of American evangelicalism in a precarious spot,” a summary of the new report, “The Brand of Evangelicals,” reads.

Heh. We’re talking about people who are immobile on Biblical inerrancy and, as their support for Donald Trump shows, Silly Putty on character. Good riddance.

I’ve been preoccupied with a boatload of irritants the past several days, and don’t expect things to improve till early next week. Posting will probably resume next Tuesday or so.

A gen-u-ine Holy Man is about to summon the Wrath of You-Know-Who down on Never Trumpers.

If we so choose and decide to set our heart and our mind to fasting and prayer, we can move the hand of God to do anything that he would desire to do and give him the will—we have to choose, of course—to have his freedom, to say, ‘God, go do your thing right now.’

“This is going on the internet and I’m sure somebody will pick up what I’ve said. Right Wing Watch, I know you watch me, so go ahead and post what I just said and let’s see what happens. And then when it happens, you can apologize for being an idiot.

So there you go, Gentle Reader: We’re all doomed. Sorry.

The Houston Archdiocese is challenging a federal rule which prohibits foster care providers from discriminating against LGBTQ people.

The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston wants to become a foster care provider in Texas, but only if the Catholic organization is exempt from a federal rule meant to protect LGBT people from discrimination.

The archdiocese is teaming up with the Texas Attorney General’s office and the Department of Family and Protective Services to challenge the rule that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identify, and other characteristics.

This should be easy: “Nope. Sorry, padre, but you have to treat willing same-sex couples just as you would treat any other eligible couple.”

Certainly, a self-funded religious organization offering foster– and adoption-services should be able to enforce its beliefs — if it does business using only its own money. If is is funded with public monies, then it has to serve the entire public from whom the money came — including LGBTQ couples who, after all, put up some of the money being used. Seriously: Why should anybody be required to fund discrimination against themselves?

The role of LGBTQ people in society is one of those issues about which little compromise is ever likely; the Biblical condemnation is simply too definite and unambiguous to overlook. What is more it is encrusted with tradition and, since the Stonewall riot, a lot of ugly politics. Neither side is ever going to stand down.

However, the scientific research points definitely to the conclusion that the components of sexuality are hard-coded before birth and, rightly, that is what the overwhelming majority of educational institutions teach. Ultimately, then — not in my lifetime, or the lifetime of the majority of the readers of this blog — that discrimination will dwindle into a bad memory. Good. There are more important things to worry about than what the gentleman bachelors down the street get up to, and we should start, today, ignoring the ignorant busybodies who care.