Hillary Comes Out

. . as a believing Christian, that is.  Here is an excerpt from her brilliant essay just published in the Atlantic, which is a bit long but a powerful indictment of Trumpism, and well worth your time:

When I first saw the video of the killing of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, I immediately thought of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Federal agents shot Pretti after he tried to help a woman they had thrown to the ground and pepper-sprayed. Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves and help those in need. “Do this and you will live,” he says. Not in Donald Trump’s America.

Americans have now seen with their own eyes the cost of President Trump’s abuse of power and disregard for the Constitution. Videos of the killing of Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents have exposed the lies of Trump-administration officials who were quick to smear the victims as “domestic terrorists.” Even Americans who have grown habituated to Trump’s excesses have been shaken by these killings and the reflexively cruel and dishonest response from the administration.

This crisis also reveals a deeper moral rot at the heart of Trump’s MAGA movement. Whatever you think about immigration policy, how can a person of conscience justify the lack of compassion and empathy for the victims in Minnesota, and for the families torn apart or hiding in fear, for the children separated from their parents or afraid to go to school?

That compassion is weak and cruelty is strong has become an article of MAGA faith. Trump and his allies believe that the more inhumane the treatment, the more likely it is to spread fear. That’s the goal of surging heavily armed federal forces into blue states such as Minnesota and Maine—street theater of the most dangerous kind. Other recent presidents, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, managed to deport millions of undocumented immigrants without turning American cities into battlegrounds or making a show of keeping children in cages. . . .

The glorification of cruelty and rejection of compassion don’t just shape the Trump administration’s policies. Those values are also at the core of Trump’s own character and worldview. And they have become a rallying cry for a cadre of hard-right “Christian influencers” who are waging a war on empathy. . .

This is certainly not what I was taught in Sunday school, not what my reading of the Bible teaches me, and not what I believe Jesus preached in his short time on Earth. Yes, I went to Sunday school. In fact, my mother taught Sunday school at our Methodist church in Park Ridge, Illinois. As an adult, I occasionally taught at our church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Some people—such as the Republican congressman who once called me the Antichrist—might find this surprising. (When I confronted him, he mumbled something about not having meant it. Trump later appointed him to his Cabinet.)

I’ve never been one to wear my faith on my sleeve, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important to me. Quite the opposite: My faith has sustained me, informed me, saved me, chided me, and challenged me. I don’t know who I would be or where I would have ended up without it. So I am not a disinterested observer here. I believe that Christians like me—and people of faith more generally—have a responsibility to stand up to the extremists who use religion to divide our society and undermine our democracy. . . .

What I  Say:

It is not necessary to be a Christian to be a good citizen in America; but can America survive without Christian morality?  I don't mean who sleeps with whom, which is a non-issue in the scheme of things - I mean the essential teachings of Christ as found in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Golden Rule, and the Sermon on the Mount, to name a few.  True Christianity is about loving your neighbor as yourself - the polar opposite of the rampant narcissism of the modern world - not to mention the perverted Christianism of the far right, hate-filled and self-serving.

Liberal-minded people have been fleeing from the churches en masse in recent decades - but I really don't think they will like a "post-Christian" world as much as they expect.  In fact, it's already here - in Minneapolis, in Silicon Valley, and in Washington, D. C.  

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Andrew Sullivan at His Best

Andrew Sullivan, author, journalist, and blogger for the Atlantic, has just published two brilliant essays that beautifully delineate where we have been, where we are, and where we may go as a nation, with a President Obama. These are classics that will be cited often in years to come, I believe: go give them a try.

"A President, not a Messiah" - excerpt:

Obama – for extra historic piquancy – is from Illinois and began his campaign in Springfield, where Abraham Lincoln started his. Like Lincoln, Obama is trained in the law, came from a humble background, and is aiming for the presidency with almost no executive experience.

People forget how inexperienced Lincoln was when he took office after one of the worst presidencies in American history – James Buchanan’s. Lincoln had held no legislative or executive office and had been a congressman for only two years previously. He became a national star primarily because of his oratory. Sound familiar?

Lincoln’s task is Obama’s: to unite a deeply fractured country. Lincoln’s challenges were far greater, but if Obama wins on Tuesday he will still face an immense set of challenges.

Among the most enthusiastic Obama supporters, there are tinges of hero worship and aspirations beyond anything any human being can deliver. And the hostility born of dashed expectations is always the worst. People expecting a messiah will at some point be forced to realise they have merely elected a president.

"Barack Obama for President" - excerpt:

It is now indisputable that the president and vice-president of the United States engineered a de facto coup against the constitution after 9/11, declaring themselves above any law, any treaty, and any basic moral norm in their misguided mission to rid the world of evil. Cheney and Bush, unlike any presidency in American history, have dangerously pushed constitutional government to the brink of collapse. . . .

I fear and believe we have given away far too much - and that, while this loss is permanent, it can nonetheless be mitigated by a new start, a new direction, a new statement that the America the world once knew and loved is back.

It will not be easy. The world will soon remember why it resents America as well as loves it. But until this unlikely fellow with the funny ears and strange name and exotic biography emerged on the scene, I had begun to wonder if it was possible at all. I had almost given up hope, and he helped restore it. That is what is stirring out there; and although you are welcome to mock me for it, I remain unashamed. As someone once said, in the unlikely story of America, there is never anything false about hope. Obama, moreover, seems to bring out the best in people, and the calmest, and the sanest. He seems to me to have a blend of Midwestern good sense, an intuitive understanding of the developing world that is as much our future now as theirs, an analyst's mind and a poet's tongue. He is human. He is flawed. He will make mistakes. His passivity and ambiguity are sometimes weaknesses as well as strengths.

But there is something about his rise that is also supremely American, a reminder of why so many of us love this country so passionately and are filled with such grief at what has been done to it and in its name. I endorse Barack Obama because I will not give up on America, because I believe in America, and in her constitution and decency and character and strength.

And the world needs that America now as much as it ever has. Can we start that healing, that rebirth, tomorrow?

Yes. We. Can.