Easy Temptation

#DimensionTrump | #WhatTheyVotedFor

It is, in its way, an easy enough temptation:

I don’t understand how Trump constantly using language that hints at him being a higher power doesn’t offend evangelical Christians. It offends me.

(@kendallybrown)

Many are called, few are chosen, and Donald Trump, in turn, plays to the flock who seek glory in public acts of piety undertaken for the sake of being seen. If they found the treasure hidden in a field, they would sell it away. These recent years remind their complex relationship with weeping and gnashing; they are the faithless who seek for their own selves the authority of judgment here in this world, a usurpation to assuage their fear that God will fail to satisfy them.

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Image note: Tweet by @kendallybrown, 10 October 2020.

@kendallybrown. “I don’t understand how Trump constantly using language that hints at him being a higher power doesn’t offend evangelical Christians. It offends me.” Twitter. 10 October 2020.

A Note on Faith Versus a Lack Thereof

“It is clear that in America personal religious beliefs are protected. You don’t have to welcome a black, gay or Jewish person into your home. That is your right. When it comes to the public square, your personal beliefs have limits.”

—Stampp Corbin

While Stampp Corbin has a point in his own right, it is worth taking a moment to consider just how strange this assertion of Christianity is. Nobody ought be surprised that we might take the occasion to reassert the thesis regarding how this is a faithless ego defense, a panicked usurpation of God’s authority in defense of earthly desires, but neither does Corbin’s discussion invalidate that thesis.

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Corbin, Stampp. “The Mark of Cain”. The Huffington Post. 9 April 2015.

A Disturbing Lack of Faith

Bishop Richard Pates of the Des Moines diocese is faithless.

Tyler McCubbin said the Dowling Catholic High School president made him an offer for a full-time teaching position, but later revoked it based on his sexual orientation.

Bishop Richard Pates is the leader of the Des Moines diocese. He said that McCubbin wasn’t denied the job because he’s gay, but due to the openness of his sexual orientation.

(Smith)

This is what we call a distinction without a difference.

Bishop Pates apparently believes God’s judgment is his own, and generally speaking the idea is that these fake Christians are afraid God won’t be mean enough to the people they don’t like, so they want His authority and judgment for their own earthly pleasures.

A faithless usurper, Bishop Pates.

Back in the closet with you! Hide! Pretend! Lie to us for our sake! This is the face of love, in Jesus’ name! Amen!

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Smith, Ryan. “Diocese leader speaks out on gay man’s job denial”. KCCI. 7 April 2015.

Cowardice and Hatred, or, Alabama

Perhaps “Yellowhammer State” is the wrong nickname for Alabama, which seems determined to identify according to its titanic yellow streak.

This is what cowards do:

Less than two weeks after a federal judge ordered him to comply with her ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, Mobile County’s probate judge has indicated he will not process a couple’s adoption petition until after the Supreme Court decides another case.

That has put Cari Searcy’s second-parent adoption in legal limbo and prompted her lawyers to filed a new lawsuit Tuesday in federal court asking for an order prohibiting Probate Judge Don Davis from “directly or indirectly” enforcing the state’s same-sex marriage ban that the federal judge struck down last month.

It was Searcy’s inability to adopt the boy that she and spouse Kim McKeand have raised since birth that prompted them to challenge Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage.

David Kennedy, one of the couple’s lawyers, expressed exasperation at Davis’ decision. He noted that the U.S. Supreme Court allowed U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. “Ginny” Granade’s order to take effect and that Granade handed down a separate order on Feb. 13 specifically instructing Davis to stop enforcing the gay marriage ban.

(Kirby)

And if this isn’t enough of an indictment of the low character of Alabama, well, they do go on:

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby said today he has a traditional view of marriage and he understands Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore’s resistance to the state’s acceptance of same-sex marriage.

“I’ve always believed and still believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. I voted on that in the U.S. Senate,” Shelby, a Republican from Tuscaloosa, said after speaking this morning to the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce.

“I think the overwhelming majority of the people still believe that.”

(Cason)

We should not be surprised. Neither Shelby’s ignorance nor cheap hatred reflects anything unusual about what goes on in Alabama. Consider that by Shelby’s logic―

“We had a federal district court in Mobile make a ruling, then they had a ruling from the 11th Circuit, but the Supreme Court hasn’t. So I think that’s the point [Roy Moore is] making, that it’s not a final ruling, as I understand it,” Shelby said.

―nobody anywhere needs obey a court until they reach the Supreme Court and lose. And if that sounds strange, it is. But it’s also the result of applying Shelby’s particular argument to general consideration. In a more mundane consideration, it is also worth pointing out that Sen. Shelby is wrong; polling shows Americans support marriage equality. But, hey, this is Alabama, so what need have they for reality or basic decency, right? Just say whatever the hell they want, because, you know, they’re from Alabama, which means they’re automatically correct even when reality disagrees.

Really. Alabama. They keep electing these bigots; at some point those votes start to reflect on the character of the state, and it is not what we might call a flattering picture.

But, oh, how they do go on: