I liked the Christianity Today editorial calling for Trump's impeachment and removal. I was wondering why it took Mark Galli and them so long. He's nothing if not thoughtful and deliberate, and maybe that's my answer.
On the one hand, I have my own reasons for agreeing with Galli here; I don't suddenly pronounce Trump fit and noble, after four and a half years of saying otherwise. My position won't change, just because my investments are doing well, or because sexual politics on the Left are absurd.
On the other hand, the sorts of people who celebrated this piece as a clarion call of righteousness from an evangelical leader are the same people who have ignored those sexual politics--who've almost bracketed them off from off from serious consideration in all spheres--and perhaps deserve some share of dismissal for that. Frankly, "evangelical" doesn't mean anything. If it's a sociological phenomenon that demurs on the major questions of dogma by ecclesiological necessity, bypassing the tragic reality of Christian division for a polite narrative of "just Jesus" and personal conversionism, I can't blame the Right for pouncing in just that way.
If I may dismiss Franklin Graham and Jeffress and the rest as cultic mind-slaves, I had better reckon with the horror of the certain triumph of Trump's enemies, should he be removed. I'd have plenty to temper my enthusiasm at the victory of Joe Biden, a man whose electoral virtues consist in not being as irrational or as unhinged as the other Democrats running for president.
I don't think Trump knows which end is up, in regard to any other question besides his own well being. Almost anything I could say in criticism has merit, as is proved daily. It's a personality cult, if I've ever seen one. Still, I'm not sure a civilization-destroying murder death cult is an improvement.
If I drank when I am sad, I'd be attached to a drum of whiskey right now.
On the one hand, I have my own reasons for agreeing with Galli here; I don't suddenly pronounce Trump fit and noble, after four and a half years of saying otherwise. My position won't change, just because my investments are doing well, or because sexual politics on the Left are absurd.
On the other hand, the sorts of people who celebrated this piece as a clarion call of righteousness from an evangelical leader are the same people who have ignored those sexual politics--who've almost bracketed them off from off from serious consideration in all spheres--and perhaps deserve some share of dismissal for that. Frankly, "evangelical" doesn't mean anything. If it's a sociological phenomenon that demurs on the major questions of dogma by ecclesiological necessity, bypassing the tragic reality of Christian division for a polite narrative of "just Jesus" and personal conversionism, I can't blame the Right for pouncing in just that way.
If I may dismiss Franklin Graham and Jeffress and the rest as cultic mind-slaves, I had better reckon with the horror of the certain triumph of Trump's enemies, should he be removed. I'd have plenty to temper my enthusiasm at the victory of Joe Biden, a man whose electoral virtues consist in not being as irrational or as unhinged as the other Democrats running for president.
I don't think Trump knows which end is up, in regard to any other question besides his own well being. Almost anything I could say in criticism has merit, as is proved daily. It's a personality cult, if I've ever seen one. Still, I'm not sure a civilization-destroying murder death cult is an improvement.
If I drank when I am sad, I'd be attached to a drum of whiskey right now.
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