New Mexico is Indicting its Criminal Elected Officials: Why Can't the DOJ Indict the Biggest One?

Solomon Pena, Failed Republican Candidate, Indicted, Held for Trial

Election Denier Couy Griffin Removed from Office for Participation in January 6th Insurrection, Banned from Holding Future Office

Until recently, I never really gave the state of New Mexico much thought.  I've driven across it multiple times, spent the night in Las Cruces, Lordsburg and Santa Rosa, and enjoyed some week-long summer retreats in the mountains northeast of Santa Fe.  But I have a growing respect for the state because of its recent defense of American democracy.  

Couy Griffin, an Otero County Commissioner, also founder of "Cowboys for Trump," a notorious election denier, participated in the sedition of the January 6th Trump Insurrection and as a result of his criminal disloyalty to the United States, was removed from his post by a judge who cited his violation of a clause in the 14th amendment.  The judge used the term "insurrection" in his ruling, and not only removed Griffin as a county commissioner, but also ruled that he may not hold any elected state or federal government position in the future.  

Griffin had already attempted to use the power of his office to deny the will of the voters of his county by refusing to follow state law and certify the results of a Republican primary election.  His refusal was based on his own lies, even though facts had been presented showing a clean election.  Apparently he did have higher political ambitions, but his criminal behavior in participating in an act of sedition against the people of the United States got him booted from the county commission, much to the relief of voters in Otero County, and out of public office.  In a different era, in New Mexico, that would have gotten him hanged. 

Solomon Pena, who was mercilessly beaten into the ground by voters in losing a race for a state house seat by a 74% to 26% margin in November, decided to follow Trump's insurrectionist plan by screaming the election fraud lie and then hiring some help to shoot up the homes of victorious Democratic officials, resorting to violent attacks against those who were elected by the will of the people.  After a relatively short period of time, a Bernalillo County judge has decided that the potential for Pena, or some of his supporters, committing more violence warranted not only the highest level of indictment allowed by the law, but also holding him in jail until his trial.  

Look how fast justice moved in New Mexico.  Pena has been arrested, indicted and held within a month.  One month.  

Perhaps, for the sake of democracy, and for protecting the American people from more violence, the DOJ should send Trump to state courts in New Mexico.  

This isn't That Hard to Figure Out, Is It? 

Isn't the former failed President 45 an election denier who incited the insurrection that got Griffin removed from office?  Isn't it unfair to this election denying, conspiracy theorizing, Cowboy for Trump to remove him from an elected position and deny him any future elected state or federal office, but let the perpetrator of the insurrection itself go ahead and launch another wasteful campaign of lies while running for President of the United States?  

And it also seems unfair to Pena, who terrorized elected officials, but didn't actually hurt or kill anyone, to be held for trial under the strictest possible indictment while the instigator of the insurrection, in which lives were lost, multiple injuries were sustained and all kinds of psychological and emotional damage was done, walks away, lives his life, raises money for his campaign and enjoys being free from any indictment for multiple crimes for two years?  

Not that I care about fairness in the case of either of these two disgusting suck-up Trumpies.  They deserve more than they're getting.  

But it sure looks like they're being subject to an entirely different set of laws than their political idol.  

Why are we, as Americans, Allowing This?

 A criminal who led one of the most corrupt presidencies in American history is on the campaign trail seeking election to a second term.  That's exactly the opposite of what should be happening in a country that claims it is a "nation of laws."  If the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the civil rights of the people in whose hands lies the full power of government, cannot prevent a corrupt, criminal, insurrectionist from entering a political campaign to get back into the most powerful political position in the world, after his crimes and corruption have been revealed, then how can it protect the rights of its citizens?  

There are those who would say that the very fact he is on the campaign trail is a testimony to the constitution's protection of freedom of conscience and free speech.  After all, one is innocent until proven guilty, entitled to a speedy trial with a jury of their peers and bears the consequences of their lawbreaking only after being found guilty.  That would be true in normal circumstances, where there is an arrest, indictment, gathering of the evidence and a speedy, fair trial with a jury of peers.  

In most cases, the defendant is subject to arrest and indictment following the commission of the crime of which they are accused.  In this case, the defendant has not only been allowed to walk away from the crime, he has continued to verbally encourage violence as a means of escaping justice.  The media points this out every time he does it and if they can figure this out, then it must not be nearly as complicated as the legal system is making it.  Dozens of defendants in the January 6th Trump Insurrection trials have pointed to the former failed President's statements as the reason for them showing up in Washington, DC on January 6th, and for risking their own jobs, reputations and freedom to do his bidding.  If they figured out that he was inciting an insurrection, surely there are well educated judges and attorneys who could arrange those facts in a trial and come out with a conviction.  

The former failed President has been connected in multiple ways to the direct incitement of the insurrection, involving everything from attempted fraud by encouraging the selection of fake electors and forging electoral documents to leaders of subversive anti-government militias who testified that they were following the President's orders by showing up at the Capitol armed, engaging with police long before the insurrectionists arrived, to disrupt Congress while counting the electoral votes.  

And we know all of this because it has been reported.  Even the extremist media has laid it out so that it is very clear exactly what happened.  

And yet, there he is, an announced candidate for the Republican party's nomination for President in 2024.  Few Republicans have made much of a fuss about his crimes and attempted overthrow of the Constitution and the government, a few more have fussed about the fact that he now appears to be an unelectable millstone around the party's neck, dragging them all down to defeat in 2024, especially if 2022 was supposed to be the bellwether referendum on his political influence.  

And that's just the crime associated with the insurrection.  That doesn't include his refusal to step completely away from his business interests while President, or using campaign donations to buck up failed business ventures, or the pile of obstruction of justice that has been confirmed in the Russia investigation and documented in the Mueller report.  It doesn't include the multiple obstructions, bribes and attempts to get out of half a dozen improprieties or questionable diplomatic and business dealings. Stormy Daniels?  That's still out there and there is both obstruction of justice and real criminal activity he committed involved with that case.  What's going on in Georgia, where another bribery and election fraud attempt is under investigation, for two years now?   

This is not happening in some unstable, third-world, fledgling democracy.  It is happening in the United States of America.  In the one nation on the planet that has served as an example for all other democracies, ours is seemingly powerless to prevent a subversive insurrectionist who attempted to overthrow the legitimately elected government from embarrassing the whole country by being able to run for its highest office.  

Why are we allowing this?

The Best Way to Make Sure I Learn About Something is to Tell Me I Can't Learn About It!

To be honest, Critical Race Theory/Intersectionality was not really on my radar screen.  I think of myself as being an open minded, progressive person who believes that true liberty of conscience requires the free exchange of ideas. I'd heard of Critical Race Theory before, but hadn't educated myself on exactly what it was.  What prompted me to learn about it was all of the fuss being made by political and religious conservatives about it.  

Reading about a resolution initially written to put the Southern Baptist Convention on record as being completely opposed to it, and condemning it as non-Christian and of Marxist origins was what prompted me to find out what all of the caterwauling was about.  I was raised Southern Baptist, and was a member of a Southern Baptist church for the better part of my life, and knowing how the conservative branch of that denomination operates got me interested in CRT, because I figured that if the ultra conservatives in the SBC were against it, it must have some merit.  As it turned out, what the denomination actually adopted as a resolution was not as beset by the kind of ignorance and misinformation as the resolution originally penned by ultra-conservatives, and saved the denomination from the embarrassment of explaining why they adopted something so ignorant and uninformed.   

I was a student in both a Southern Baptist-related university and then in one of the denominations graduate-level seminaries during the "conservative resurgence," as fundamentalists within the denomination were gaining control of the trustee boards of its two missionary sending agencies, its graduate level seminaries and the denomination itself.  The restrictions they put on what Baptists refer to as "soul freedom," which is one of the principles that they consider a distinctive to their movement, caused many students, myself included, to investigate the works of those whose voices and books were being removed from libraries, curriculums and classrooms.  

Censorship invites investigation.  And in a free society, there are always detours around the prohibitions and restrictions.   

Florida Frustration

Ron Desantis is Making it Hard for Teachers Like Me to do Our Jobs

I can understand the frustration most teachers and college professors in Florida are experiencing at this point.  Having to subject their personal classroom libraries to a vetting by the state or cover their bookshelves so students can't have access to something the governor and his extremist minions don't approve of is about as egregious a violation of conscience as educators in this country have experienced.  It is heartbreaking for teachers to see education move from the realm of developing critical thinking skills and opening up a world of ideas and experiences to a form of regulated indoctrination.  

But, Florida teachers and students, there are ways to resist, while you are waiting for the coming wave of lawsuits against this dictatorial fascist governor and state legislature for violating the constitutionally guaranteed right to the free expression of conscience.  Your fascist governor has unwittingly motivated the interest of a large number of students in everything associated with racism and "wokeness," and while his intention was to make Florida a white supremacist paradise, by eliminating instruction of certain objectives from schools, he has instead motivated teachers, professors and students to figure out ways of nullifying his ignorance and turning it to their advantage. 

Freedom of conscience is a federal constitutional guarantee, and there are plenty of lawyers ready to start picking up cases to take to federal courts where there are judges who understand the Constitution and are willing to take down laws just like those now rolling out of the Florida legislature.  It always amazes me that the legal processes can be so slow, and take so much time when it comes to some things, but it moves at the speed of light when it comes to others, all dependent on the politics of the issue.  And I think it will have to be resolved in the federal court system because the states where the virus of censorship has infected the legislature have courts where the judges are infected with the same virus.  

There's already a de-facto censorship imposed on the content of textbooks and classroom reading materials by the commercialism involved in school district purchasing almost everywhere in the country.  Unless items are on some sort of "bid list," or available from "approved vendors" who have negotiated contracts to provide them using scarce resources, the only way certain items can find their way into classrooms is by the teacher purchasing them for themselves, and then sharing them with their students  Try to get a classroom copy of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, or Jill Lepore's These Truths: A History of the United States from a school district's approved "bid list" of vendors. 

The Free Marketplace of Ideas is Energized by Censorship 

I think we are about to see just how creative a group of teachers and college professors can be in helping their students have access to all kinds of ideas as the censorship of the state government motivates the curiosity of those who will now be looking to learn all about what their governor doesn't want them to know.  Educators in America have done an outstanding job of finding ways to exercise their academic freedom.  We've already seen some examples of this. 

Though it was not really being taught in elementary schools or high schools, and wasn't being promoted by colleges and universities, all of the wailing done by extremist conservatives over Critical Race Theory had the effect of moving it front and center, and causing educators and students alike to investigate to find out what it was all about, and why the extremist right saw it as such a danger.  Now, their opposition to its presence in a marketplace of free ideas marks them as white supremacists and racists and its proponents, advocates, apologists and the experts who have written books to explain the theory and its dynamics are front and center in the media, with far greater coverage than they ever had before.  

Even in a restrictive, controlled environment like the Southern Baptist Convention, the exposure caused by the passage of Resolution 9 back in 2019 opened the door to discussion of the issue of Critical Race Theory and the education of those who knew almost nothing about it except as a political cannonball.  The result of that controversy wound up calling into question the credibility of those who initially tried to bring a resolution full of inaccuracies and false pretenses, pushed into the convention by extremist right wing political activists, and a discussion across a much wider spectrum of the denomination's churches.  At the two subsequent annual meetings of Southern Baptists since then, attempts to rescind the resolution have been overwhelmingly squelched, and none of those nominated for denominational offices who were opposed to the resolution that passed have come close to being elected.  

Common sense and the freedom of conscience go hand in hand.  They are the foundation of our constitutional democracy.  We wish teachers, professors and educators everywhere success in overcoming the censorship of small-minded governors and biased, uninformed and ignorant state legislators and in giving their students the intellectual gift of critical thinking.  

Gladys Sicknick's Victim Impact Statement: Help Make This go Viral

This is the victim impact statement made during the trial of Julian Khater and George Tanios for the murder of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick during the Trump Insurrection of January 6, 2021.  She is right on target with this.  The insurrectionists were exactly what she says they were, animals, not footsoldiers, or patriots.  

Not only does this not need to ever get out of the news cycle, as those who were caught are indicted and convicted, but it needs to continue to serve as a reminder about the criminal corruption of the Trump administration, the perpetrator of the insurrection himself, Trump, and continue to put pressure on the Department of Justice to do its job and indict him.  These convictions are a warning to any other Trumpie traitors of what will happen if they rebel against the people of this country.  This is one of the most well-spoken narratives about January 6th that I've seen.  

Stealing Our Democracy With Lies and Conspiracy Theories

When Trump ran for the GOP nomination in 2016, the signs of Russian influence and involvement were everywhere.  I try to keep an open mind, look at facts and not jump to conclusions, but it now appears that not only was Putin's government involved in helping Trump get elected to the Presidency, it was also involved in suppressing information about its involvement and some of that suppression occurred within the intelligence branches tasked with the responsibility of preventing it.  The FBI agent who was heading up the investigation of the link between Trump and Russia and who declared that there was no evidence of any such link was just arrested for secret connections to Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch who was named in those links.  

The Intelligencer: So Much Evidence of Trump's Collusion with Russia

That raises a reasonable question.  Shouldn't this arrest and discovery of the agent's connection to Russia's most influential and powerful oligarch raise some red flags and direct attention back to Trump's collusion?  Isn't that evidence to add to the pile already gathered as proof of Trump's intentions to overthrow the government of the United States by insurrection? My answer to both of those questions is yes, but that's because I'm a patriotic American who sees that there is real danger for American democracy, and the individual rights that it protects, in the conspiracy theories, lies, election denialism and everything else related to the far right extremism I call Trumpism.  It's also yes because this isn't rocket science and it doesn't take a Harvard education to see this and figure it out.  

Constitutional Processes Take Time and Patience and Constitutional Government Requires an Educated and Well-informed Electorate

It was incredibly frustrating to watch all of the evidence of Trump's collusion with Russian oligarchs and intelligence essentially get filed away in the archives with absolutely zero results.  It should not be possible for a sitting President to interfere with an investigation into his corruption, and in this case, his potential sedition and treason.  And I'm using that word, even though I know the exact definition of it might not fit, because he was trying to sell out this country's idealism, values, government and individual freedom for his own profit.  No government is perfect, and our founders, building a constitutional democracy at least in part on trust, didn't envision the extremes someone might go to in an attempt at overthrow.  

The ballot box is a powerful tool for expressing the will of the people, but in our system, the thresholds for removal of bad, corrupt politicians are deliberately high, the times between election cycles long enough for the power invested in government to be corrupted.  It was frustrating to watch as the Attorney General, a man who was obviously convinced of Trump's corruption and more or less confessed that conviction during the days following the Trump Insurrection, lied through his teeth about the evidence in the Mueller Report.  They got away with it, at least, until the voters went to the polls in 2020.  It wasn't the kind of smackdown that should have happened after a Presidential administration that did everything it could, including appointing judges to the federal bench with loyalty as a quid pro quo, to subvert American democracy.  

The ballot box has to be supported by a well-informed electorate.  Clearly, this is a serious weakness in the United States in this century, as bad as it has ever been at any point in our history.  The 2022 mid-term elections, which also did not produce the kind of patriotic smackdown that should have happened after January 6th, did, at least, send a signal that a majority of Americans are at least partially aware of the threat to this country posed by election deniers, conspiracy theorists and Trumpies of other stripes, including the fabulously wealthy who only care about themselves and their money.  

But, it is still an appalling, depressing fact that ignorance is capable of electing members to the House of Representatives, the Senate, the state executive branches and legislatures, and just about everywhere else.  People with no conscience, low morals and no real education are somehow able to convince a majority of voters in a district, gerrymandered yes but still, a segment of the population, that they are capable of representing them in government.  That's a testimony to just how much of our population is not educated enough to produce an informed and intelligent enough electorate to maintain a democracy.  Ignorance and bigotry, immorality and self-interest affect the decisions of many voters and they elect people who reflect their ignorance, not people who are capable of critical thought and community leadership.  

In short, they elect people who, like themselves, are intolerant of other people's rights and freedoms, who think their life is worth more than someone else's, especially if there is a difference in thinking or lifestyle, and who have no understanding of the fact that their individual rights depend on everyone else's freedom.  Believing in Jewish space lasers, in massive, conspiratorial child trafficking and abuse because of one's political affiliation, or that an election auditing team has a camera that can detect bamboo fibers in ballots imported from China is stupid.  And being stupid should disqualify anyone who wants to serve in government.  Unfortunately, stupidity is protected free speech.  

Yeah, I Get It 

The only thing in this country that seems to move slower than election cycles is the wheels of justice.  It is absolutely unfathomable to me that Trump got away with collusion with Russian oligarchs and government intelligence.  Maybe there are those in Washington who are more outraged about that than their careless shrugs over it would indicate.  On the other hand, I'm afraid that the opportunity to recover from the damage that has been done, and put a complete stop to this insanity, is slipping away.  Is it?  Please show me some evidence that it is not.  

I realize that any case brought into the court system has to be iron clad and secure in order not to be a political disaster.  I also realize that it is not possible to protect constitutional freedoms by abridging constitutional freedoms.  I trust the Biden Administration to do the right thing.  I wish a solid majority of voters everywhere would support candidates like Eric Swalwell, Pramila Jayapal, AOC, Ro Khanna, Rafael Warnock, Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar, among others. 

I'm a patriot, an American who has a realistic appreciation of our history, sees our country as a work in progress and a real hope for the rest of the world, as long as we are democratic and free.  A quick check of loyalty and commitment to democracy can be done by measuring the enthusiasm and level of support of politicians in Congress for aid to Ukraine, which represents one of the most significant potential advancements of democracy in modern history.  The voting record on that will tell all, and Trump's bribery and corrupt dealings with the pro-Russian and corrupt former president of that country tells us everything we need to know.  

I no longer take for granted, or assume, that because we've always had this, it will somehow manage to survive.  We have to fight for it by doing all that we can.  The extremist's lies and conspiracy theories are laughably ridiculous, but that's what makes them dangerous.  They're not just bad jokes, they are ideas that some people, who don't know better, think are true.  Our best weapon is to vote, and next to that, we need to speak up and speak out, challenging every lie and every theory with hard, cold facts.  

Some Things That I Think Make Sense

I'll admit that I'm not working from a prior base of knowledge and experience when it comes to commenting about classified documents, I'm just thinking from the perspective of what I see is common sense.  Any legal expert who knows more is free to correct me if I'm wrong.  Otherwise, maybe this isn't as difficult or complicated as we hear that it is from our news media every day, over and over.  

Last time I checked, Joe Biden was still the President of the United States.  It seems to me, that being the case, that he would have ultimate control and authority over any currently classified documents that belonged to the United States government.  That's certainly what his predecessor thought, including that the authority extended beyond his term in office to becoming a private citizen.  That fact alone, regardless of the circumstances of how the documents got to where they are, makes this situation quite different from that of his predecessor.  

What most of the Trumpie apologists don't want to use in comparison is the biggest difference between the two cases.  The National Archives had been requesting, for months, the return of classified documents on a specific list which they knew were in Trump's possession.  Trump refused, forcing the issuing of a warrant for search and seizure.  That's quite different from the self-discovery of the Biden Administration and the immediate, voluntary return of everything they found, even though none of the documents has appeared on any requested list from the National Archives.  

It almost appears intentional, on Biden's part, that documents found in his office led to a search of his private residence as well.  After all of the caterwauling done by Trumpie apologists and by Trump himself over "searching the private residence of a former President," here we have a search of the private residence of a sitting President.  This nullifies that complaint for sure.  

The reaction of the sitting President to this discovery, to the searches and to the appointment of a special counsel, has, at least as far as I am concerned, put this in perspective.  My guess is that the documents found in Biden's possession are not currently classified, or have been de-classified long ago.  He wouldn't have had them otherwise.  Maybe they were overlooked,  but maybe those who were going through the files had an inventory list similar to what the FBI had when it came to Trump's hundreds of classified documents and they picked up everything Biden had that was on that list. And I will believe his explanation and whatever he has to say about it, because, yes, he is that trustworthy. 

That's just my speculation of course.  But it involves comparing the relative integrity of Joe Biden to Donald Trump, and that's no contest at all.  Really, this is why all the drama in the media, the sort of "na-na-na-na-boo-boo, Biden did it too" narrative they are pushing is incredibly laughable nonsense.  No matter how excellent our FBI agents may be, there's not a single one of them who could ever find Donald Trump's credibility.  

It doesn't take a college degree, or even a high school diploma, to take a close look and compare these two situations to see the difference.  Trump deliberately took hundreds of classified documents, many of them top secret, from the White House when he left.  Have you been paying attention to this guy for all of his life, and especially the past four years?  His plans for those documents involved something to enrich and benefit himself at the expense of the American people.  How do I know that?  Is there anything else he's ever done that didn't have those kind of motivations?  This is a man who has been willing to throw his own children and family members under the bus for his own profit.  It's a pattern and it takes willful ignorance to avoid coming to that conclusion.  Ask anyone in his family whom he has thrown under the bus, there are plenty of them around. 

Let's put the focus and pressure where it needs to go, on Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice, to stop wasting their time chasing these windmills and get on with the indictment, arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of the orange headed Criminal-in-Chief.  The man incited an insurrection against the United States of America, its government and its people.  It's an embarrassment to all of us as a nation, and particularly to the DOJ, for this criminal to flaunt the Constitution and the law, and conduct a re-election campaign for President when he should be in jail now.  So get it done, NOW.

    

 

Ovations, Accolades, a Return to the Pulpit and Being Named as a Men's Conference Headliner Welcome Abusive Pastor Back to the Ministry

The Hiland Park Baptist Church in Panama City, Florida, a congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, offered its pulpit to Johnny Hunt on January 15 for his return to the ministry following a period of "repentance" and restoration conducted by four of his pastor friends after he was found to have been involved in a sexual abuse incident that was uncovered by Guidepost Solutions during its recent investigation, commissioned by the Convention in Nashville in 2021.  Hunt, who was involved in the abuse incident while serving as pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia, a year after serving as President of the Southern Baptist Convention was pronounced "restored" by a group made up of four of his best pastor friends in the ministry.  

Hunt preached January 15 at Hiland Park, where the pastor, Steven Kyle, was one of four pastors claiming to have conducted Hunt's sessions of repentance and restoration.  Hiland Park is also sponsoring the conference in February where Hunt has been named as the keynote speaker.  Kyle, and the three other pastors who met with Hunt following his abuse and guided him through a self-styled "restoration" process, which did not involve his former church in Woodstock, nor the victim of his abuse.  

Because the Southern Baptist Convention is made up of independent, autonomous churches, as a denomination it does not have any authority over the ordination of, selection of, or discipline of the clergy and staff of the churches.  However, the legitimacy of Hunt's "restoration" process was questioned by denominational leaders, including its current President Bart Barber, because no local church authority was involved, and the process appeared to be something derived from the whims of the four pastors involved in it, all of whom were close friends of Hunt.  The process has the appearance of being a group of good-ole-boy buddies of Hunt helping him get back on the gravy train of speaking engagements for those pastors within the denomination who make a name and build a reputation for themselves to add to their profit margin in retirement.  

The sexual abuse crisis in the SBC has become the "thing" in denominational politics these days.  Conservatives, who think women should be seen and not heard anywhere in ministry, are angry over the fact that a couple of decades of widespread sexual abuse, mostly by pastors and church staff, which had been swept under the rug and buried under the "local church autonomy" excuse by denominational leaders, has invaded their ranks and has caused the dismissal from both the denominational salary gravy train, and from positions of power and influence, of some of their own good-ole-boys, like Hunt, or like Dr. Paige Patterson, former president of two of the six denominational seminaries who mishandled abuse cases on both campuses during his tenure.  

After an expose investigation into the abuse, reported by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express News came out several years ago, the denomination was forced to take more action than just fobbing it off on the local autonomy excuse, and messengers/delegates at the annual meeting in 2021 shoved the rhetoric of an entrenched denominational bureaucracy aside, causing the resignation of the executive director and a dozen members of the executive committee, and mandated an independent investigation.  Hunt's name turned up in that investigation.  

In the wake of that investigation, the convention body, made up of messengers/delegates from the churches, resolved that abusers were certainly able to ask God for and receive his forgiveness, but should not be allowed by any of those independent, autonomous churches, to return to the ministry.  There's some support in the Bible for that, in Luke 9:62, and in I Timothy 3, where qualifications for those who serve as Bishops/Elders/Pastors are outlined.  Christian doctrine, derived from the scripture, is clear that God forgives sin following repentance, and that forgiveness is unconditional.  But nowhere does the scripture imply that forgiveness brings about revocation of consequences of sinful actions.  A minister of the gospel, forgiven by God for the sin of using his position as a means of committing an act of sexual abuse, is no longer qualified for ministry.  That's a completely separate issue from abuse. 

Mike Keahbone, who is vice-chair of the the Southern Baptist Convention's Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, appointed in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal, said, "It grieves me deeply that Johnny Hunt would not have the spiritual and emotional intelligence to realize the deep trauma he is causing, not only to the victim of his abuse, but also to all survivors who are watching and reliving their pain as they watch him return to the very platform he caused harm from.  True repentance is not found in the opinions of four men, but in a broken heart and changed behavior."  

Of course, a broken heart and changed behavior means that collecting lucrative conference fees and speaking engagement honorariums would have to be sacrificed, along with the attention provided by the adulation of admirers.  Keahbone stated that the Southern Baptist Convention's stance on sexual abuse committed by ministers is disqualification from ministry.  But high profile denominational good-ole-boy celebrities like Hunt are determined to do as they please, and ignore both the denomination that gave them their fame in the first place, and the scriptures they claim are inerrant and infallible. 

Even as the revelations came out that literally hundreds of abuse cases occurred in the denomination's churches over at least two decades, and that many of them were reported to the executive board officers who swept them under the carpet, failed to report them to law enforcement and excused that disgraceful conduct by appealing to the fact that they are powerless because of the independent, autonomous nature of the churches, Southern Baptist leaders still treat the women who are now known to have brought forth these allegations as perpetrators, not victims, and the pastors, church staff members and church leaders who abused them as victims of some kind of "satanic attack on the churches."  

Some of the abusers who have been exposed have gone on to serve other congregations.  In several instances, when they tearfully confessed to their current church, after being caught and exposed, the congregation applauded and gave them a standing ovation (Tennessee Pastor Gets Standing Ovation After Admitting Sexual Incident with Teen).  Others continue to be book for speaking engagements, and are invited to teach at Evangelical seminaries and Bible colleges (Ousted Seminary President Patterson to Teach Ethics Course at Southern Evangelical Seminary).  

In spite of the bad publicity, the humiliation for Southern Baptists who have arrogantly pointed fingers at Catholics for years over their clergy abuse scandal, and the rising cost of litigation, it does not seem that everyone in the denomination recognizes or acknowledges the serious nature of this issue.  While the more conservative branch of Southern Baptists, which accounts for much of the abuse and most of the denial of it, helps support extremist right wing politics, and the lies, immorality and corruption at the top of that heap, and buy into Q-Anon conspiracy theories about "grooming," they are turning their backs on some real, genuine, "grooming" that is going on within their own ranks.  Some are pointing out that no task force, set up by the denomination, has the authority to do anything to a church that determines not to cooperate with it.  

Keep an eye on what's going on here, as high profile, well known Southern Baptist sex abusers find their way back into a pulpit and back on the gravy train somewhere, and manage to downplay the sexual abuse crisis in their denomination.  And watch for the far right politicians who also downplay abuse to protect this cluster of sex abusers because they need their political endorsement. 

If George Santos were a Democrat...

George Santos is the biggest political embarassment to the Republican Party since Donald Trump.  Or Marjorie Taylor Green.  Or Matt Gaetz.  Or Lauren Boebert.  The possible exception to that is Solomon Pena, in New Mexico, but not that many people know who he is, yet.  

A Litany of Wrong

I am old enough to remember a Republican party that touted itself as the party of "family values."  I can still see images of a fat-faced, big-bellied Jerry Falwell making moral declarations about siding with Republican "values," even though it was just as hypocritical then as it would be now, especially knowing what is going on in the Falwell empire these days.  Would Republicans of the past be horrified and scandalized by what some of the leaders they now uphold have done, and continue to do with their lives?  But they'd do a good job of pretending.  

So yeah, Democrats had to deal with the saga of President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.  Being a political party, not a moralizing religious denomination, meant that the President's private business could be separated from his politics, but Republicans wouldn't let that alone, made a big deal out of it, turned it into a reason to impeach, which they had been looking for since the day he moved into the White House, and tried to use it to their political advantage.  It's possible, given how close the 2000 election turned out to be, that they were able to use that to turn just enough of an advantage to claim the White House.  But against the backdrop of what has developed in the GOP since then, what President Clinton did was no big deal.

And it has been fun to watch him, time after time, smack them down and come out ahead of them at every turn. 

Compared to Republicans, in the area of moral deportment and family values, the private lives of most Democratic politicians, especially in Washington, are incomparably more self-disciplined and moral than the Republicans have put out since the Clinton era.  Human nature is what it is.  But for a political party that gets compared to the other one in terms of how many of its members are church-going Christians and advocates of "family values," Democrats have exhibited a very high level of morality, compared to the scum-buckets produced by Republicans.  I'm not aware of any Democrat who asked one of his associates to pick up teenaged girls for him.  

Sure, there are some Democrats whose lives are not lived according to the moral principles outlined in Christian doctrine.  But they don't claim to be Christian, which is fine, since there is no religious test required for anyone to participate in government, at least, not legally.  But the George Santos scandal, hot on the heels of the single most corrupt and immoral Presidency in history, one for whom many so-called Christian leaders also claimed the moral high ground, is making even some of the bad, corrupt and immoral members of the Republican party look better than they should.  

Suddenly, It Doesn't Seem to Matter any More

I haven't seen a lot of Republicans waving the "family values" banner lately.  That would be impossible to do without looking like hypocrites up against their support of the worldly lifestyle proclaimed by Trump and that he worked so hard to identify with his character.  They haven't really needed it, since many self-proclaimed Evangelical leaders have been so willing to ignore everything that directly contradicts what they preach to hold on to the one thing that Republicans do which they still find consistent with their values.  They've grown quite comfortable with adultery and divorce, pathological lying and rank dishonesty and lack of integrity, insurrection, rioting and rebellion, sexual assault of underage girls, and now, in the case of Solomon Pena in New Mexico, attempted murder.  

So their response to George Santos, a shrug, a dismissal of his total lack of character with the phrase, "Well, the people of his district elected him," and hoping the news cycle gets off his name in a few days is predictable.  What else could a party that now hates family values do?  They elevate politics and power above everything and something has to give, so they've sacrificed morality and ethics.  

What Would Democrats do With Someone Like George Santos

That very likely depends on who was in charge in the House.  If it was Nancy Pelosi, it wouldn't have gone this far.  Someone else would have been running for that seat the moment it became known that he was a phony, no matter how late it was in the campaign cycle.  If he had managed to get into the house before his scam was detected, she would have gone to him privately and put pressure on him to resign.  

And if evidence is needed to support that contention, there's the case of Representative Katie Hill, a California Democrat who resigned after details of a complicated sexual scandal were revealed.  While some colleagues defended her, which would be expected in a Democratic party that doesn't see details of one's personal life as connected to competence in governing, Speaker Pelosi insisted that her resignation was the right thing to do.  The House Ethics Committee, under Democratic party control, was pursuing ethics violations.   

It's no surprise to me that her most ardent defender in the House wasn't a fellow Democrat, but Matt Gaetz.  His comment on twitter was, "Who among us would look look perfect if every ex leaked every photo/text."  That's the new Republican line. 

If Santos were a Democrat, he'd already be facing the ethics committee, not the softball throwing one that belongs to the GOP now, but a real ethics committee.  He'd have to make his own way, without party assistance or endorsement.  And the Democratic party leadership would be strongarming him into stepping down.  That's quite a contrast to McCarthy, who is doing, well, absolutely nothing.  

The Irony of It All 

Rather than being the party of family values, the GOP is the party of rank hypocrisy.  I've never believed that they were interested in anything more than the political value of the image of being the party of "family values" while they really weren't all that.  Church membership and attendance, which isn't necessarily a measure of these things, though it should be, favors Democrats in this department more than Republicans.  But Republicans stand against a lot of legislation that is family friendly, especially if it involves reducing the taxes of those who need it most, helping out with medical expenses, curbing gun violence or improving education.  

On top of Trump's worldly corruption and immorality, which he openly made his trademark, and the barrage of his pathological lying, we now have George Santos and a new creature of the dark, Solomon Pena.  I would be willing to bet that, with McCarthy in the speaker, new lows in Republican immorality are on the horizon.  

Get the popcorn and pull up a chair.  It should be a lot of fun. 

  

Education is Essential to the Preservation of our Democracy and it is Under Attack

Texas Baptist Standard: Panelists See Public Schools as Key to the Soul of Democracy

Elections have consequences, even at the school board level.  And I would add, especially at the school board and municipal level.  That's where groups under the larger umbrella of right wing extremism are making inroads to plan their ideology in the minds of students and subvert American democracy, making it into what they want, which is some kind of Christian nationalist dictatorship.  They advocate censorship, removal of the academic freedom of teachers and the use of schools to indoctrinate students in what they call "American Exceptionalism," which is white supremacy, not so cleverly disguised.  

These right wing extremists have set up local organizations to encourage their people to run for school boards whether they have an interest in the school or not, city councils, county boards of supervisors, from which they can control the local policies and get their agenda in place.  They're planting their extremism into the school curriculum, especially in states where the departments of education will let them do it.  They've lost the younger generations, so this is their attempt at trying to get their ideology in place.  

Education is so important to the preservation of our democracy.  The panelists in the article that is linked above, from the Texas Baptist Standard, went so far as to declare that public schools are the "soul of democracy."  The panel, sponsored by Pastors for Texas Children, convened their discussion in the Southlake school district, an affluent suburb of Ft. Worth, where the school board was the target of extremist right wing activists, underwritten by wealthy contributors who are funding school board takeovers all over the country.  

Get Actively Involved in School Board Meetings

One of the recommendations of the panel, whose aim is to prevent school boards from being taken over by extremists, is to organize groups of people committed to being at every school board meeting, to be a presence defending the free speech and academic freedom of teachers as well as the rights of students.  Finding out about school board policies and then holding trustees accountable to follow them is one of the ways people can protect their school district from extremism driven by money.  

The panel also pointed to various terms being used to disguise voucher schemes to divert money away from public education into private schools, particularly religious based schools.  Regardless of the terms used to describe these plans, they are intended to take money out of public education to promote political and religious agendas.  And that undermines the curriculum and instruction, as well as the commitment to democratic values that is an integral part of public school systems.  Many Charter schools, which also take money from public education, are also agenda driven by anti-democratic extremism.  

The nature of this panel, involving Evangelical Christians and groups associated with them, underlines the fact that right wing extremism, which is promoting anti-democratic, anti-American values, operates under an aberrant philosophy of education, political in nature, but aimed at using and distorting Christian doctrine and theology and bending it to their purposes.  It must be rejected by pastors and church leaders.  

All Elections are Important

This movement underlines the fact, especially for young Democrats, that every election is important, and that going to cast a ballot every time there is an opportunity is the only way to preserve democracy.  We can't just show up every four years, support a Presidential candidate, and expect that whoever that person is will take care of the rest of this mess for us.  The people who sit on your local school board have a lot of power and control over what is taught in the classroom and how the school is operated.  As we speak, school boards in many places are removing objectives which teach about racial equality and discrimination and are silencing voices promoting freedom.  

The midterm election, specifically a few congressional districts in heavily Democratic New York, show just how important that is.  In the last school board election in the school district where I live, the two new board members who were elected won by 15 and 17 votes respectively, out of just 170 votes cast.  Fortunately, they are advocates of freedom and democracy, and the extremist candidates underwritten by Magats, both lost.  But that was close.  I don't have a child in the school district, but I do own property and pay taxes and I ought to have a voice in who sits in those seats and runs a school I help pay for.

But the long-range impact is much more important.  Eliminating any part of the curriculum that dealt with social issues from an equal perspective was a high priority of the opposition, with removal of teaching about CRT at the top of the list.  And if you're not familiar with this issue, "CRT" is not what gets removed, all anti-racist instruction does.  Go back and reference one David Barton if you want to see what these people have in mind for the public school system.  

Education is the Key to the Preservation of Democracy

One of the founding principles of compulsory public education in the United States is the preservation of democracy through an educated electorate.  Since power in a democracy is derived from the people, having an electorate with basic critical thinking skills and the kind of discernment that comes from being able to read, comprehend and participate in the free exchange of ideas is supposed to result in votes cast for candidates who represent various positions on issues of importance to the people.  

That kind of environment, contrary to being a threat to any perspective, should be fertile ground for the free exchange of ideas.  So in order to protect our individual freedoms, guaranteed by the constitution, which includes everything about who we are, we need to protect our schools.  And the best way to do that is to vote in school board elections and elect board members who understand this concept.  

The News Media Should be Quiet About Biden's Document Issue Until Trump Cooperates, Concedes 2020 and House Republicans Respond to Subpoenas

Claiming to be fair and impartial doesn't mean that's the case.  So some documents with classified markings showed up in President Biden's possession.  He took note of it, got his staff involved in searching to find any others that might have been overlooked, got in touch with the National Archives, and did what you'd expect in this case.  Trump has yet to even lift a finger, so that should be the focus of continued reporting, the contrast between the two.  

There are still House Republicans who resisted responding to subpoenas, refused to cooperate and yet, they are now promising a "thorough" investigation of President Biden, demanding answers and vowing to get to the bottom of it.  Integrity means President Biden will respond, but oh, isn't it tempting to just hope that he tells them hell will freeze over before he cooperates with any investigation of theirs, until they acknowledge the real world, and hold Trump accountable.  That would be fair.  

Until the story changes, the media, to be fair, balanced and doing their job, should either focus on the contrast between Biden and Trump, or move on to something else until there's real news to report.  A President is doing as he should do, behaving in a manner that is completely ethical, in contrast to a former President, and his minions in Congress, who isn't.  And if they're not willing to make that the dominant headliner, then they're not doing their job.  

Every member of Congress who hasn't been cooperative in either of the DOJ investigations going on, specifically January 6th, should have headlines about their lack of cooperation appearing in the media on a daily basis, in network news and in national newscasts on cable television.  Let people know exactly what they aren't doing and how hypocritical they are when it comes to the other side.  Then maybe, doubtful but maybe, this political gridlock will go away.  Or is that wishful thinking? 

I have grown impatient with Merrick Garland, waiting for indictments for obvious crimes committed by Trump that just don't seem to materialize.  Yes, we have a special counsel.  How long does it take to organize what has been gathered and organized and looked at for two years now, to form a criminal case and prosecute the criminal Trump and everyone he dragged in with him, including Bannon.  If we don't get justice against a conspiracy to overthrow the government, then our democracy will be over, the rule of law meaningless and our country turned against its founder's vision and values.  

It's long past time.  Get it done.  

A New Focus for American Students on the MLK Birthday Celebration

Over time, I've heard colleagues in the education profession, and students, including some college students who are old enough and educated enough to know better, refer to the MLK birthday as a "holiday for black people."  That displays a kind of ignorance that I have trouble tolerating.  And it tells me that the educational objectives in history courses for students at all levels, regarding Dr. King and the far-reaching effects of his leadership in civil rights, need some adjustment, new emphasis and attention.  

The changes that came about in civil rights legislation resulting from the leadership of Dr. King in the movement among African Americans benefitted all Americans.  Of course, the emphasis of his movement and the direction of his efforts were focused on the bigotry that produced unconscionable segregation aimed at African Americans, and it pointed out the stark contrast between the reality of his time with the idealism reflected in this country's founding documents.  But we need to get deeper into exactly how bad conditions were for African Americans, and how much of a price was paid by those who followed Dr. King's lead down the pathway of non-violent resistance, a means to an end that was unprecedented in both the impact it had on the culture of the time and its success in achieving its ends.  

We are now a couple of generations out and away from the worst of the extremism and rabid, violent racism that segregated American society and culture.  Memories are fading.  There are places in the country where the full impact of racist segregationist practices has never been included in the objectives of public school education.  My high school history teacher, one of the best I ever had through my entire education from elementary school through graduate school, made the comprehension and magnitude of the whole post-Civil war racism and segregation in this country a required unit objective.  He got a lot of flak from parents for doing so, but he refused to back down, inviting parents to come to his classes, sit through the lessons and point out anything they felt inaccurate or untrue.  

Those class sessions included inviting victims of discrimination and segregation, and the violence that was perpetrated against them when they participated in the non-violent protesting of it, to come to class and relate their experiences.  What amazed me about those who came was their calm demeanor, and the fact that they never exhibited the slightest degree of resentment or animosity.  They were proud of their success in achieving their goal of equal rights under the law, and elimination of segregation laws.  They relayed experiences, especially in school settings, that were horrifying to me.  But they made an impression on me as well, one I have never forgotten.  I think we've lost that kind of impression somewhere.  

Observing a group of middle school students watching a fifteen-minute tribute video to Dr. King, I noticed they had no concept of what it was like for African Americans prior to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Seeing images of separate drinking fountains, park benches, gathering places, having to ride in the back of the bus and give up seats for white people, and beyond that, the lynching, attacks and torment that went without consequences in many parts of the country was difficult for them to imagine.  The fact that there are still people in this country who want to bring that back, and that those people have political power, is unfathomable to this generation of young people.  Their awareness of it, and the fear of its recurrence, is a motivation necessary to prevent it from happening again.  

Schools in many places are turning away from teaching this in their history or English curriculum, and are censoring aspects of it from textbooks and instructional curriculum.  The war on free speech and academic freedom of teachers in the classroom is aimed specifically at racial equality and civil rights of minority groups.  Conspiracy theories, misrepresentations of history, including attacks against Critical Race Theory, which is a ridiculous position to take from an educational perspective that advocates critical thinking skills, and the emergence of aberrant theology among conservative Christians pushing the ideology of white, Christian nationalism makes this an essential element in education, necessary to equip students with the knowledge and reasoning power they need to counter the lies coming from the extremists and preserve the freedom that comes with equality.  

Only inferior ideas and philosophies fear the marketplace of ideas.  

Joe Biden is the President for our Time

My interest in politics flourished while I was a student in high school, specifically during the last two years when I had one of the most engaging, effective American History teachers possible, a similar experience with a teacher in civics and economics, combined with all of the political news surrounding the Watergate scandal and the resignation of both Spiro T. Agnew as Vice-President and Richard Nixon from the Presidency.  It was a superb combination, exactly the kind of thing educators dream about.  

Since then, Presidential politics was not just a hobby.  I majored in history, to teach it, minoring in English and took a core of concentrated courses in political science.  Friends and family members warned me that the combination of those majors would lead to becoming a flaming liberal.  They were right about that. It sure did. Do I sound unhappy about it?  Not now, and not at any time during the 43 years since I got my B.A.  

From the time I've been watching, we've had some great Presidents, we've had mediocre Presidents, and we've had one horrible President.  Being a Democrat, I tend to evaluate the Democrats from my perspective, which means that I think the Democrats who have been in office that I can remember were pretty successful.  I don't remember Lyndon Johnson much, except from media clips and history studies, but I do remember Jimmy Carter, a great man and in the hindsight of history, a good President.  He was personable, and made me feel like he knew who I was and cared.  

In terms of real accomplishment, President Clinton and President Obama were achievers.  They were also examples of strength in the face of adversity, defending their convictions in spite of opposition that was most often disrespectful and didn't deserve their respect.  Their presidencies can be evaluated as competent successes in contrast to both of their predecessors.  I admired them both and I count them among the greatest ever to have served in office.  

President Biden fits well with the success of his most recent Democratic predecessors, but there's something about him that sets him apart.  President Biden somehow manages, in spite of all of the stress he experiences, the critics, the issues and the way politics has become, to make me feel that he thinks of me, as a fellow American, as a member of his family.  I've never met him personally, but there's just something about him, his speech, mannerisms, and the way he thinks and acts, that reminds me a lot of my own father.  He makes me feel like we could sit down for lunch and carry on a conversation like I've known him forever.  And in some ways, I guess I have.  

Our country is going through a dark time.  The ghosts of ideologies and political movements we thought were long dead, that dragged us into Civil War, and caused the world to be dragged into the flames of two world wars, have resurrected themselves and are appearing everywhere.  We saw the beginnings of turmoil in the Middle East, in two wars in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.  It has now flared up again, bigger, and far more serious, in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where the same old ideologies are simply wearing new labels.  

This darkness has also infiltrated our Congress, the governing body of the United States, with the same kind of bigotry that we saw prior to and after the Civil War, and which is rooted in problems that we don't seem capable of resolving.  It has already tried to start a second Civil War, and is still an active presence and a danger.  It gained a foothold in the previous Presidency and made a move to grab the power out of the people's hands on January 6, 2020, but fortunately, failed.  However, it is still very much there and it has friends around the world who would like nothing more than to see a neutralized United States of America, or an America taken over by darkness and helping spread it to the rest of the world. 

We needed someone as President who had experience, knew the depth of what is being dealt with and willing to put himself on the line, regardless of the political cost, to stop it.  When President Biden was inaugurated, the kind of unity we needed seemed impossible to achieve, and in many ways, it still does.  But there is no doubt in my mind, two years into this term, that he was the man for the hour, and I pray for his continued good health and clarity of mind because his expertise, knowledge of how this all works, commitment to public service and his empathy and compassion for people, and his devotion to American democracy and the Constitution are the strongest combination of strengths and skills that this country needs right now, especially with the House under the control of the other party, influenced by unhinged extremists.  

Because of who he is, and how he operates, and what he brings to the table, he is under attack.  That's been going on since before he was elected.  They've attacked everything from his age and mental health to his family members.  It's been relentless.  What he needs now is our encouragement, support, and confidence.  There's a lot that can be done locally to demonstrate support, from letters to the editor of local newspapers and online media to the social media outlets, even the ones owned by his detractors.  They've got nothing on him because there's nothing to get on him.  They've been trying, including the use of bribes with foreign government leaders and now, making a huge deal out of nothing.  And they'll keep trying.  The media can do all of the speculation and projection it wants, Joe Biden is an honest man, an American patriot with character.  That's what I know.

The political turmoil must be discouraging.  But he's shown, time and time again, that he's not easily discouraged.  So we're at one of those points when we can get behind him and do everything within our power to help him do the job we elected him to do.  

 

Evangelicals Supporting Asylum in the US Thank Biden, Ask for Further Reforms

Baptist News Global: Thanks for Visiting the Border, But We've Got Some Concerns 

Here's a phrase with some words that may be somewhat surprising, considering the current stereotypes in American Politics.  A group of Evangelical Christian immigration advocates, yes, advocates, had some very positive praise for the Biden Administration's immigration policies.  

Positive praise for President Biden's immigration policies from Evangelicals?  

That makes sense to anyone who understands the actual perspective on immigration that is clearly defined and explained in the Bible.  Leaders of the group Evangelical Immigration Roundtable, representing several denominations and groups of Evangelical Christians, including, amazingly, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, pointed out their beliefs, based on the biblical text, that all persons, regardless of their nationality or ethnicity, are created by God and made in his image with inherent dignity.  They expressed the desire for the United States to "respect its legal obligations to ensure that those who face a credible threat of persecution not be returned to their countries of origin without due process.  

That stems from core Christian principles, along with the belief that God created government for clear purposes which include maintaining order, ensuring security and protecting the vulnerable.  

So this particular group had words of praise for the President regarding his recent visit to the border and the emphasis he has placed and is placing on immigration policy.  As might be expected with a group of Evangelicals, among whom praise for this President is either rare, or virtually non-existent, there were a few complaints.  However, with this group, the complaints were that the interference and the attitude of congressional Republicans prevents the country from developing comprehensive immigration reform, not to restrict the vast majority of those heading here to seek asylum, but to help them.  

What they want sounds to me like a laundry list of leftist, "woke" reforms that are the proverbial camel's nose under the tent that the extremist right wing media keeps harping about.  

• They want the current parole status for immigrants who have come from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua to allow for permanent legal status after further vetting.  Currently, they must remain under temporary status, even though they would likely be in grave danger if they had to return.
• They want the rules for blocking those seeking asylum because they came through another country relaxed or removed.
• They wanted proposed increases of border security, a hard-liner position of Republicans, paired with a solution for resolving the status of Dreamers in a manner that is favorable to them.  Yikes!  Negotiation and compromise on border security and the status of a group of people who have not ever known life outside the United States is an Evangelical position?  

According to this group, it is.  It sounds "woke" to me.   

A Far Cry From Accusations that the Biden Administration Advocates for Open Borders

Lying is not a Christian virtue, at least, not in real Christianity.  Starting off a debate on immigration by claiming that the other side has a policy that they clearly do not have is not negotiating in good faith, it is a means of preventing it to push an agenda.  The Evangelical Immigration Roundtable is dealing with reality, not propaganda, because they are genuinely interested in improving the status of refugees who are literally running to the United States for their lives.  They're not objects for political debate, they are people who need help.  

Nor is the Roundtable advocating for open borders.  They recognize the political situations in those countries in particular, and their compassion, something that comes from genuine Christian faith, is prompting them to do whatever they can, including making an approach to the President of the United States.  

Evangelicals who have become caught up in extremist right wing politics have had to abandon almost all of the values and convictions that originate from their faith, and from the guidance of the Bible in order to support the secular politics of their preferred candidates.  They have betrayed their faith by their actions which undermine the principles that are its very essence.  They have elevated the importance of a single issue, abortion, over all of the values and principles that define the Christian faith, most notably their integrity, and abandoned belief in the sanctity of all human life with political defense of a small percentage of life at the expense of all other human life.  

This is Real Christianity at Work

Jesus never intended for the Christian church to take a political side or to be used as a political influence.  What Evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell initiated in the United States, and what others like Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, Greg Locke and others have promoted, is contrary to the Christian gospel, an aberration and deviation from what they themselves call the written "word of God," interfering with the mission and purpose of churches and leading to historic declines in conversions and church involvement and membership.  If these self-labelled leaders really believe in the sanctity of human life, they'd be right there with the EIR, advocating for immigration asylum, against racism and bigotry and discrimination that also leads to poverty and deprivation, fair housing, the right to universal medical care and a hundred other things that relieve suffering and give glory to God.  

"Who is there to harm you, if you are eagar to do good?" said the Apostle Peter.  

Who, indeed?   

Stepping Out on a Limb to Predict a "Blue Tsunami" in 2024 Gets Less Risky Every Day

When the speculation of the media becomes reality, that's something worth noting.  

Kevin McCarthy's problems in getting elected Speaker of the House have been talked about even before it became known for sure that the GOP would get control of the house back.  Satisfying reports in the media, saying that "Republicans are in disarray," have been unusually blunt, with an edge of criticism of their handling of a process that hasn't caused so much confusion and controversy for a hundred years.  Republicans truly are in "disarray," winning control of the house on the strength of their ability to gerrymander congressional districts more than on their ability to convince voters they've got the answers to America's problems.  Oh, yeah, they did win a majority of the votes in the House elections, but that's mainly due to the pile-up of voters in heavily Republican states in districts drawn to favor Republicans.  

In the statewide races for Senate and in gubernatorial races, they took a beating, especially in the "battleground" states. 

I had to take a look this week and see how Fox News was handling this Republican debacle in the House.  Predictably, they were also in disarray, if I may overuse that term.  There's a painful awareness on the propaganda side of extremist conservatism of the fact that the support of the electorate, in those places where they need to win to claim federal elected office, is waning.  They can downplay it all they want, and "take comfort" in the fact that they "took back the House," what they got fell far, far short of what they anticipated.  The fight in the house, like a brawl on the football field where a heavily favored team can't quite put their opponents away, raised significant alarm among the pundits on the extreme right.  

I'm a Believer in Accountability

Government change takes time.  I'm frustrated by the fact that even though it is clear Donald Trump committed multiple crimes against the people of the United States, through his seditious behavior in inciting a riot aimed at overturning the constitution's provision for a peaceful transfer of power and then all through his presidency, up to and including his theft of classified documents from the White House which I personally believe he did at the request of a foreign power that is our enemy, in order to benefit himself, not caring about the political or international consequences of that.  I'm frustrated because I think he should have been indicted long before now, and he should be held over for his multiple trials.  

I'm frustrated because the 14th Amendment to the Constitution seems impossible to enforce.  It's there, because of the abandonment of American values by Confederate sympathizers in Congress who supported those who took up arms against the United States to defend the inhumane practice of slavery.  Any member of Congress, from fist-pumping Josh Hawley, to those in the House like Lauren Boebert, who helped insurrectionists by giving them tours of the building so they could find their way to the offices and safe rooms of their political opponents, should, at the very least, be expelled from their seats and never allowed to return, because their support for insurrection, and potential participation in it, was obvious. If that amendment had been enforced, there would now not be a GOP majority in the House of Representatives.  But its weakness is enforcement.  So right now, it's nothing more than words.  

But, in this constitutional democracy, where the power of government is derived from the will of the people, there is ultimate accountability in the ballot box.  And it worked, on election day in 2020, when voters went to the polls and issued their indictment, conducted a trial and passed sentence on Donald Trump by voting against him in numbers greater than those who still supported him.  That movement actually started in 2018, when the term "blue wave" came into common use to describe the sweep of seats in a house election that Republican gerrymandering had made far more difficult than it would have been otherwise.  

Why There's a "Blue Tsunami" on the Way

A lot of pundits, prior to and after the midterm election, have tried to focus attention on issues that motivate votes.  Crime and inflation, which Republicans made the centerpiece of their campaign, were definitely on people's minds, but a lot of voters weren't sure they could trust Republicans to resolve them, since almost as many voters who thought these were important issues supported Democratic candidates.  Democrats did control the narratives when it came to saving American democracy, and the Supreme Court Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was a huge motivator for Democrats.  

But issues don't always drive the electorate and there were voters who went to the polls motivated by other factors, including candidate quality, which was high on the list.  Other than in some heavily gerrymandered districts, the Trump endorsed extremist candidates, running mainly on election denial going back to the 2020 election, lost across the board, specifically in statewide elections in battleground states.  If the midterms were, as the media labelled them, a "referendum on the Biden administration," then he won the referendum.  If it was also a referendum on Trumpism, election denying and approval of the insurrection as a legitimate protest, then all of that was defeated.   

The Republicans lost control of several state legislatures and governorships, and squeaked out a narrow majority in Congress, where, on their first day of control, actually lost control of the process of electing a speaker for the entire week and created an embarrassing spectacle that has helped boost Democrats' chances at regaining the majority in 2024 in a way that millions of campaign dollars couldn't provide.  And with the rules changes and committee assignments that were traded off for McCarthy to pick up the speaker's chair, we can look forward to two years of chaos under Republican leadership.  

The chaos also thrust some of the GOP's most annoying, despicable, inept, incapable extremists to the front of the line, where the rest of the country can get a good perspective of their unpatriotic anti-American extremism.  Matt Gaetz' despicable attitude and behavior last week prompted one of the members of his own party to physical violence against him.  This small group of white supremacist bigots, fascist political hacks and violent thugs, are responsible for the complete disarray in which the Republican party now finds itself.  The others are no less responsible for it, by not standing up for what they say they believe in, and silencing their ignorance, but these extremists, who have successfully "controlled the narrative" this past week, with complete chaos being the result, will be the wedge that drives independents and even moderate Republicans to the Biden Administration's re-election bid and will help Democrats lock down control of Congress in 2024.  

Is that going out on a limb?  Not any more than Michael Moore did when he confidently stated, during the week prior to the midterms, that the Democrats would keep the Senate and there would not be even so much as a red trickle.  And I say that with the same evidence in hand.  The extremist narrative built by Trumpism has, like the Tea Party movement before it, run its course, because conspiracy theories don't generate credibility and their politicians don't have solutions to solve their perceived problems.  And they are outnumbered by those who have the education, common sense and awareness of what's going on, some of who may be attracted to populist themes for a while, but who eventually see the lack of character and values that zap the credibility of that approach.  

Even among the core of white Evangelicals, where aberrant theology and doctrine, like white Christian nationalism, pulls many of them in to vote for the extremists, there are those who have become turned off by the gross immoral excesses and the obvious dishonesty and lack of integrity of Trump and his minions.  They flaunt it, and while many Evangelicals find ways to excuse it because they like the politics, there are others who see that if they continue to support it, it destroys the credibility of the Christian gospel they claim is their priority, mission and purpose.  

The Pendulum has Already Swung Back to the Left

I was one of those who thought, prior to Trump's election, that he would never be able to achieve enough support, even in the kooky GOP, to get elected President.  His previous attempts to do so were jokes, really, I don't believe very many people took them seriously.  I was genuinely surprised when he secure the nomination, as much by the fact that he actually got that kind of voter support from within the GOP, as by the passive cringing of Republican leaders like Jeb Bush, who slipped into humiliated silence after losing so badly, and Ted Cruz, who wouldn't lift a finger to defend himself against horrid, childish insults and lies directed at his family, including his own father and his wife.  So much for the party of "family values."  

But even though our flawed system of electing a President let him get through the door, once he did, his true self came forward, he proved incapable of handling the office, the work, the pressures, the criticism and lacked the intelligence, discernment, wisdom and knowledge to carry out the responsibilities and duties of the presidency.  He failed, and the peak of his support was not enough to overcome that of his opponent, who was elected because he had everything Trump didn't have, when it came to public service.  

But it was his response to the loss, the corrupt manipulation of the power of the Presidency to set himself up as dictator, thwart the will of the people, subvert the constitution, declare war against the people of the United States and their elected government, that has been the end of his era.  That's where he lost any hope of ever being trusted with public office again, and any chance of gaining enough support from voters to even get close enough to think there might be a chance at re-election.  His political career is over and he will end either in prison, or, like Nixon, a disgraced and isolated paranoiac.  

Those who continue to grab on to Trumpism, and who push themselves to be the face of the GOP will bring the whole party down with them.  There will always be the pockets of disgruntled, unhappy, uneducated ignorance where Republicans have few challengers, but I believe we are on the verge of seeing Democrats gain and hold Congressional power for at least a decade.  The pendulum always swings, but perception and discernment, along with understanding that this is a democracy where the will of the people is sovereign, is the trademark of leadership.  As long as Democrats realize that, like Joe Biden has done, they will have the mantle of leadership.  

From Pelosi's Effective Leadership to Chaos: What the Extremists in the GOP Want to Make Out of the House Won't Work

One of the most shrill, chattering voices in the House of Representatives belongs to Lauren Boebert, who represents Colorado's sprawling 3rd district, a gerrymandered mish-mash of mostly rural counties in the western part of the state, swinging around to the central and southern parts of the state to avoid larger population centers where the population is heavily Democratic.  She originally won election to Congress by a six percentage point margin, gathering just over 51% of the vote in the Presidential election year 2020.  But re-election turned out to be a much tougher proposition for Boebert, in spite of the fact that her Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch, a former Aspen city council member, was underfunded, winning by just over 500 votes.  

Boebert, more than any other Republican member of the house, characterizes her party's ineffectiveness and failure to govern, leading to the erosion of voter support among independents and centrist, moderate Republicans.  Polling data, which turned out to be inaccurate and skewed, prevented Democrats from investing the kind of money into the campaign Frisch needed to win and they likely regret not doing so now, since it looks like the cost to win would not have been much more than what he already spent.  The count was so close, depending on virtually every vote, that the race was one of the last to be called.  

What Boebert does to characterize the current GOP is demonstrate an almost total and complete ignorance of American history, civics and leadership ability.  Her public statements have been so poorly constructed, and represent such an incredible level of her complete lack of understanding of how a democratically-elected government is supposed to operate that her communications director resigned in the wake of the mess made by her public comments following the January 6th Trump Insurrection.  Boebert's shrill insistence in equating the insurrection with "people petitioning their government" drew a barrage of criticism, forcing her to backtrack on the remarks, something she finds herself doing frequently.  

When she told those gathered at a campaign event that, "The church is supposed to direct the government.  The government is not supposed to direct the church.  That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it.  And I am tired of this separation of church and state junk.  It's not in the Constitution," she characterized her ignorance of American history as well as the position of the far right branch of the Republican party's position on the pseudo-Christian perspective of Christian Nationalism.  There, in a nutshell, is exactly the kind of attitude which prevents the Republicans from succeeding when they are in charge of governing.  

There is a lot to be said for having an education, something that Boebert never got. 

Instant Chaos, and Instant Contrast to one of the Most Effective Speakers in History

I had the privilege of meeting Nancy Pelosi several years ago while attending a legislative advocacy meeting in Washington.  We had just gotten our lunch in the cafeteria in the Rayburn building when one of the colleagues I was with said, "Don't look now, but if you want to see Nancy Pelosi, she just sat down at the table right behind you."  I resisted the temptation to stand up, go over and shake hands, interrupting her lunch, which looked more casual than business.  However, as we were getting up to leave, so was the party at her table, so I walked over, not thinking that she might have a security detail who did take notice, put out my hand, introduced myself and asked her if I could take care of her tray, saying that it was my privilege to serve someone who had served me, as a citizen of the United States, so well.  

Speaker Pelosi made government work.  She brought together quarreling branches of the party, resolved difficulties, was sensitive to perceptions and feelings, understood the constitution, respected her colleagues and her political opposition and she knew when she didn't have the votes to sustain passage of a bill.  She rarely had to walk-back things she said, because she knew when to speak and when to maintain silence.  She knew how to govern, because she respected the institutions of government and understood that compromise was not a dirty word, and that taking a hard line and insisting that her way was the only way prevented government from serving the people who empower it.  

You'd never catch her standing up in the chamber, disrespectfully shrieking like a magpie, jabbing her finger in the air and behaving like a spoiled child, a common observation of Boebert's behavior, like an uneducated rube.  She had ways of passive resistance, and of making her point, like being captured on camera ripping up her copy of Trump's State of the Union speech.  But she recognized that the government was everyone's government and that the best way for it to succeed, and serve the needs of its people, is for everyone to have a voice.  Joe Biden will go down in history as one of the most accomplished Presidents in modern history because he and his party's Speaker of the House both had the kind of experience learned through years of experience of how to make government work, coupled with a desire to serve the people.  

Lauren Boebert, and Kevin McCarthy, are both more interested in their agenda than in serving the people and McCarthy is caught up in personal ambition.  Follow the money trail there.  It would be difficult for Boebert, a high school dropout who has lost the ability to provide any reasonable level of leadership, especially in Congress, because of her outlandish rhetoric in a place where fellow Republicans are far more educated.  But she's helping hold the GOP's first business item hostage.  McCarthy has been such a self-promoter that he's only the front runner for the speaker's job because of party loyalty.  Few are supporting him because they actually like him.

This isn't How Democracy Works, But it is How Republicans Govern

The first Republican majority in the House in four years, in its opening exercises conducting what has been a routine and relatively peaceful transfer of power for most of the nation's history, is showing us that it is no longer capable of governing.  Extremists, while not making up nearly as large a majority as their leader wants us to think, have still paralyzed the party, mainly because the rest of it has still decided it is too weak and conciliatory to stand up to the orange menace and take it back.  So, while the extremists aren't participating in the negotiating and deal-making that is an essential part of a representative democracy, they are also helping to make their party's chances of holding this majority and winning the White House in 2024 slimmer every day.  

This is a prelude to the next two years of Republican house leadership.  Even with the gerrymandering that is essentially the only reason they actually got their thinnest of majorities this mid-term, this is going to turn into an electoral disaster.  And in all honesty, I don't think the party can survive this in one piece.  It is in "disarray" (I love to use that term!) and the tendency of Republican extremists to avoid any kind of deal making or compromise and stick to their "my way or the highway" way of doing things is causing a fracture in the GOP that can't be repaired.  

This is how the Republicans govern! A small oligarchy of individuals get themselves into a position of power, and then they use it to bring everyone else into submission.  Because there is really no one among the Republican members of the house who has an ounce of integrity, who is willing to stand up to the bullies, and who wants to work within the parameters of a democratic structure where old fashioned give-and-take compromise gets things done and everyone is an American on the same side working for the good of the same people, they become an oligarchy of a single issue, single minded special interest.  The small minority is infected by extremism, characterized by the influence of fascist media bigots who are Rush Limbaugh wannabees, outside money from the corporate elite and Vladimir Putin's government.  

They are working to defeat true democracy, while trying to make it look like they are loyal to the constitution.  Most of those who are playing the game with the vote on the Speaker participated or supported the January 6th Trump Insurrection.  Their ideological group failed to get anywhere close to the number of members of the house that was their goal, but the narrow Republican majority has opened up an opportunity for them to manipulate the majority of their own party, mostly spineless cowards who care little about the country but a lot about their own power and wallet.  They're going to make a mess of things in the house for as long as they can.  But in political terms, this will be very short lived.  

I believe the damage they are doing to their party is irreparable.  The extremist faction of the GOP is mired in lies and conspiracy theories and they've lost enough credibility to be at the point where they are no longer trusted by the majority of voters.  This confusion around electing a speaker, which involves deliberate humiliation of one of their own party leaders, only confirms the party's slide into fascism and sets up the Biden administration and the Democrats for victory in 2024.  We aren't likely to see the kind of landslides that characterized past partisan shifts, but this will be a sizeable win.  

The house Democrats have demonstrated a spirit of unity and solidarity that developed under Nancy Pelosi's leadership.  I have to smile every time I see Hakeem Jeffries come out on top of vote after vote after vote.  That's a reminder to every Republican that the power they hold is limited, that their opponents are united and they're not going to be able to achieve much, if any, of their extremist agenda.  

I doubt there are any Republicans in the house willing to step up on their own, show some integrity and help make the house more effective than it's going to be these next two years.  So what that does is make the contrast between the unity of the Democrats and their commitment to the American people and the disarray (I love to use that word) of Republicans and their commitment to the destruction of the republic.  I hope they enjoy it while it lasts, because it's not going to last for long.  

Shocking Things Liberals Believe: Good Enough for a Post!

CEO's should not receive 3,000 times the pay of their workers. 

Wall Street gangsters should go to prison when they steal. 

Kids should not worry about being shot at school. 

The US should stop behaving like a third world nation.

Health care should not be a luxury just for rich people. 

Profitable corporations don't need subsidies.

Education is good and everyone should have access to it. 

Companies should not trash the earth for profit. 

CEO's who offshore jobs and lay people off should not get huge bonuses.

Working people shouldn't live in poverty.

Kids and veterans should not be homeless.

People should matter more than cell clusters. 

Which Party's "Worldview" is Incompatible with Christianity?

For we are not peddlers of God's word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence.  Paul, the Apostle in 2 Corinthians 2:17  NRSV

Many of the Christians I know who have embraced the Republican party, and in so doing have accepted all of its political positions without any real vetting of them when it comes to their consistency with Christian doctrine, theology or practice.  This is primarily based on their belief that all politicians associated with the party must adhere to its "platform" which includes opposition to abortion rights.  So, because of that single plank, a large number of white, Evangelical Christians have joined the GOP and become all-out supporters of everything it supports, and committed their loyalty to all candidates whose name is followed by an "R" for party affiliation.  

It's a Game of "Follow the Leader"

From my own experience of being raised in an Evangelical church and having attended one for the better part of thirty-five years, I'd say that there's probably not one church member in ten that can actually compare church doctrine and theology with Republican party positions and make a determination about their consistency or compatibility.  It may be anecdotal evidence from my perspective, but I haven't had very many conversations with someone along these lines who was able to reach into their own experience and knowledge of the Bible and come up with such a determination.  I've had a lot of these kinds of discussions, going back to my college days, and inevitably, the citations of support for their views came from some well-known Evangelical media personality, not from the Bible.  

The "National Affairs Briefing," a gathering in Dallas in August, 1980, gathered Evangelical pastors for the purpose of pulling them into a conservative, Republican-supporting political movement and a fellow by the name of Ed McAteer, of "Religious Roundtable" along with prominent Evangelical evangelist James Robison, organized the gathering.  They invited Reagan to address the gathering, which he gladly did, and where he said "I know that this is non-partisan and you can't endorse me, but I endorse you," a scripted remark which Robison suggested he make on the ride from the airport to Reunion Arena.  

Reagan's speech to the briefing endeared him to Evangelicals.  It was an intentional, and very well briefed, revivalist sermon and political campaign speech rolled into one, the irony being that his opponent, then-President Jimmy Carter, was a bona-fide, genuine, down-to-earth, theologically astute, articulate Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher. Reagan used the opportunity to ingratiate himself with several of the well known "televangelist" group in order to drive a wedge between them and Carter. Jerry Falwell's comments after Reagan's speech, that his Moral Majority would work to get conservative Christian voters to support Reagan's election "even if he has the devil running with him," has proven to be prophetic, literal and very accurate when it comes to their support for Republican candidates.  In this more recent time, they've voted for the devil when he was the one running for office. 

Politics has Changed Christian Doctrine and Theology

It's inconsistent for conservative Evangelical voters to let their politics bend their doctrinal position, which they insist is based on their belief in the "inerrant, infallible" Bible. But one of the things that I learned, subtly taught but openly practiced, is how to justify any personal belief, prejudice or bias with scripture.  No modern President of the United States was as thoroughly Evangelical Christian in his beliefs, which matched his behavior, as President Carter.  The media reporting during his candidacy, made that very clear.  But he was a Democrat, and Democrats supported abortion rights.  The diversity of opinion, which was and still is widely respected among Democrats, wasn't enough for this particular group of Evangelicals who already had one foot in the GOP anyway.  

Up to that particular time, no Republican President of the United States in the 20th century came close to Carter's Evangelical credentials.  Reagan was arguably one of the most "secular" individuals to run for President.  Any biographical information about him prior to his 1980 candidacy never mentions membership or association with any church, and what little is there now appears to have been inserted following his response to being questioned about whether or not he was "born again" in the same way Carter described.  He played the game that he needed to play, entertained those he perceived as influential in their ability to gather votes for him from among Evangelicals.  

Some of the core cultural perspectives practiced by Evangelicals had to be adjusted to make Reagan's lack of church involvement, or should I say complete absence of any evidence of church involvement, palatable to white, Evangelical voters.  Divorce is a big sticking point, but Reagan's highly publicized divorce from first wife, actress Jane Wyman, was never really addressed by the religious right, even though it was major news and involved accusations of "mental cruelty" on his part.  Nor did they ever comment much on his show business career, which included early work in nightclubs.   

It's only gone downhill for the relationship between the GOP and white Evangelicals since then.  Like every other historical relationship between the Christian church and the civil government, the church winds up compromising its faith and principles and corruptly curries the favor of the civil government which, in turn, abandons its democratic principles and the rule of law to make churches a privileged class exempt from the rules everyone else has to follow.  

Compatibility With the GOP Requires Compromise of Convictions

Turning their backs on the most credible Evangelical Christian to serve in the Presidency in the modern era is a clear demonstration of the GOP's incompatibility with Christianity, or even Evangelical Christianity, in its true form.  Jesus never intended for the church to be used as a political instrument or function as a government institution, which is exactly why that arrangement was doomed from the start.  Carter was the single most solid example we have of a person who was a true believer in the Christian gospel, and who was able to openly practice and express his faith while not imposing his convictions on anyone else, while serving as President.  

After Reagan, the GOP nominated George H. W. Bush who wasn't really happy about having to court the Evangelical vote.  As a practicing Episcopalian, which is the mainline church Evangelicals consider the "most liberal" and despise the most, he was right to be wary of them, and to hesitate to trust their support.  For the Evangelical part, it never really worked out for them to try and make both he and his son, George W., into Bible thumping fundamentalists from a religious perspective, but they were after political power, so religion got sidetracked and derailed.  That romance ended when George and Laura, both members of a liberal Methodist church in Dallas and regular attendees at St. John's Episcopal while in the White House, made friends with the first gay Episcopalian bishop, Rev. Gene Robinson.

With Mitt Romney, the reliance of the religious right solely on political power, and abandonment of what little bit of the Christian gospel was still intact for them up to that point was complete.  Romney  is not only a Mormon, a faith group that Evangelicals have branded as a cult so far away from the truth that there's actually a group of ex-Mormons and anti-Mormon propagandists who make a nice living off the sale of their books and media productions.  For the first time in support of a GOP candidate, Evangelical numbers levelled off.  But some of the big-name televangelists and mega-church pastors who had risen to the top of the leadership pile, among them Franklin Graham, dove right ahead with their support for Romney.  Jerry Falwell Jr. broke that religious barrier by inviting Glenn Beck, also a Mormon, to address Liberty University students in their chapel service, so that was a defacto endorsement of Mormon theology for political purposes.

The Sale of the Evangelical Soul with Trump 

Any pretense that the Evangelical involvement in politics still holds any Christian values or dependence on a higher power has evaporated with the sell-out support for Trump, whose character and person is the exact opposite of the ideal that Evangelicals hold as standard doctrine.  They're still hanging their hat on the abortion issue, which did pay off for them, but they had to abandon everything else, including their integrity, and pick up all of the baggage that came with the orange menace, including his pathological lying, and selfish ambition leading to his organizing and carrying out an insurrection against the government, and by extension, the American people.  

The Trump Organization has gone so far as to attempt to change the Christian gospel, being critical of core teachings of Jesus himself, because exhibiting those values and characteristics "don't get you anywhere in this world."  How much farther from the Christian gospel and teachings of Christ and the apostles do extremist right wing politics have to go before some of the mindless, power hungry, self-proclaimed "leaders" of evangelical Christianity realize how deep into apostasy they are, and the image they are now projecting, with extremist movements like Christian Nationalism gaining support and making a place for themselves at the ideological table.  

Christianity Isn't Intended to Advance a Political Agenda

Most criticism and rejection of Christianity is a rejection of the political movement.  In most cases, what gets rejected isn't even genuine Christian faith, at least, not the kind of faith that comes out of a contextual, historical interpretation of the Bible.  Evangelicals have a tendency to ignore history and context in favor of a fundamentalist brand of literalism, which distorts the message of the original authors of the Bible and which injects modern cultural bias into the practice of the faith.  There's also an arrogance that has developed among conservative Christians, based on their belief that they've got it all right, and that those who don't see it their way are hell-bound liberals who have it wrong.  They are blind to their presuppositions and incorrect assumptions. 

Two of the church's early apostles, recognized leaders in the founding years of Christian faith, both write about the relationship between the church and the civil government.  Recognizing that God is sovereign, they concluded that Christians are to recognize that all governments derive their power from God and obedience to the civil government, even if those involved did not share Christian beliefs, was an act of obedience to God.  What is also clear is that the Christian church was given a mission and purpose based on the Christian gospel, and while it acknowledged the authority of the civil government, it was not instructed to use that power to advance its own mission and purpose, but was to see God's sense of direction.  

Jefferson and Madison, noting that religion had been the cause behind centuries of European bloodshed and desiring that the kind of fighting Europe had endured would never find its way to American soil, took what I see as a Biblical model of the separation of church and state, and created a free church in a free state, so that both could thrive.  For Christians, from my perspective, that makes the preservation of democracy and the freedoms guaranteed by it the highest priority for the church.  Whether the church is empowered by the favor of the state, or persecuted by it, in neither situation is it free to be the church.