The election of Donald Trump has left many Americans fearful and anxious. In his campaign, Mr. Trump wantonly vilified Latino immigrants, women, Muslims, African-Americans, the disabled, and even the parents of a fallen American soldier.
All through his campaign Mr. Trump showed himself to be a narcissist and pathological liar. The attitude and values he displayed harshly contradicted the values of the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus gave us his Spirit of good order, justice, peace, purity of heart, joy of life, and love. Mr. Trump gave us lies, anger, insults, sexual depravity and hate. Where were the Christians?
Political analysts tell us that Mr. Trump won because his appeal to "Make America Great Again" resounded with white voters, both male and female, who are fearful and uneasy about the changing demographics of our country, and worried about their ability to keep their family financially above water. Many saw an uncaring and even hostile government working against them, and wanted change. Finally, the ill-conceived and ill-timed FBI report on Mrs. Clinton's emails helped diminish her vote count.
These fears and anxieties are understandable. But the trust and hope that these people placed in Mr. Trump was naive. They failed to understand the "signs of the times" that Pope John XXIII told us to watch for a half-century ago. They failed to see that Americans are people of every race, color, religion and sexual orientation. Very importantly, they failed to see that their economic problems are heavily due to the fact that greedy business leaders moved to maximize their profits by sending their jobs overseas, never to return, with no concern for the American workers who lost their jobs. And American bankers gambled away the people's money. And they failed to see that every job-creating program that President Obama presented to the Republican Congress, e.g., rebuilding our infrastructure, was soundly rejected. Mr. Trump's proposed jobs program will help the rich to get richer through tax cuts and the national deficit to explode--to the further detriment of the American working people.
Mr. Trump appealed to those who voted for him in a truly evil way. Turning their attention away from the greedy banks and corporations (including his own business), and a deeply uncaring Congress, he created scapegoats, falsely blaming Hispanic immigrants, Muslims, African-Americans, and foreigners for America's troubles. And he denigrated women in a sickening way. This is the method of a would-be autocratic dictator. Where were the Christians?
He was aided by people such as Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Kellyanne Conway, and in the background, Paul Ryan. All Catholics. Where was their fight for good order, truth, justice, peace, respect and love? Where was their special protection for the poor, sick, vulnerable and outcast?
So now, immigrant families are terrified that children and parents will be separated. Latino children are bullied in their schools. African-Americans are increasingly worried about their safety. American Muslims are wondering how they will fit into American society. Gays and other sexual minorities are newly vulnerable to attack. Foreign victims of wars that we started will be turned away from our solace and protection. And women of all ages must live disheartened by the fact that a sex-offender will now be in the Oval Office. And it is now possible that there will be more destruction of the life of our planet. How far off was commentator Bill Moyers when he said, "America died on November 8th?"
Where were the Christian voters? Here's one answer. With encouragement from bishops and other church leaders, many American Christians disregarded Christ, who is the entire God filled universe, they narrowed their view to the point of voting so that Roe vs. Wade will be overturned, and abortion will be made illegal. Let's have a Reality Check here. In a report I found, last year 1.21 million abortions were performed in our country. A truly horrible number. Of these, abut 290,000 were obtained by women who identified themselves as Catholic, and 317,000 as Protestants. That's 56% of all abortions.
Why can't the Catholic church prevent so many of its members from having abortions? For starters, where is the church's program for creating discerning, actively prophetic, spiritual adults who will work to build a culture that will bring ever stronger care, protection and love to every expression of today's society? Without such a culture, why do we think a simple law will prevent most abortions?
Back to President-elect Trump. In his meeting with President Obama, he showed surprising restraint and sobriety. Is there something in him that has been touched by his new, awesome responsibility, or was he just mouthing words programmed into him by his handlers, only to return to his true narcissistic, pathological self at any time? I fear the latter is true.
For example, when Trump, the psychopathic liar, saw thousands of people protesting his election in the streets of several American cities, he tweeted a lie that the protesters were "professional protesters inspired by the media." Then, ever the narcissist, he added, "Very unjust." Very shortly afterwards, a new Tweet came out, "Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud." Obviously, this second Tweet was written by a shaken consultant to Mr. Trump. Another lie. And another: the second Tweet appears on the Trump Pence website, but not the first one. This is a very bad sign for America. It shows that Mr. Trump may be a puppet President, made to "say" things that people close to him make up, while the psychopathic liar sits quietly in the dark.
Yet some people are anticipating that he might undergo a true conversion. For example, they look to the fact that just four years ago, he was a Democrat with some liberal ideas. Well, miracles can happen. After all, look at Ebenezer Scrooge's Christmas morning conversion. But Scrooge was a fictional character. In the meantime, God bless us, everyone!
All through his campaign Mr. Trump showed himself to be a narcissist and pathological liar. The attitude and values he displayed harshly contradicted the values of the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus gave us his Spirit of good order, justice, peace, purity of heart, joy of life, and love. Mr. Trump gave us lies, anger, insults, sexual depravity and hate. Where were the Christians?
Political analysts tell us that Mr. Trump won because his appeal to "Make America Great Again" resounded with white voters, both male and female, who are fearful and uneasy about the changing demographics of our country, and worried about their ability to keep their family financially above water. Many saw an uncaring and even hostile government working against them, and wanted change. Finally, the ill-conceived and ill-timed FBI report on Mrs. Clinton's emails helped diminish her vote count.
These fears and anxieties are understandable. But the trust and hope that these people placed in Mr. Trump was naive. They failed to understand the "signs of the times" that Pope John XXIII told us to watch for a half-century ago. They failed to see that Americans are people of every race, color, religion and sexual orientation. Very importantly, they failed to see that their economic problems are heavily due to the fact that greedy business leaders moved to maximize their profits by sending their jobs overseas, never to return, with no concern for the American workers who lost their jobs. And American bankers gambled away the people's money. And they failed to see that every job-creating program that President Obama presented to the Republican Congress, e.g., rebuilding our infrastructure, was soundly rejected. Mr. Trump's proposed jobs program will help the rich to get richer through tax cuts and the national deficit to explode--to the further detriment of the American working people.
Mr. Trump appealed to those who voted for him in a truly evil way. Turning their attention away from the greedy banks and corporations (including his own business), and a deeply uncaring Congress, he created scapegoats, falsely blaming Hispanic immigrants, Muslims, African-Americans, and foreigners for America's troubles. And he denigrated women in a sickening way. This is the method of a would-be autocratic dictator. Where were the Christians?
He was aided by people such as Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Kellyanne Conway, and in the background, Paul Ryan. All Catholics. Where was their fight for good order, truth, justice, peace, respect and love? Where was their special protection for the poor, sick, vulnerable and outcast?
So now, immigrant families are terrified that children and parents will be separated. Latino children are bullied in their schools. African-Americans are increasingly worried about their safety. American Muslims are wondering how they will fit into American society. Gays and other sexual minorities are newly vulnerable to attack. Foreign victims of wars that we started will be turned away from our solace and protection. And women of all ages must live disheartened by the fact that a sex-offender will now be in the Oval Office. And it is now possible that there will be more destruction of the life of our planet. How far off was commentator Bill Moyers when he said, "America died on November 8th?"
Where were the Christian voters? Here's one answer. With encouragement from bishops and other church leaders, many American Christians disregarded Christ, who is the entire God filled universe, they narrowed their view to the point of voting so that Roe vs. Wade will be overturned, and abortion will be made illegal. Let's have a Reality Check here. In a report I found, last year 1.21 million abortions were performed in our country. A truly horrible number. Of these, abut 290,000 were obtained by women who identified themselves as Catholic, and 317,000 as Protestants. That's 56% of all abortions.
Why can't the Catholic church prevent so many of its members from having abortions? For starters, where is the church's program for creating discerning, actively prophetic, spiritual adults who will work to build a culture that will bring ever stronger care, protection and love to every expression of today's society? Without such a culture, why do we think a simple law will prevent most abortions?
Back to President-elect Trump. In his meeting with President Obama, he showed surprising restraint and sobriety. Is there something in him that has been touched by his new, awesome responsibility, or was he just mouthing words programmed into him by his handlers, only to return to his true narcissistic, pathological self at any time? I fear the latter is true.
For example, when Trump, the psychopathic liar, saw thousands of people protesting his election in the streets of several American cities, he tweeted a lie that the protesters were "professional protesters inspired by the media." Then, ever the narcissist, he added, "Very unjust." Very shortly afterwards, a new Tweet came out, "Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud." Obviously, this second Tweet was written by a shaken consultant to Mr. Trump. Another lie. And another: the second Tweet appears on the Trump Pence website, but not the first one. This is a very bad sign for America. It shows that Mr. Trump may be a puppet President, made to "say" things that people close to him make up, while the psychopathic liar sits quietly in the dark.
Yet some people are anticipating that he might undergo a true conversion. For example, they look to the fact that just four years ago, he was a Democrat with some liberal ideas. Well, miracles can happen. After all, look at Ebenezer Scrooge's Christmas morning conversion. But Scrooge was a fictional character. In the meantime, God bless us, everyone!
