As in football, (soccer for those whose idea of sports is a celebration of thuggery rather than skill) when your team member is given a foul, no boos are heard from your side of the crowd – motivated purely by winning, not sportsmanship; now that Trump investigations are metastasized under a democratic-led congress, and the truth, frustrated for so long by Republican team players cowed into compliance, is finally being examined, whether of pre-presidential un-Americanisms – scamming on insurance and bank loans, various episodes of p…… grabbing and hush money cover ups sourced from campaign contributions, tax evasion, exploitation of immigrants, (and the list goes on and on and on) or post-presidential egregiances (to coin a word) – silent defense of Saudi prince-directed butchering of American journalist, suborning perjury, naked intimidation of witnesses, collusion with America’s enemies, the use of children as political pawns and the destruction of immigrant families; and the list of daily unprecedented and horrific assaults on the imaginary conscience of a nation purported to be bastion of democracy and freedom for the world; one might expect that the nature of these charges (and make no mistake, very few Americans, even including die hard Trumpianites, doubt their credibility) might somehow awaken censure from America-first Republicans (apart from the procedural slap on the wrist for the constitutional abuse of a trumped up State of Emergency)
Especially from the church, which technically should take exception to manifest political corruption, too confused to try to imagine what would Jesus do, because of their drunken proclamations that this is, in fact, what Jesus is doing; justifying Christopher Hitchens stinging appraisal: that Bad people can be expected to do bad things but it takes religion for apparently good and sane people to do unconscionable things….being rendered by blind faith susceptible to ‘drink the cool-aid’ of whichever despotic antichrist should come in the name of god, beckoning the sacrifice of Isaac for his holy name’s sake. Christopher maintained that historically, more evil has been committed in the name of God than those unstable few who claim it was the devil that made them do it. Either way, he believed that mankind would be morally more secure without religion than with it.
But no, the Church Trumphant (no mis-spelling) is alive and well, huddled together in fervent prayer for their champion, whether or not he does indeed shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth avenue, and his lawyer goes to jail for it (and campaign manager and national security adviser and Chief of Defense and the long list of suckers too dumb to not notice that the emperor has no clothes on.) As long as we win. All is fair in politics (and apparently too religion….as long as you are on the ‘right’ side – what’s justice or truth got to do with it?) And make no mistake also, the Trumpian church is praying not for truth to prevail, but at all costs, God, let us WIN. That’s what made America Great before, and it will make us great again. We believe in bombs and guns and winning.
The Jamaican church, a little more mature, appointed a Political Ombudsman, and was wise enough to appoint one from the church, to check political corruption on both sides. In US politics, where it is now ‘let the worst man win’, there is no referee (apparently) and even more troubling, if one were to be appointed, could one find such stature in a man or woman from the church, overtaken as it is by Trumpionites? (neither the term ‘Christian’ or ‘Republican’ applies here for there is nothing resembling either ideology in the present Administration, the most fiscally and morally irresponsible administration in America’s history, although these facts may matter little either to Trump or his disciples, their heads too buried in the sand of their own hype to consider what is happening all around them….. until the courts, congress or the polls decide to speak.
What a pity. There once was a time that the independent voice of the church mattered more than all three. And tellingly, what a greater pity, that these words will not even be perceived as a plea for Justice and Truth to prevail, but as a polemic against a single individual whose ego and charisma have inflated his worth far beyond such petty things as Principle, let alone Fact.
YeKengalé 