Maybe most "evangelicals" are charlatans

Could Lee Greenwood write a song about this?

I once had to work within a few feet of an adulterous relationship. It was highly upsetting. We might comment on the current situation with Donald Trump, a man who has been recorded relishing sexual assault. A complete list of his shortcomings would be exhaustive. We all know something is crazy and embarrassing about the situation in the Beltway with Trump in charge.
The circus involving the porn star is near the top of the list now. Does our relative apathy show that we just don't respect what goes on in the nation's capital? If we really respected and cared about it, wouldn't there be a general public uprising to get things straightened out? It seems little more than an annoying distraction right now.
We hear that the Fed is heading toward higher interest rates partly because of the economic policies promoted by Trump. Maybe economic anxiety will prompt the kind of organic uprising that would seem to be needed. In the meantime we have adultery on the list. And again there is a high level of annoyance caused by the so-called "evangelicals." The media toss around that term so much. There seems to be some vagueness surrounding it. I go to a church with the word "evangelical" in the name of the synod, but surely we're not considered "evangelicals." The media would consider the ELCA to be bland and squishy. They shouldn't pretend that they speak for its members. The ELCA's members mostly see themselves as committed and relevant. Yes we don't push the anti-gay meme. We are in fact inclusive. Might we thus be derided by the Franklin Graham types?
The "evangelicals" are notorious for standing by the president, Donald Trump. They rationalize of course that they can overlook the sins of the man while feeling good about his policies. If you're a churchgoer, did you ever feel threatened by the policies of Barack Obama? Didn't you freely attend church and practice your faith? What's the difference now? Barack Obama was a wonderfully devoted, monogamous family man with two lovely daughters, who showed class and civility all the time. Do I have to contrast that with Donald Trump?
Trump will go down as the most famous adulterer of all time, dragging us all through the swamp with the headlines about his misadventures. Isn't the Bible important to "evangelicals?" Isn't it pretty simple to comprehend that sex out of wedlock is a sin? Doesn't the Bible tell us: "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous."
So, God will judge. Can't Franklin Graham and his ilk internalize that? Evangelical Christians are supposed to hate sin. At present that crowd is giving Trump an approval rating of about 70 percent. Evangelical Christians hate sin but they also love Trump? That sounds impossible. If true it reeks of hypocrisy. The Bible speaks on that too in the Gospel of Matthew: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces."
Weren't religious zealots in our midst mindful of lofty principles when they called out Bill Clinton? James Dobson of Focus on the Family wrote in 1998: "As it turns out, character does matter. You can't run a family, let alone a country, without it."
We are approaching Easter, a time of year when Christian consciousness reaches a peak. In several years I have written a post at Easter time that is not ebullient about Christianity. Good Friday is troubling. Maybe Mel Gibson is responsible for that with the movie he made showing the horrible, miserable torture of Christ, torture so severe, no normal mortal person could survive it.
I don't recall that kind of imagery when I was young. I just remember being taught that Christ died for our sins. Today the sheer bleakness of Good Friday has taken over. I want no part of it. I'll entertain the idea that Christ died for our sins. That's fair enough although I've always had trouble really internalizing it. The "rising from the dead" thing would be so easy to fake or fabricate. People have political motives that can create all kinds of misdirection. If Jesus died to save us, does that mean that every human being who existed before Christ is in hell? They would not have had the opportunity to "accept Christ." Evangelicals or born-again Christians, i.e. the real zealots, however you describe them, say nothing short of accepting Christ will get you to heaven.
Heaven is the big incentive, the carrot on the stick, inducing us all to get out our checkbooks and contribute to our church. My old friend Glen Helberg advised me once that if I were to ever serve on a church board, "keep in mind it's all about money." I remember the Dick Gautier character in he original "Dick and Jane" movie (with Jane Fonda) who, in his pursuit of thieves, shouted "that's God's money." Gautier played a typical evangelical charlatan. Finally he breaks down and shouts "look, would you give me my goddam money?"
Really the so-called evangelical Christians are being played like a piano by that big shadowy special interest out there with deep pockets financially, that just wants to be left alone by government. Those people don't care about the common citizens who are struggling at all. They put on airs to cloak reality. They get the gullible "evangelicals" eating out of their hands. Like deer at a deer park.
The news story about Stormy Daniels will reach a head soon. Are we numb to revelations about Trump how? What have we become as a nation? Daniels is not only "the other woman" (among many such women), she's a porn actress. Does this give porn legitimacy in our contemporary society?
Daniels is dazzling in her appearance with her blond locks of hair and her smile. Wouldn't she make a nice First Lady? It appears she would take to the public eye more comfortably than Melania.
I don't have to think much about adultery to reject it. It's a matter of instinct with me. That's one reason my old times at the Morris Sun Tribune became unpleasant. I stuck with journalism despite all the slings and arrows because it's in my DNA to practice it. I got up in the morning euphoric about what I was to do. We had adultery and then we had a major employee theft scandal. Still I sat at the keyboard and felt inspired.
There is a feeling of whistling past the graveyard in America now. It's like we assume this whole tempest of the Trump presidency will pass. We'd like to assume that good will prevail over evil and we think Trump will "take a great fall" like Humpty Dumpty, or more realistically Richard Nixon. I have cautioned that we can assume nothing. Maybe this time evil will win. Trump fired Rex Tillerson when Tillerson was sitting on the pot. Where will it end?
And to those "evangelical" Christians I say: "Woe to you, blind guides."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com