Can Christianity be re-captured by the truly benevolent and caring people of America? Don't you think this is a fundamental question this nation faces? We hear references to "Christian nationalism." We hear how our beloved faith has become perverted, made grotesque by getting interwoven with the January 6 assault on the capitol.
Don't you worry about the kind of impression being made on our youth? A religion that is supposed to be loving, forgiving and concerned about the poor and afflicted has been co-opted. Co-opted by truly sinister forces, people willing to threaten murder and most likely commit it, if given the chance.
A friend of mine echoed my exact thoughts a few days ago: It is difficult to stay interested in
the Jan. 6 hearings because of how all of it just drones on. Let's say
"ad nauseam." (And, I have learned to spell that word properly, not like
"museum.")
Let's say it's nauseating because it's so long after the
Jan. 6, 2001, disruption, we tire of hearing the new questions getting asked, the new info getting confirmed. If Congress really cared about getting to the bottom of the attempted violent revolution, it could have summoned the proper resources in a timely way. It could be an existential question for America.
Concerned as I feel, I am also developing some detachment. There is a sense of futility. The process slogs on. News tidbits are offered each day that are supposed to get us excited. But it's nearly July of 2022, for goodness' sake, and the mid-term elections are not far off. Not only that, there is a general consensus in the media that the Republican party will make gains in the mid-terms. In other words, there appears to be no stopping this train.
If only we could get a super majority of Democrats at all levels of government for four years, we would achieve stability. At the end of four years, maybe we'd be sick of them. By then, maybe the Republican party will have learned better manners, to be more civilized.
Check out your own friends and neighbors. Where are they at with their attitudes? Are they just impressed watching Trump on TV? He understands the power of television. Roger Ailes brought Bill O'Reilly on board because O'Reilly "understood television." Know what I mean when I cite "understanding television?" The unique power it has to shape our views? How the personalities onscreen project the illusion that you "know" them? You begin to put trust in them. They might seem relatable when they're on the screen in your home. Like Bill Cosby was for years and years.
As for O'Reilly, he just became too messy with his personal misdeeds for even Fox News to keep around. Remember how O'Reilly used to suggest he was "one of the folks?" Illusion. It's like Hollywood being the "dream factory." O'Reilly had to pay out something like $32 million to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit. Ailes who ran Fox News for a long time got in trouble in a like way.
So these are the people who managed and manipulated the kind of messages that get into our living rooms now. Trump was a master of TV before he declared for the presidency. The flim-flam man has something to sell for people who will buy it. Do you think Trump is motivated by even one ounce of benevolence? He is the antithesis of humility, obviously. "Ike" Eisenhower had an outlook of "giving credit to others, taking blame for myself." And wasn't Ike the epitome of honor? And of real manliness? And Trump ought to impress you as 100 percent the opposite.
Yet a major portion of our beloved Christian faith in America has bought into him. We see the phenomenon right here in the Morris area. Apostolics have driven around with "Trump" flags flapping in back of their pickups. Oh, along with "Keep America great." As if skeptics of Trump do not want America to be great.
Elect Trump again and you'll see more tax favors done for the richest one percent, maybe just a fraction of the one percent. This is well-known, yet so many rank and file American fall all over themselves to stay on the Trump train. To trumpet "election fraud" in connection with 2020. And if they don't exactly support what happened on Jan. 6, 2001, their attitudes are mild about it. They feel stronger in the negative about any Democrats involved in the process, or "traitors" like Liz Cheney.
Pence cast adrift
Doesn't Mike Pence look pathetic now? He has been thrown overboard by the Christian nationalists. What if Pence's own family had been violently attacked or killed on Jan. 6? Such was the sentiment. Pence knows his standing now. He did not attend the 2022 Faith and Freedom Coalition annual conference in Nashville TN. I love Nashville so I think it's unfortunate the event was held there. Pence now knows he best not show his face there.
Trump still rules with a significant chunk of America, and a major portion of people who call themselves "Christian." Ron DeSantis has like standing.
What if Karen Pence had been beheaded on Jan. 6? Instances of this have happened through world history. If the attempted coup had succeeded, and if an autocracy had truly been established, would the Morris area Apostolics and other basically like-minded "fundamentalists" really be satisfied, or would they find it's too late to wake up about all this?
The coup supporters are such hard-line people, they do not accept dissent at all. They consider dissent to be treasonous. And I think they are prepared to punish this kind of treason with death. Congressman Jim Jordan has appeared to suggest as much. This kind of thing started happening with the Nazis. How would our news media cover it? I mean, the ones who would dare try to cover it?
Once a sinister type of revolution like this gets started, we can find it's too late to restore order. It's like the horse "Boxer" in George Orwell's book "Animal Farm," who found it was too late to fight - he had gotten old, worn out from overwork and too weak. Is that the kind of America we are headed to?
I attend an ELCA church, so does that mean I will go to hell, in the eyes of the people I am criticizing here?
Reprise of my poem
Here once again, my lyrics or poetry about the Jan. 6 incident. Thanks for visiting this blog site.
"January 6 Lament"
by Brian Williams
A place where cherry blossoms
Adorn the public space
Is where we should be solemn
And not be moved by hate
So why should we be hearing
The call to "hang Mike Pence"
We should have been more leery
Of those devoid of sense
The new year was just dawning
A placid winter scene
We all should have been yawning
And followed our routine
But MAGA stoked the fire
Of riot and revolt
The denizens conspired
To give us all a jolt
We thought we might be dreaming
With manufactured fears
There just was no believing
A travesty so weird
But there it was before us
A crowd that wanted blood
An insurrection chorus
They moved as if a flood
Behind it all a grifter
Just pulling all the strings
He had his fans atwitter
To blow up everything
And though he said "be peaceful"
It would not rule the day
On top of all the evil
It was just CYA
The siren song of Fox News
Had wafted far and wide
And Newsmax had its own views
Dispensing fear and lies
We had been teased on TV
And let it all take wing
Like football players kneeling
As if that was a thing
So many came to foment
A riot in its name
The image of one woman
Just lingers like a flame
Her name was Ashli Babbitt
So loyal to the cause
She saw her chance and grabbed it
There was no time to pause
She came from California
Traversed the USA
To show her love of MAGA
She would not be delayed
She had been in the Air Force
A patriotic stance
But something caused a new course
A QAnon romance
So Ashli had a vision
She shared with all her folks
Of going on a mission
To nullify the votes
A window had been broken
The chance to move was there
The president had spoken
He urged them all to dare
A sea of discontented
Now why were they so mad?
Their feelings were cemented
Behind a single man
The signs were all around them
That Trump was not their friend
They could not seem to fathom
He's just about himself
So Ashli was a victim
A cop just had to act
A cop just had to act
Her family rued her mission
She should have just stayed back
We feel for Ashli Babbitt
Her soul resides in peace
Could she not understand it
The cesspool of deceit?
An epilogue is needed
Of justice breaking through
To see a man defeated
Who showed us he's a fool
There is still time to salvage
The best of who we are
To neutralize the damage
And clear away the scars
I pledge allegiance to the flag
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