It has been said of Mattthews that his approach to politics became hopelessly dated. He was known in the days of reasonable cooperation among politicians with differences often just on the margins. John Boehner "handed over the gavel" to Nancy Pelosi with an agreeable smile. For sure Boehner was "conservative." He was not a total scored-earth conservative.
Gingrich showed the way for others like him. He said of Kamala Harris that her laugh was a disqualifier. That's what we're dealing with now.
So we get a president that breaks away from all norms. One old norm was to simply leave the Federal Reserve alone, to let it be independent. Apparently an unwritten rule. Joe Biden articulated the old norm about the Fed. He refused to answer any substantive questions about the Fed. The Fed was "independent." Well it most certainly is. But Trump has come along to wield a machete all over the place.
Trump had no previous experience in government or the military. Why did the nation choose him? For sure here in Stevens County the people remain behind him. Our congressperson shows no hesitation as she backs DJT 100 percent. I'm on her email communications list. If Michelle Fischbach sensed the electorate was starting to change out here in rural western Minnesota, her statements would begin to reflect that. Changes are most surely afoot in other parts of the country.
We here in Stevens County have gone full-on flat-Earth. Jason Aldean would celebrate us in a country song. But how sincere is this guy? I can't remember offhand the name of the song that put him forward as the champion of static small towns. I won't bother looking it up. But I have to ask: Did Aldean grow up in a small town? Is he living in one now? Did he even write the famous song?
The church element
I fear many of you are being led on. The conservative churches of West Central Minnesota roll forward with no letup. My own church of First Lutheran was an outlier from that. And look at what has happened to us. We are "dead" now. I ended my membership. We even had some Trump supporters in our church including a couple that put bold "Trump" signs on their front yard next to East Side Park.
And we are - excuse me, were - the progressive church in own. We had an interim pastor who suggested there were theological differences between First Lutheran and the other ELCA church in town, Faith Lutheran. I heard someone question that but he must have had a basis. So I approached another long-time parishioner at First and asked him about that. A theological contrast between First and Faith? And this wise gentleman responded that it had "something to do with the gays."
So much comes down to the "gays" now. We are letting this fracture the Christian faith. So Faith Lutheran is a little more reserved on this? The ELCA would not allow them to be anti-gay. The church would be removed from the fold. But Faith has apparently made the decision to be more restrained. Of course, the whole Good Shepherd Church out there on the windswept countryside was created because of the unrest over gay rights. That was a pretty heavy price for the established churches to pay in terms of losing members.
Every time a new church is created, it divides up the believers more. We're a small town out here. And look at the toll now on my First Lutheran. Out of the blue we were instructed to start spending half of our time at the local Methodist Church. I guess it's the Methodist/UCC Church but I wasn't given a lot of time to research this. Someone told me the UCC is "more liberal than the ELCA." Well, how much more liberal? I would want to know.
As for the Methodists, they have been torn apart by conflict over the past few years. Caused by what? Well, "the gays." Can't we reach some reasonable accommodations for gays without having the matter rock our churches so badly?
Our salad days
First Lutheran was such a perfect "mainstream" church for so long in our community. The defections mounted. Older members died and were not replaced by new ones. To be frank, we were "limping along" for an extended time.
We couldn't even count on coffee hour on Sunday morning. That's one thing that Faith Lutheran would never cancel. I'd make comments and be re-buffed by "do it yourself then." Well, I did say I'd be happy to make a run and get some cookies at Willie's. But I wouldn't be able to prepare the coffee. That must be a real heavy lift.
In a sense I wasn't surprised when the end came. And I was not going to spend half my time at a Methodist church. Not if this was forced on me. Actually I went along with the new arrangement over summer. I accepted it as a stop-gap during the disastrous summertime in Morris when things slow nearly to a standstill. I gave up when we got word that the pairing would continue another nine months. To be followed by what? What are the odds that regular FLC services would resume? I'd say zero. What a town we have.
I do commend the Catholics. Look over to the extreme west end of Morris and you'll see this church called "E-Free." Why did certain people decide that church was really necessary? Why were the established mainstream Protestant churches judged not good enough? I'm quite sure that 100 percent of the E-Free members voted for Trump all three times. We know the Apostolics vote for Trump.
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| Unapologetically progressive |
Does this spell doom for Faith Lutheran also?
We read almost daily about the very disturbing things being done in the name of Trump. I posted a comment with a Yahoo! News article a few days ago. The article raised concern because of the activities of Trump's ICE. Below is my comment along with some responses.
Are the nation's evangelicals proud of these tactics too? What would Jesus think?
"Hector" responded:
Jesus or Republican Jesus?
"Lemons" responded:
If Jesus came back, he'd be sent to CECOT. No papers, wandering around with long hair and a dress, claims to hear voices. . .There would be NO safety for Jesus. Maybe that's why he hasn't come back?
"Nance" responded:
Evangelicals don't really follow the teachings of Jesus, they just use his name a lot.
"1929 USA" responded:
American Christians are hypocrites.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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