Donald Trump's failed oath of office but is dangerous and wants to try again

(By the way- Stormy Daniels unfavorably compares Trump to ‘real men’ after hush-money trial testimony!)

This echo essay was published in the Storm Lake Times-Pilot newspaper, in Iowa. 

The Donald Trump's fake oath of office:.....Because some voters will believe anything I tell them, no questions asked, I, Donald Trump…

• …promised voters “Mexico will pay for” my wall. (But you did — and swallowed all my promises hook-line-sinker.)
• …told voters I’d “completed” that wall. (I didn’t — not even close. Most of our 1,900-mile border is still unwalled.)
• …insisted I’d release my taxes. (I then did all I could to keep them hidden. Ah, the old “Bait ‘n’ Switch.” Classic!)
• …told voters early Covid was “totally under control” on my watch. (It wasn’t. It soon killed over 1,000,000 of us).
• …claimed crime was at “record” levels with Obama. (It wasn’t — but falsely smearing Obama boosted my image).
• …promised voters I wouldn’t “have time to play golf” in office. (I found time to golf — lots and lots and lots of golf).
• …accused mail-in voting of being rife with “fraud.” (But it isn’t. In fact, I’ve voted by mail myself, more than once).…
• trashed Hillary Clinton, Biden and others for sloppy secrets-handling. (But I freely took box after box to Florida).
• …attacked the very idea of “defund the police.” (But then I urged my party to “defund” the FBI and even the DOJ).
• …vowed to staff my team with “only the best people.” (But I didn’t. I prefer the corrupt and the easily corruptible)
• ...claimed my poll numbers topped Lincoln’s. (So scientific, tech-driven polling didn’t exist then. Details, details).
• …promised to “drain the swamp.” (Instead, I just restocked D.C. with my own dishonest, cagey swamp-cronies).
• …said I didn’t know about a Stormy Daniels payout. (But I did. I even signed a check reimbursing my lawyer for it).
• …decried “fake news.” (But by “fake,” I mean “uncomplimentary.” I love “fake news” if it’s a pro-Trump rave).
• …blasted judges for “bias.” (But by “biased,” I mean “free-thinking.” I admire any judge with a pro-Trump agenda).
• …scared ailing voters into thinking Biden would end pre-existing illness protection. (It wasn’t true – but so what?)
• …claimed January 6 rioters were “hugging and kissing” Capitol police. (“Shoot him with his own gun!” = words of love).
• …boasted I’d brought crisis/death numbers from opioids “way down.” (Actually, they were up. Again — so what?)
• …labeled people who “Take the Fifth” as crooked. (But I’ve used it myself — again and again and again and again).
• …said too much vote-handling time enables “cheating.” (But if it’ll enable me, drag out those recounts for months).
• …bashed Biden relatives for “cashing in” on influence. (But Jared’s Saudi deal, Ivanka’s China trademarks? Fine).
• …denounced opportunists who profit off the “Trump” name. (But I’ll use a Bible as a “prop” in a staged photo-op).
• …accused Dems of “phony” tales of refugee despair. (But I “play-act” hugs/kisses on a U.S. flag for a P.R. stunt).
• …said a Capitol door-crasher was shot “for no reason.” (Now, if she’d crawled through my door, to harm me…)
• …claimed Jan. 6 rioters were “hugging and kissing” Capitol police. (“Shoot him with his own gun!” = words of love).
• 
• …treated “Lock her up!”/“Lock ‘em up! as good fun. (But “lock Trump up?” No, my crimes must go unpunished).
• …bragged that I have “much more” money “than I’ll ever need.” (Yet, I chase nonstop donations from the gullible poor).
• …assured roughnecks I’d “pay the legal fees.” (But I won’t. In fact, I want them to give me money to pay for mine).
• …said I’d pivot and “become so presidential” you’d be amazed. (I never pivoted. I just behaved worse than ever).

And that’s just some of the deceptive and disingenuous promises, claims and boasts Donald Trump has made in recent years. How many more deliberate falsehoods could we add here? Dozens? Scores? Hundreds? Even if “evangelical” voters can somehow overlook all of Trump’s mean-spirited insults and name-calling, should they be actively supporting this level of insincerity and deceit? Would they ever tolerate this much blatant dishonesty in any other politician?

Trump never criticized the "hang Mike Pence" chant

• I swore an oath to defend and uphold the U.S. Constitution…(…but then proposed we “terminate” that Constitution to declare me President)!
• I repeatedly promised I’d “rebuild the infrastructure of our country”…(but Infrastructure Week always fizzled. I just left it all to Biden to tackle)!
• I decried befriending the white supremacists who hang on my every word…(but then alerted them to “stand back and stand by” until further instructions!)

…and so on… and so on… and so on… and so on…

“Religious” voters argue that backing this man can somehow “save the soul” of America. But is his spiteful fury bringing out the best in us — or just making us angrier, crueler, harsher, meaner? Can we trust the promises he makes, the claims he asserts, the “wins” he takes credit for — or is he just pushing falsehood and rage and grievance? “Evangelicals” say none of that matters. But shouldn’t it?

From Brad Trom in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota 

Christian Nationalists ignore truth and the Scriptural quote by Jesus

Maine Writer:  In my opinion, the columnist Cal Thomas does not give enough emphasis to the scriptural message of "truth".

“Christian nationalism” has again appeared in our political life, establishing residence in the Republican Party. 

An echo opinion column by Cal Thomas: 

Unfortunately, Christian nationalism is nothing new, though, having taken many forms in the past, including Moral Rearmament, Prohibition, Christian Reconstructionism, Moral Majority, and the Christian Coalition.

In each incarnation, people have been told that something approaching Heaven on Earth can be accomplished through the political system and through a government led by folks who believe as they do. Each time the push has failed to achieve its stated goals.

Leaving aside for a moment the flaw in Christian nationalist theology, let’s apply some pragmatism to these movements, including the latest called “ReAwaken America,” led by former Donald Trump National Security Adviser (for 22 days), Gen. Michael Flynn (retired - traitor).

As the respected Pew Research Center has noted, “The decline of Christianity continues at a rapid pace.” That is reflected in the profile of people who are attending retired-traitor Michael Flynn’s rallies. They appear to be mostly older and white, hardly the image of an America that will follow their generation. Several polls have shown that when asked their religious affiliation, millennials make up the highest percentage (32 percent) of “nones.”

According to Pew, “sixty-five percent of Americans” self-identify as Christians, but it is a diverse group. Among them are Mainline Protestants, who generally vote for Democrats. 

Among Evangelicals, there are also divisions, with some voting for Democrats and others favoring Republicans. 

Roman Catholics, too, are divided, especially on social issues such as abortion. They also pledge allegiance to competing political parties or identify as Independents.

The question then becomes: how does this minority within a minority within an even smaller minority expect to win elections in sufficient numbers to pass legislation that will reverse what they see as a moral and cultural decline? If it could be done, would it not have been done by the previously mentioned movements which enjoyed a larger percentage of like-minded people?

Oklahoma entrepreneur Clay Clark heads the ReAwaken America (ugh!)  organization. An Associated Press story about a recent rally in Batavia, New York, quotes him: “I want you to look around and you’ll see a group of people that love this country dearly. At this ReAwaken America Tour, Jesus is King* (❓)... (and) Donald J. Trump is our president.”  (NOT❗)

That comment sums up the attempted fusion of faith with politics.

This ideology, this misplaced faith that a fallen humanity can – or should – impose a worldview through government that a majority do not share goes back to at least the time of Jesus. In the Book of Acts, the Disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” (Acts 1:6 NLT). They were looking for an earthly kingdom with themselves in charge. They wanted to throw off the Roman occupation and “take over.” Make Israel great again!

Later, Jesus would respond to Pontius Pilate who asked Him if He was a king: “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36 NLT). That statement is a powerful rebuke to those who seek a kingdom that would be as flawed as they are if it ever came to fruition.

I have always appreciated this observation from C.S. Lewis, which speaks to the current and past movements of “Christian soldiers” wishing to transform America into their image: “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’; aim at Earth and you will get neither.”

Perhaps these well-intentioned but misguided Christian nationalists should obey the commands of the One they claim to follow (and I don’t mean Donald Trump). When that was the priority for Christians in the past, culture changed. 

A re-awakened America won’t come through politics and government, no matter how strongly Christian nationalists wish for it.

* What is truth?: John 18:38. 

"Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, "Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

P.S. Maine Writer:  If Christian Nationalists claim to be "Christians", then, they must "Re-awaken" the definition of "truth"! 

Kentucky challenge to Senator McConell and Donald Trump- 3 opinion echoes

Maine Writer post script* to this cluster of opinion letters:

Trifecta of echo opinion letters from the Kentucky Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper: 

MCCONNELL VS. CONSTITUTION
Reminder to Senator Mitch McConnell: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;...."

Only 33 percent of people in Kentucky approve of his failed leadership & unexplainable support for Donald Trump.

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell says he will stop this Trump impeachment dead in its tracks when it comes before the Senate. Isn’t it in the U.S. Constitution that if the House impeaches a president, a trial has to be held in the U.S, Senate with the chief justice of the Supreme Court presiding? Didn’t know Mitch had that much power to override the Constitution. Of course, Mitch wants you to send him some money, too, for his campaign. Gotta love our strong defenders of the Constitution.

From Bob Sutton, Springfield, Kentucky

Evangelicals: TRUMP SUPPORTERS are A TURN-OFF

The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity

Not only could Donald Trump shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and be forgiven for it by his base, Evangelical Trump supporters could witness him suddenly sprout a pair of horns out of the top of his head, watch his feet morph into hooves, and watch a 5-foot-long tail sprout out of his tail end, and still support the man.

This is one of the many reasons why America’s Sunday morning church attendance has declined over the past several decades to the low it is at now. If Evangelical Christians want people who work 40 or more hours a week to wake up early every Sunday morning to attend church, they need to practice what their pastors are preaching and stop listening to and following behind a known liar like Trump.

Nobody is going to let so-called Christians, who blindly support Trump as they’re watching him get crazier by the hour, convince them they should wake up early on the only day many of them have off to attend services. These supporters need to stop telling people that they support Trump, because it makes them look like huge hypocrites. And that makes many people not want to attend church.

Yolanda Averette, Lexington Kentucky

Donald Trump is "A WANNA-BE DICTATOR"

Judge tells Trump he's not a king!

Donald Trump isn't going to like his Constitution 101 lesson: "Presidents are not kings."
A federal judge's stunning rebuke of the White House on Monday came as the result of a case by House Democrats to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify. But it serves as a thematic frame for an entire (failed!) presidency, for Trump, who has never played by the rules.

Donald J. Trump is an above-the-law dictator who would like to be a full-blown dictator like his comrades Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. Why is Trump cozying up to them? U.S. citizens and other nations in the world deserve to know the answer. When Trump meets with (former KGB agent!) Vladimir Putin and North Korean monster Kim Jong Un, separately in private, one has to wonder what, in general, are they discussing?

During the 2016, presidential campaign, I remember Republican nominee Trump saying nuclear weapons were made to be used. Trump says he doesn’t want war. I don’t believe or trust anything he says. He has lied to us so many many times during the first three years of his chaotic, bizarre presidency.

If Trump thought that going to war before the 2020 election would help him be re-elected, I believe he would do it. President George W. Bush took us to war in Iraq in 2003, right before the 2004 election. It helped Bush win re-election.

A vote for Trump in the 2020 election is a vote for four more years of Trump-style (dangerous!) dictatorship.

From Paul L. Whiteley Sr., Louisville, Kentucky

*Maine Writer Post Script- this cluster of opinion letters are letting Senator McConnell know that his failed leadership is at risk. He should resign from the Senate, while he can still get out from under history's stamp of evil Trumpziim. 

Concentration camp echoes - Buchenwald and Southern Border Camps

Dear Vice President Mike Pence: 

There is no difference in these two pictures except the children in Buchenwald Concentration Camp were imprisoned by Nazis and the children in Southern Border Camps are being imprisoned by Trumpzis.  Evil. (Where are the Evangelicals? Matthew 5:3-12)

Children in cages imprisoned by Donald Trump

Children in Buchenwald Concentration Camp imprisoned by Nazis

This letter to the editor was published in the LaCrosse Tribune, a Wisconsin newspaper.  

The prisons holding undocumented immigrants and refugees in the United States are, by the very definition of the word, concentration camps.

Check Miriam-Webster if you don't believe me. It is a disservice to the people being wrongfully held there to not call them as such.

The abhorrent treatment of these refugees is a dangerous first step on a road to genocide. In World War II, the Nazi extermination of the Jewish population known as the final solution was called the final solution because it came after their other tactics.

First, they stripped Jews and other minorities of their rights, like the undocumented people who are not being given fair trials. They took their property and wealth, and expelled many from the country. Then, they forced them into overcrowded ghettos with terrible living conditions, which turned into work and concentration camps. As war continued, they started the mass killings.

To pretend that these camps are significantly different than the Nazis' first steps is counterfactual to history, a terrible precedent to set, and a refusal to have compassion with the people being mistreated right now by our government with our tax dollars.

The horrors of the WWII concentration camps were unknown to many until it was far too late, It is clear that the acts that ICE is committing are causing trauma that will take generations to heal, and I know we haven't heard it all.

Do not pretend that this can't happen here.

From:  Peter Gorski, La Crosse, Wisconsin

Humanitarian disaster at US southern border - mourning the death of Jakelin Caal Maquin

Almost 15,000 migrant children are now in the custody of the US government. This is a humanitarian disaster! Shelters are nearly full. (Where are the zealous pro-life Evangelicals when they are called to protect the health and welfare of all children?)

Jakelin's mother Claudia Maquin (center) stayed in Guatemala caring for her three other children.

Thousands of miles away, grieving family wants to know how 7-year-old girl died in US custody

Reported by Scott Simon:

Jakelin Caal Maquin, 7 years old, died while in the custody of Border Patrol agents

I do not doubt that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents did all they could to try to save the life of Jakelin Caal Maquin, a 7-year-old girl from Guatemala, who died in the custody of the United States.

The little girl and her father were among a group of more than 100 migrants who turned themselves over to Border Patrol agents last Thursday night, Dec. 6, after they had crossed the U.S.-Mexican border and trudged through a rugged, isolated area of the New Mexican desert.

The girl and her father were placed on a bus. She was reportedly not breathing by the time she arrived at a Border Patrol station, about eight hours after she had been placed in custody. Emergency medical personnel found the little girl had not had food or water for days. She had a temperature of 105.7 degrees. She was flown to Providence Children's Hospital in El Paso, Texas and less than a day later, Jakelin Caal Maquin died.

Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said, "The agents involved are deeply affected and empathize with the father over the loss of his daughter. ... We cannot stress enough the dangers posed by traveling long distances, in crowded transportation, or in the natural elements through remote desert areas without food, water and other supplies."

I've reported stories on Border Patrol agents. I know many of them are fathers and mothers from families with their own migration stories. Many agents talk about the times they have had to rescue people stranded in deserts or forests after they've crossed the border or saved people who have been savaged by criminal gangs and smugglers.

(Unbelievably!) Thousands of children are now in the custody of U.S. government. Even if you hold the family of the 7-year-old girl responsible for putting her life in danger to cross into the United States, you may wonder: Was a 7-year-old girl who had been taken in from the desert not given water or food for the eight hours she was in U.S. custody? And how can the president, who often contends the U.S. has never been better, stronger or richer, be astonished when thousands of families in countries that are roiled by crime, drugs and poverty decide to set out for the U.S. — whatever the risks — because they see it as what Abraham Lincoln called "the last best hope" of Earth?

Jakelin Caal Maquin's father is now with a charity group in El Paso and told the Guatemalan consul that he has no complaints about the way his daughter was treated by the Border Patrol or medical staff. The Inspector General's Office of the Department of Homeland Security will investigate how Jakelin Caal Maquin died.

Bookend reading 101 to combat white supremacists

MaineWriter opinion:

Evangelicals are often seen carrying their Bibles with them wherever they happen to go because they believe in a literal interpretation of all Scriptures. Nevertheless, in today's American society, those very same Bible carrying believers obviously overlook several key scriptures about how to combat the growing evils of ethnic discrimination, white supremacists, racism and fear of immigrants. For those who want to find some semblance of humanity in this cauldron of fear, stoked by the evils that accompany the Donald Trump's practices of abandoning leadership in favor of political advantage, here are MaineWriter's references: 

Biblical Scriptures  include many statements about welcoming strangers. Two of the most often quoted from the New Testament and from the Old Testament:

• Matthew 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me
• Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Scripture notwithstanding, the enlightened opponents of white supremacist discrimination and anti-immigration zealotry can keep two contemporary American classics close to their reading tables:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee can even be a source of comfort for people (like me) who just need to be reminded that there is humanity even in the darkest of situations whereby racism creates mob rule.  Let's me honest, Donald Trump's racist rhetoric has created a cult following of people who soak up nearly everything he says. Harper Lee's noble character, Atticus Finch, symbolizes enlightenment in the face of racism in a small Southern town.  Actor Gregory Peck brought Atticus Finch to life in his Oscar winning performance in the movie made from Lee's book.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature.

And the second "bookend" reading is the play "Driving Miss Daisy" by Alfred Uhry.  This story transcends time. In my opinion, it's a "real time" time-travel play where racism is juxtaposed alongside antisemitism.   

Driving Miss Daisy is a play by American playwright Alfred Uhry, about the relationship of an elderly white Southern Jewish woman, Daisy Werthan, and her African-American chauffeur, Hoke Coleburn, from 1948 to 1973.

Of course, the most visually compelling argument against right wing racism, discrimination, anti-immigration and white supremacists is our American iconic tribute to immigrants. It's the inscription by Emma Lazarus: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! It's inscribed on The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

Thoughtful Americans can put the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird and the timeless play Driving Miss Daisy into a tote bag where The Statue of Liberty is the featured image. Keep those readings alongside a Bible. In so doing, you'll be set to find solace when trying to stand up for humanitarian values while trying to maintain sanity in the face of the evil white supremacists.

Protect the caravan! A pro life plea

All those Evangelicals who vote in lock step to protect life before considering any other salient issue affecting mankind, must take a stand in support of the growing caravan of migrants who are seeking asylum by  marching through treacherous terrain from Central America, mostly Honduras, to Texas.

Where are the pro-life Evangelicals?

Stretching for miles, 7,000-strong migrant caravan treks through stifling heat in southern Mexico by Kate Linthicum

A growing caravan of roughly 7,000 Central American immigrants continued its trek toward the United States on Sunday, blowing past Mexican police and immigration officials.

The group, which has swelled in size in recent days, set out before dawn on the only road out of the small Mexican border town of Ciudad Hidalgo. It arrived in the afternoon in the city of Tapachula, more than 20 miles away.

The migrants, nearly all from the poor and violent nation of Honduras, posed a growing political and humanitarian calamity for Mexico, which has come under intense pressure from President Trump to stop them.

On Friday, Mexican police used tear gas to block migrants from storming an official border crossing. But in the days since, Mexico has appeared unwilling to use force to stop the thousands of people who have illegally crossed the Suchiate River from Guatemala into Mexico and started walking north.

That may be in part because the migrants include hundreds of women and small children, some in strollers. It could also be because of the daunting size of the caravan, which stretched for at least two miles.

As the caravan headed north Sunday in the 90-degree heat, another group of roughly 1,500 migrants waited on the Guatemalan side of the river, hoping to enter Mexico legally.

Authorities said more than 1,000 caravan members already have entered legally and applied for refugee status in Mexico and are being detained while their applications are processed.

The migrants left Honduras more than a week ago and began arriving several days ago at the Guatemalan border town of Tecun Uman, just across the river from Ciudad Hidalgo.

Most say they intend to cross into the United States, not seek refuge in Mexico. Some complain that they were unable to find work in Honduras. Others say they are fleeing violence or political repression there and hope to apply for asylum in the U.S.

Kate Linthicum @katelinthicum
I’m only just realizing the massive scale of this caravan as they march north into Mexico. It’s several thousand people. Just look.
10:14 AM - Oct 21, 2018

The caravan is more than two miles long. People near the end are stumbling. It’s 23 miles to Tapachula and it’s so hot — 90 degrees — today.  2:11 PM - Oct 21, 2018

Ingrid Andino, her husband and their two children left their small town in Honduras about a month ago after a local gang started pressuring her 16-year-old son to sell drugs. “They were going to kill him or kill us,” she said.

Andino said her family stayed with relatives in another town for a time before seeing the caravan on the news and deciding to join.

On Sunday, she and her family walked north in a line, holding hands, while she carried a bag containing the family’s possessions balanced on her head.

Trump has made the caravan a campaign issue at rallies across the country ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, calling it a menace to national security. He has threatened Mexico and Central American countries with economic reprisal if they fail to stop the migrants and vowed to send the military to close the U.S. border should the group make it that far.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, under pressure from Trump, has said repeatedly that no migrants will be allowed to enter the country in an “irregular” manner. Mexico’s deterrence of those who tried to storm the official border crossing Friday drew praise from Trump.

But when droves of people began crossing the river, swimming or boarding rafts, Mexican police and immigration agents just watched.

Gerardo Hernandez, head of the civil protection agency in the municipality of Suchiate, Chiapas, said that as of Saturday night, 7,233 immigrants had been registered at a shelter in Ciudad Hidalgo.

The group formed an imposing bloc as it began to march Sunday. Many Mexicans who live in the area lined the highway, handing out free clothes, sandwiches and bottles of water while cheering the caravan on.

“May God bless you!” one woman shouted.
“Thank you, Mexico!” the migrants shouted back.

Several times, large groups of police officers clad in riot gear blocked the road but then retreated. At one point, a small group of police watched as members of the caravan passed, some of them skipping.

When a small group of immigration officials tried to stop the caravan to persuade its members to apply for political asylum, the caravan swept past them, too.

As the day wore on, the enthusiasm drained somewhat.

The strongest of the group, mostly young men, led while the weaker fell behind. One teenage girl stumbled into a car parked on the shoulder of the highway, then rested her head for a brief moment on the trunk. Others carried cases of water, stuffed animals or children.

Paola Oviedo, 21, walked while hugging her 18-month-old son to her chest. She was panting, and she and her baby were both sweating heavily.

Oviedo, who crossed the Suchiate River on a raft, said she decided to leave Honduras after facing death threats from her abusive ex-husband. The police did nothing to help her, she said.

She said she didn’t want her son to grow up without his mother.

“I have to do this for his future,” she said.

Each immigrant was driven by a different dream.

For Cesar Meijia, 23, it was the freedom to be himself.

When Meijia came out as gay several years ago, his family sent him to a psychologist and the local gang threatened to kill him, saying they did not want people like him in their neighborhood. “I want to go to a place where people respect me,” he said, marching with a rainbow flag tied across his broad shoulders.

For Ramon Izaguirre, 20, the dream was to return to the life he left behind.

Izaguirre was born in Honduras but later moved to Phoenix with his mother. She cleaned houses while Izaguirre worked construction. He earned enough to buy a small condominium and a silver Mazda Miata.

He said he was was deported about a month ago after a routine traffic stop revealed that a work permit he used to enter the country had expired.

Izaguirre had convinced several friends in Honduras to try to reach the United States with him again.

“All my life is there, waiting for me,” he said in English. “I miss my PlayStation. I miss Buffalo Wild Wings. I miss my car.”

The group walked together Sunday at a quick pace. Izaguirre, dressed in a camouflage shirt from his days in ROTC at a Phoenix high school, led the way. At one point, he started reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

When a pickup truck pulled up next to the caravan and offered them a ride, Izaguirre and his friends scrambled into the back.

“Let’s go,” he said, and the truck sped off.

Migrants arrived throughout the afternoon in Tapachula, finding their way to a plaza in the city’s colonial-era center.

Denis Omar Contera, an organizer with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, which is helping the group, said the caravan plans to rest Monday before setting out again.

He laughed off claims made by some Republicans that the caravan is being organized by Democrats or political opponents of the right-wing president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez.

“The only people who have helped us are the poor people of Guatemala and Mexico who have shared with us their beans and tortillas,” he said.

Times staff writer Patrick McDonnell in Mexico City contributed to this report.

6:20 p.m.: This article was updated to include the new number of caravan members who have applied for refugee status in Mexico.

5:10 p.m.: This article was updated with political analysis and scenes from the caravan.

9:30 a.m.: This article was updated with the caravan passing police en route to the U.S. and with additional background.

This article was originally published at 7:15 a.m.

Scott Pruitt is challenged by Pope Francis about environmental science

Pope Francis and the environment ~ the antithesis of wrong minded Scott Pruitt: by Walter G. Moss*

Scott Pruitt is in conflict with God's creation ~ these deliberate degradation are sins

Maine Writer comment: Let's remember, before Pope Francis was a chemistry teacher before he became a priest.  In other words, Pope Francis is a scientist.  On the other hand, Scott Pruitt is a political operative and, as such, he has no idea about how the environment is harmed by his propriety driven policies.

Published in the History News Network HNN.com

Scientific evidence overwhelmingly attests to the existence of human-caused global warming. The problem, however, is many people ignore or dispute such evidence. Such it has been with evolution, and so it now is with global warming. A recent example has been the man President Trump appointed to the job of protecting our environment—the Environmental Protection Agency’s head, Scott Pruitt—and other Protestant evangelicals who share his hostility to a science-based climate policy. (Evangelicals are primarily Protestants of various denominations who share an emphasis on the importance of experiencing a “born-again” transformation, on the Bible and Jesus as ultimate authorities, and on encouraging others to accept Jesus as their Savior. Evangelicals make up about 25 percent of U.S. voters.)

An article in the century-old pro-business magazine Forbes recently stated that Pruitt “has systematically removed science from environmental decisions and regulations in the United States.” Two other recent articles zero in on Pruitt’s evangelical connections. The first, in Slate, is entitled “God’s EPA Administrator,” and it asks, “Did the politics and history of evangelical Christianity create Scott Pruitt?” The second, a New Yorker essay, asks, “Are Evangelical Leaders Saving Scott Pruitt's Job?”

Late last year I wrote that President Trump’s worst sin was the damage he was doing to our environment and that Pruitt was one of his chief henchmen. 

“Sin” is a strong word and a religious one. But in using it I was following the example of Pope Francis, in his 2015 climate encyclical. There he quoted favorably the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, who stated:“For human beings … to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life – these are sins.”

All of these religious references, lead us to several important questions: 1) Do different religions (e.g., Francis' s Catholicism and Pruitt's evangelical Protestantism) say different things about our obligations regarding climate change? 2) What role do religious beliefs regarding climate change play in the minds of politicians? 3) How do these beliefs affect the behavior of voters?

In answer to the first question about the differences in religions, the answer is, “Yes.” But the answer involves more complexity than one might imagine. Some idea of this complexity can be gained by looking over such books such as the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology (2018), which contains essays on different religions’ and regions’ approach to ecology, plus other ones dealing with subjects such as religions and climate change (see here for an online version of the latter essay). Even within one religion, for example Judaism with its Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform branches, there are often different approaches to climate change.

Our chief concern here, however, is between the different perspectives of the Catholic Pope Francis and Trumpian Protestant evangelicals like Scott Pruitt. In addition to quoting the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew about how harming our climate is sinful, Francis begins his climate encyclical by citing the environmental concerns of his papal predecessors since 1971, and then he jumps back to the thirteenth-century’s St. Francis of Assisi, whose name our current pope took as a “guide and inspiration” when he was selected to head the Catholic Church. The pope recommends the saint’s loving attitude toward nature as a safeguard against regarding ourselves as “masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on . . . immediate needs.”

Early on, however, Pope Francis transitions from a concern with his Catholic forerunners’ thinking to stating that he will review “several aspects of the present ecological crisis, with the aim of drawing on the results of the best scientific research available today, letting them touch us deeply and provide a concrete foundation for the ethical and spiritual itinerary that follows.” 

Pope Francis then goes on to write that “a very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events, even if a scientifically determinable cause cannot be assigned to each particular phenomenon. . . . A number of scientific studies indicate that most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and others) released mainly as a result of human activity. As these gases build up in the atmosphere, they hamper the escape of heat produced by sunlight at the earth’s surface. The problem is aggravated by a model of development based on the intensive use of fossil fuels, which is at the heart of the worldwide energy system. Another determining factor has been an increase in changed uses of the soil, principally deforestation for agricultural purposes.”

Thus, from the beginning of his encyclical, Francis displays the utmost respect for scientific findings. Popes, however, have not always been so open-minded. Mention of the Catholic papacy’s negative reaction to the contentions of Copernicus and Galileo that the earth revolved around the sun (and not vice versa) is enough to dispel any overly-rosy generalizations about past papal respect for science.

Yet, the Catholic Church has never taken an official position on Darwinian evolution, and unofficially it has never been as hostile to it as Protestant evangelicalism. Most notable among evangelical opponents to Darwin, as the famous Scopes Trial of 1925, reminds us, were the fundamentalists. (A Pew Research survey indicates that only 27 percent of white evangelical Protestants, as compared to 68 percent of white Catholics, are willing to accept that “humans have evolved over time.”)

Although fundamentalists are only a subset of evangelicalism, by 1930 a decades-long transformation was occurring among evangelicals in general. As conservative columnist Michael Gerson points out, before the Civil War many evangelicals were abolitionists who believed in social justice and progress, but by 1930 “all progressive social concern . . . became suspect” among most evangelicals. Decades later white evangelicals “shamefully” sat out or opposed the civil rights movement.

In general, as a 2014 survey revealed, white evangelical Protestants are less likely than other major U. S. religious groups to concern themselves with scientific developments or to believe that climate change is an important environmental matter. Although U. S. Catholics were more than twice as likely as white evangelical Protestants to say that climate change is the “most pressing environmental issue,” they still did not prioritize it as much as they have done since Pope Francis’s climate encyclical, which has swayed, some, but by no means all, Catholic believers.

Although climate change may or may not be of much interest to religious believers, it can no longer be ignored by national politicians. This brings us to our second and third questions: What role do religious beliefs regarding climate change play in the minds of politicians and voters? In light of the overwhelming percentage (81 percent) of white evangelicals who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and the prominence of evangelicals like Vice-President Pence and EPA head Pruitt in the Trump Administration this question has special importance.

When one considers that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson are also evangelical Christians, the serious impact of Trumpian evangelicals is considerable. In addition, other Republican evangelical Trump supporters like Senator James Inhofe (Okla.), patron of fellow Oklahoman Pruitt and author of The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, also increase evangelicals’ influence, as do the fossil-fuel-tycoon Koch brothers, who have supported various conservative evangelicals like Pence and Pruitt, as well other individuals and groups opposing efforts to reduce global warming.

Trump’s own religious views are less clear. But the evangelical leader James Dobson claimed that during the 2016 campaign Paula White, a Florida televangelist and spiritual advisor to Trump, converted him to evangelicalism. What is certain, however, is that Trump considers himself a Christian and has supported many goals of conservative evangelicals.

Evangelicals are influenced by their faith’s distrust of science and belief in God’s omnipotence. One example is furnished by Pastor Ralph Drollinger, author of “Rebuilding America: The Biblical Blueprint” and conductor of a weekly Bible-study meeting attended by many of the Trumpian evangelical cabinet supporters—about Drollinger and his Bible-study group Pruitt has stated, “to be encouraged, to pray . . . to spend time with a friend, a colleague, a person who has a faith focus on how we do our job, whether it’s through prayer or through God’s Word, and to encourage one another in that regard is so, so important, and we have that in our Cabinet and it’s such a wonderful thing.”

Drollinger has written: “To think that Man can alter the earth’s ecosystem—when God remains omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent in the current affairs of mankind—is to more than subtly espouse an ultra-hubristic, secular worldview relative to the supremacy and importance of man. . . . In our lifetime there has been a radical shift in aggregate, national religious belief. In essence and unfortunately, America has been in the process of changing horses: from the religion of Christianity to one of Radical Environmentalism. We are in the process of exchanging the worship of the Creator for the worship of His creation. This is a huge and dire error, with extreme consequences, and it presages disaster.”

But not all evangelicals share this view. In deciphering the role of religious faith in the politics of evangelicals, the insights of Gerson (see above) seem most pertinent. He believes his own evangelical faith has shaped his life, but that “Christian theology is emphatically not the primary motivating factor” in the minds of evangelical politicians and voters(my bolding). He writes that “Fox News and talk radio are vastly greater influences on evangelicals’ political identity.”

Also influencing their political choices are other factors like geographic location and race. The states with the largest evangelical populations (all with more than 40 percent of the total population) were Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee—more liberal California and New York had much smaller percentages of evangelicals, only 20 percent and 10 percent respectively. In last year’s Alabama Senate race, 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for the Republican candidate, while 95 percent of black evangelicals supported his Democratic opponent.

Gerson faults white evangelical voters for being too defensive, reactive, and narrow, for voting for Trump with his “distinctly non-Christian” values. Unlike the Catholic Church, which developed a well-thought-out social philosophy, evangelicals failed to do this, and Gerson thinks this has left them too susceptible to politicians like Trump who promised to look out for their interests. 

Michael Gerson supports Pope Francis opinion about the environment~ Evangelicals are influenced by extremist FoxNews

In contrast to the narrowness that Gerson eschews, Pope Francis has urged Catholics to be open-minded, pragmatic, and work for the common good. Anyone reading his long climate encyclical from beginning to end, while perhaps not agreeing with all aspects of it, should conclude that it reflects this spirit and is motivated primarily by his deep Christian faith. 

*Walter G. Moss is a professor emeritus of history at Eastern Michigan University 

Immigrants and Biblical "strangers"

"At issue are both broader and deeper questions about what it means to welcome the stranger," Mathew Schmalz

It's impossible to understand the hypocrisy expressed by Republicans who claim to be Evangelicals, Fundamentalist Christians, but refuse to admit that immigrants are metaphorically (and in fact) the "strangers" we are called to accept, as described in Holy Scripture.

Here is what the Bible says about welcoming refugees, as explained by Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, at The College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester MA, in an essay he published in January, 2017:

Donald Trump signed an (IMO - evil) executive order that placed a stay on refugees from seven Muslim majority countries.

Entrance of refugees from Syria, however, will be banned for the next 120 days.

Two days prior to that, he committed the United States to building a wall on its border with Mexico.

Soon after the order, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto canceled a trip to the United States.

Trump has also proposed that Mexican goods be taxed at the rate of 20 percent to provide funds for building the wall. This would fulfill his campaign promise that Mexico would actually pay for the wall’s construction, in spite of America’s southern neighbor’s adamant protests.

For Christians, the questions about building the border wall or permitting immigrants and refugees into the United States involve a host of associated considerations not just about the specifics of immigration law, the economics of cheap labor coming across the border or potential terrorist threats.

At issue are both broader and deeper questions about what it means to welcome the stranger.

As a Roman Catholic scholar who lived in South Asia for a total of four years, I know what it is like to be initially considered a “stranger” but be quickly welcomed with open arms. And I, like all Christians, look to the Bible for guidance when asking about how to best welcome the stranger.

So, what does the Bible actually say?

We will all be strangers, sometime

The Bible affirms – strongly and unequivocally – the obligation to treat strangers with dignity and hospitality.The Old Testament.

In “Love the Stranger,” an article written for the annual meeting of the College Theological Society in 1991, biblical scholar Alice Laffey stated that in the Hebrew Bible, the words “gûr” and “gēr” are the ones most often glossed as referring to the “stranger,” though they are also translated as “newcomer” and “alien” or “resident alien,” respectively.

In the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the word “gēr” appears almost 50 times, and the fifth book, Deuteronomy, delineates a number of specific provisions for treating “the stranger” not just with courtesy but also with active support and provision.

For example, the book of Deuteronomy sets out the requirement that a portion of produce be set aside by farmers every third year for strangers, widows and orphans. In the “temple sermon” attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, the Jewish people are exhorted to “not oppress the sojourner.”

Within the Hebrew Bible the requirements of hospitality are sometimes affirmed in very striking ways, as in the story from the book of Judges in which a host offers his own daughter to ruffians in order to safeguard his guest.

Of course, the Israelites themselves were “strangers” during their enslavement in Egypt and captivity in Babylon. The Hebrew Bible recognizes that every one of us can be a stranger and, for that very reason, we need to overcome our fear of those who live among us whom we do not know.

The stranger is Jesus in disguise

Within the New Testament, which Christians read in continuity with the Hebrew Bible or “The Old Testament,” the most often cited passage dealing with welcoming the stranger is from Matthew 25: 31-40.

This section speaks of the Final Judgment, when the righteous will be granted paradise and unrepentant sinners will be consigned to eternal fire. Christ says to those at his right hand that they are “blessed” because:

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

The righteous then ask,

“When did we see you, a stranger, and welcome you?”

Christ replies,

“‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

As Matthew 25 makes clear, the Christians should see everyone as “Christ” in the flesh. Indeed, scholars argue that in the New Testament, “stranger” and “neighbor” are in fact synonymous.

Thus the Golden Rule, “love your neighbor as yourself,” refers not just to people whom you know – your “neighbors” in a conventional sense – but also to people whom you do not know.

Beyond this, in the letters written by Paul of Tarsus (one of the most notable of early Christian missionaries), often known as the Pauline “Epistles,” it is made clear that in Christ,

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave[g] nor free, there is no male and female.”

From this perspective, being “one in Christ” should be taken literally as acknowledging no fundamental differences in kind among human beings.

Bible is unambiguous in its message.

Of course, in Christianity the strong admonitions toward treating the stranger with dignity have coexisted with actions that would seem to indicate an opposite attitude: pogroms against Jews, slavery, imperialism and colonialism have been sanctioned by Christians who nonetheless would have affirmed biblical principles regarding caring for those who seem “other” or “alien.”

Indeed, when it comes to the specific questions concerning building a wall on America’s border with Mexico or welcoming immigrants and refugees, some Christians would argue that doing so does not violate any biblical precepts concerning hospitality to the stranger, since the issue is one of legality and, of course, a good number of Christians did indeed support Donald Trump’s candidacy for the presidency.

Other Christians have taken a diametrically different position, and have called for cities and educational institutions to be set apart as “safe zones”for undocumented immigrants.

It is true that the application of biblical principles to contemporary matters of policy is less than clear to the many Christians who have taken opposing sides regarding how the United States should deal with immigrants, undocumented workers and refugees.

However, in my reading of the Bible, the principles regarding welcoming the stranger are broad-reaching and unambiguous.

Post Script by Maine Writer - I agree with Mathew Schmulz

What does being "Pro-Life" really mean?

Evangelical Christians and Right To Life (RTL) groups are dedicated voters who look for "Pro-Life" candidates to support. 

Unfortunately, the political litmas test for "Pro-Life" usually conceptualizes a political position where abortion is the center of the debate. This one minded approach to voting has led to the Republican party being controlled by right wing zealots who are not purely "Pro-Life", at all. Rather, oftentimes, they're single minded hypocrites. Many Pro-Life stances are "anti-life".

Abortion notwithstanding, here is my list of "Pro-life" issues:

John Wesley (1703-1791) "Do all the good you can...."

1.  Supporting the lives of mothers and children by providing universal health  care and with good nutrition supported by programs like "Women Infants and Children" or "WIC".

2.  Opposing the sale of military style assault weapons and ammunition (or tax it out of affordability) that are killing thousands of young people who're either in the wrong place at the wrong time, or being victimized due to their race or sexual orientation. It makes no sense to be "Pro-life" but also "Pro-Assault Weapons". It's a classic oxymoron.

3.  Opposition to the death penalty is a "Pro-Life" position. Although many Evangelicals and RTL supporters are, in fact, opposed to the death penalty, they don't petition and publicly demonstrate to support this decididly wrong criminal justice sentance.

4.  Being pro-life means providing health care and income assistance for the poor, the frail, the elderly, the disabled, immigrants and veterans. Instead, Evangelicals and RTL groups are often the same people who oppose government expenditures for public assistance programs.

Pro-Life positions are humanitarian concepts, meaning they should be inclusive of all quality of life conditions, including the protection of the life of the unborn. 

In other words, being Pro-Life is reflective in the teachings of John Wesley: "“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

As a matter of fact, HillaryClinton is a Christian Methodist who believes in and extols the John Wesley humanitarian mantra. Indeed, Secretary Clinton is truely a "Pro-Life" presidential candidate. Obviously, she's a candidate the Pro-Life Evangelical and RTL voters can be proud to support.