Republicans, I am Against You

I am lumping you all together because you have lumped yourselves together, supporting Donald Trump no matter how hypocritical it may be.

You claim to stand for small, limited government; but your own mean-spirited covetousness, your childish self-centeredness, your smug self-righteous sense of exceptionalism are exactly what drove others to expand the government's role in protecting people to include those socialistic features that you hate so much. Food assistance, open housing, affirmative action all came about from the distress you caused your fellow Americans.

You make sanctimonious noises about Christian Culture while denying Christ's command to love your neighbor as yourself when you said, "I got mine, and don't you try to take it away" instead of "Freely I have received and freely give." You lack the courage to give your neighbor a helping hand when he's down, if he doesn't look enough like you.

You think that if others are getting ahead, then you must be falling behind, a zero-sum game outlook on life, when God made it clear that you are to pray for the prosperity of Babylon, that when God blesses, everybody benefits. In your frightened desperation to maintain a dominance that you never should have had, you assume others share your appalling lack of compassion and want to dominate you as you did them.

Well, I have news for you: we don't want to replace you. We don't want any group to have the kind of patronizing smug superiority that you seem to think you're entitled to. What we want is, to coin a phrase, Liberty and Justice for All.

Another Joke Retold

I was watching an episode of The West Wing, and a priest tells the President this joke:

You remind me of the man that lived by the river. He heard a radio report that the river was going to rush up and flood the town, and that the all the residents should evacuate their homes. But the man said, "I'm religious. I pray. God loves me. God will save me." 

The waters rose up. A guy in a rowboat came along and he shouted, "Hey, hey you, you in there. The town is flooding. Let me take you to safety." But the man shouted back, "I'm religious. I pray. God loves me. God will save me." 

A helicopter was hovering overhead and a guy with a megaphone shouted, "Hey you, you down there. The town is flooding. Let me drop this ladder and I'll take you to safety." But the man shouted back that he was religious, that he prayed, that God loved him and that God will take him to safety. 

Well... the man drowned. And standing at the gates of St. Peter he demanded an audience with God. "Lord," he said, "I'm a religious man, I pray, I thought you loved me. Why did this happen?" God said, "What do you want from me? I sent you a radio report, a helicopter and a guy in a rowboat."

Here is my retelling, which I hope illustrates the difference between faith in religion and faith in the living God:

Four men were praying together in a house by the river. They heard a radio report that the river was going to rush up and flood the town, and that all the residents should evacuate their homes. One of the men said, “Thank you Lord for warning us. Brothers, let’s go.” But the other three said, “I know God loves me and he will save me, and even if he doesn’t, I’m his to do with as he wishes.” And they went back to praying together; the first man got up and left the area . 

The waters rose up. A guy in a rowboat came along and he shouted, “Hey, hey you, you guys in there. The town is flooding. Let me take you to safety.” One of the men said, “Thank you Jesus, for sending this rowboat. Brothers, let’s go.” But the other two said, “I know God loves me and will keep me safe, and even if he doesn’t, I’m his to do with as he wishes,” And kept on praying. The one man got up and left in the rowboat. 

A helicopter was hovering overhead and a guy with a megaphone shouted, “Hey you, you two down there. The town is flooding. Let me drop this ladder and I’ll take you to safety.” One of the men said, “Thank you Lord for sending this helicopter. Brother, let’s go.” But the other answered, “I know God loves me, and will keep me safe, and even if he doesn’t, I’m his to do with as he wishes.” 

Well… that last man drowned. As he came through the gates of heaven, the Lord Jesus took him into his arms and said, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your lord.” The man said, “Lord, what about those other three guys?” Jesus answered, “If I want them to wait on earth until the end of the Age, what’s it to you?”