A Virtual Church

Say cheese

Yesterday

Thanks to modern technology Americans who have cell phones also have cameras. People are wise to behave themselves because our pictures could end up on TikTok or Instagram. Privacy is a thing of the past.

Video evidence shared broadly on mainstream media is telling the story. An untrained mob calling itself ICE is policing and arresting citizens, striking fear among us and dancing to the tune of our Mad King, Donald Trump.

His sadistic narcissism, which is absent any moral compass, is wreaking havoc in Minneapolis, and we all see it. He cannot hide his cruelty. Cruelty almost as dangerous as his stupidity. If it weren’t so dangerous, it might be funny. He is a clown, all made up in orange. His minions who keep propping him up are selling their souls to the Devil just to stay close to power.

Jack Smith’s testimony about January 6^th is damning. He said Donald Trump’s handprints are all over the Insurrection we saw at the Capitol. Video evidence abounds because, once again we all have access to cameras - besides it was on television for all of us to see.

The right-wing propaganda machine is an echo chamber for the big lies being told by Donald Trump.

De-regulation removed a lot of accountability from on-air media programming. New media has no such accountability. It is all like the wild, wild west. Cell phone cameras held by people surrounding the deadly ruckus tell the story. Renee Good and Alex Pretti were gunned down in cold murder.

It looks like the Ku Klux Klan is terrorizing communities again.

Minority and indigenous people have always been pushed around and hurt. Native people have been killed, relocated, and wiped out at every turn. Remember the Trail of Tears?

America has never been all Caucasian. We are a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities from everywhere on the planet. All of us, with few rare exceptions, are immigrants. We are not all Christian. Not all white. Not all monogamous. Not all moral, ethical people.

You know who you are and if someone sees your bad behavior, we will all know it because someone will video it.

The great religions of the world call us to a life of love, acceptance, and grace.

We live on a very small, fragile planet. Seems like getting along with one another would be smart. Seems like getting along would be in our own self-interest.

Trumps threats of sending small nuclear arms to Ukraine and Iran should be reason enough to invoke the 25^thAmendment. Donald Trump is too careless and mentally incompetent to realize the that threat of nuclear war could ruin this planet for himself and the rest of us. He likely does not know the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  I question if he even knows about Chernobyl. The land around that site is still in uninhabitable. because of long-lasting radiation.

Donald Trump is an existential threat to the planet and everything that lives on it. Including us.

Too many elected officials are drinking the Kool-AidÓ of power and influence. They are complicit in the Mad King’s dangerous game.

Democracy is at risk unless more of us resist. Writing our Congress. Bracing the cold to march against the cruelty. Writing letters to editors. Putting a sign in your front yard.

This is a time for holy boldness that shouts, “Enough!”

We know the actions of ICE are wrong. We know the delight Donald Trump has in directing the cruelty is sick.

I have one vote. One voice. This old preacher began writing resistance to Donald Trump, following in the tradition of the Old Testament Prophets and Jesus, who spoke out against ill treatment of the immigrants and aliens.

President Trump does not even know how to hold a Bible right-side up. He apparently has not read the US Constitution which he swore to uphold. The Constitution is about revolting against another mad king, George, who “sent a fully armed battalion to remind us of his love.” Attacking one’s own people is wrong and all of us know it

The part about loving your neighbor is an essential piece of the Biblical text. Trump must have been absent the day that was taught.

Historians will chronicle the story of the demise of Democracy. Like the Greeks and the Romans, we will become a chapter in a story larger that we are.

But as long as there are critical thinkers and readers, there may be hope that after Trump, we can be redeemed and restored to that “shining city on a hill” of which Ronald Reagan spoke. Lord, have mercy on us. 

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com 

 

 

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