No shame … no honor
Where there is no shame, there is no honor. Martin Opitz, German poet
Rather, we (followers of Christ) have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. 2 Corinthians 4:15
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 1 Peter 2:1-25 ..
“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” Joseph N. Welch, attorney representing the U.S. Army, to Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was falsely accusing members of the U.S. government and of the U.S. Army of being Communist agents.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson at the 2025 National Prayer Breakfast. Trump said he will create a Faith Office in the White House
Usually, I am a person of many words, and I’m an eternal optimist. But the present political landscape puts me at a loss for words regarding the hypocrisy … the cruelty … the moral corruption of Donald Trump and his cultists and apologists, including, to its everlasting shame, the Republican Party. This can truly depress even an eternal optimist.
Bring back religion? … When did it leave?…
Last month, at the National Prayer Breakfast Trump laid out plans to bring religion back to the country –as if it had ever left. For starters Trump said he will create a Faith Office in the White House, led by associates of the New Apostolic Reformation, whose leaders claim that God speaks directly to them and that Christians are called to wage a spiritual battle for control of the United States.
In essence, Trump plans to turn the government over to Christian nationalism, an ideology built around the notion that the federal government should declare the United States of America a Christian nation … and, if one wants to be a real American, he/she must be a Christian. It is noteworthy that many (maybe even a thousand, by some estimates) Christian nationalists were involved in the Trump-inspired Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Per Christian nationalism, Jews and members of other faiths and non-believers are not real Americans.
Per Christian nationalism, then, Jews and members of other faiths and non-believers are not real Americans. Rather, they are part of the “Others” the Trump cultists and apologists hate and want to get rid of. Can’t get more anti-Semitic than that. Yet, mystifyingly, many Jews, agnostics, etc. are card-carrying members of the Trump cult.
Brown and Black religious folks need not apply…
But, to be clear, Trump and his cultists and apologists consider only white religious folks real Americans. Mexicans and Latinos are, as a rule, very religious people – devout Catholics, Mormons, Evangelicals, etc. But Trump and his cultists and apologists consider them to be part of the “Others” whom they hate and want to get rid of.
Blacks also are religious people. Trump’s racism is well documented. Also mystifyingly, many Latinos and Blacks support Trump.
You gotta do Christian things to be a Christian…
Trump and his (non-elected) co-president Elan Musk have eliminated 90% of USAID, which provided food, medicine, and other assistance to poverty-stricken countries.
It’s safe to say that in order to claim that you are a Christian guided by Christian principles, you have to do Christian things – or at least genuinely try to. But Trump and his minions are doing the exact opposite.
Note: the following phenomena have been – and are still being – reported in detail by credible media sources (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, NPR, AP, etc.), so I’m not going to detail them here. Keep in mind that this is an illustrative and not a not a comprehensive list of the Trump-Musk cuts.
* Trump and his (non-elected) co-president Elan Musk have eliminated 90% of USAID, which provided food, medicine, and other assistance to poverty-stricken countries.
A high-profile USAID program supplied acutely malnourished children in Africa with a peanut-based food product meant to help save children who are unable to ingest normal food safely. A former USAID administrator notes that the destruction of USAID will lead to famine and great suffering and predicts that there will be mass starvation in many countries and that thousands of children will die as a result of the Trump-Musk cuts.
Beyond food aid, USAID provided assistance for projects like containing the spread of Ebola and sponsored one of the largest global programs for combating HIV and AIDS and has been credited with saving some 26 million people since it was created in 2003.
BUT Jesus Christ was about feeding hungry people, not starving them! (See, for example, Matthew 14:14-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:5-14)
And Jesus Christ was about healing people, not killing them! (See, for example, Matthew 19:2)
Trump and his co-president Elan Musk are defunding the Center for Disease Control (CDC) which helps save lives in rural America.
* Trump and his co-president Elan Musk are defunding the Center for Disease Control (CDC) which helps save lives in rural America. In most states rural areas have very limited health-care facilities (clinics. hospitals, doctors, etc.). People with life-threatening conditions such as cancer have to drive hours in order to see a doctor or get treatment.
CDC funds programs that allow local facilities, which are very limited, to remotely connect to medical specialists throughout the state to help patients manage and chart their care.
As noted above, Jesus Christ was about healing people, not killing them by purposeful neglect! (See, for example, Matthew 19:2)
* Trump and his co-president Elan Musk are outright eliminating the U.S. Department of Education. Tens of thousands of teachers and support staff (e.g., school nurses, librarians, etc.) are being fired. Title I schools will especially feel the brunt of these cuts.
Trump and his co-president Elan Musk are outright eliminating the U.S. Department of Education. Tens of thousands of teachers and support staff (e.g., school nurses, librarians, etc.) are being fired.
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provides supplemental financial assistance to school districts for children from low-income families. Title I’s purpose is to provide all children the opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education and to close educational achievement gaps. A major eligibility measure is the number of public-school children eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
Some of the deleterious effects of these cuts:
Fewer teachers will translate into larger class sizes, which is known to negatively affect learnability.
Services for students with disabilities will be eliminated or curtailed drastically.
Free lunches to poor children will be eliminated. As noted above, Jesus Christ was about feeding hungry people, not starving them!
These and other services will be left to the individual states to provide. But there is no provision for federal oversight or any guarantee that every state will continue these services, or if some do, that they will do so at the present level.
But Jesus mandated that we – the people, society – take care of the children. See, for example, Luke 9:47-48 … also Luke 18:15-17; Mark 9:36-37; Mark 10:13-16; Matthew 18:2-5; Matthew 18:10; Matthew 18:14; Matthew 19:13-14:
Jesus told his disciples, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.”
One of the VA contracts scheduled for Trump/Musk cancellation supports the world’s leading research and educational center on post-traumatic stress disorder. VA officials predict these cuts will result in the deaths of thousands of veterans.
* Trump and his co-president Elan Musk are firing tens of thousands of VA (Veterans Affairs) employees and cancelling hundreds of VA contracts. Some of the deleterious effects of these cuts:
In addition to lowering drastically the number of doctors and support staff (nurses, technicians, etc.) available to attend to patients, VA officials have identified at least 200 scheduled contract cancellations, some of which are central to patient safety, viz.:
The list of cancelled contracts includes those covering sterility certification for VA hospital pharmacy operations, facility air quality and safety testing to prevent transmission of infections, as well as sterile processing services to decontaminate equipment and medical instruments. Also on the list are contracts providing required certification and accreditation for stroke centers and follow-up care for cancer patients.
Another VA contract scheduled for cancellation supports the National Center for PTSD, the world’s leading research and educational center on post-traumatic stress disorder.
VA officials and scholars who study VA phenomena predict that the Trump-Musk cuts will result in the – totally preventable! – deaths of thousands of veterans.
Where is the Christianity, the patriotism, in that? As noted above, Jesus Christ was about healing people, not killing them!
Biblical/Christian mandates regarding the above issues are not esoteric. There are over 2,000 biblical passages that speak to the issue of protecting the vulnerable, offering succor to the poor, and bringing judgement down upon those with wealth and power who make people suffer.
There are over 2,000 biblical passages that speak to the issue of protecting the vulnerable, offering succor to the poor. Jesus Christ was about healing people, not killing them!