Stand!

 A couple of years ago one of my nieces, the one who lives in Minnesota, was visiting her mother’s church in Alabama. The pastor of this church claims to operate in the realm of prophecy. He has long hair and wears a long leather coat and plays electric guitar in the church band. His interpretation of scripture is strange, often surreal, and focused on a combination of prosperity gospel and apocalypse. The church is a family business much like the church I was raised in, in that the whole family is involved in the preaching and singing, only they are reportedly raking in millions, unlike First Baptist of Palm Beach Gardens. My mother had a job at Pratt and Whitney and was the principal breadwinner. My sister played piano. Taught Sunday school. 

And my parents were lifelong Democrats. This other church is of the pro-Trump faith, comparing him to King David because he is anointed and somehow fulfilling the End Times prophecies of the pastor. 

Such is their confusion.

When my niece visited, one of the self proclaimed prophets was behind the pulpit, alarming the congrégation with scary stories about children becoming transgender furries due to satanic plots in public schools, repeating stories our President tells at his rallies and in the Oval Office and  in bed on his phone and talking in his sleep, constantly rehearsing and revising a mythology that explains the universe to his followers, a universe with Donald Jesus Christofascist Trump at the center.

The person who was teaching that day told a story about a man whose child said he identified with a cat, so the father supposedly commanded his child to sleep in the barn and eat mice. This must have got a laugh from the congregation but my niece was horrified. She jumped up and shouted Bullshit! She accused them of condoning child abuse. She told them she is both a mother and a schoolteacher and what these fake prophets were saying about public schools was false. Then gave the church a two fisted double bird flip and left the building.

I heard about this incident from her, her brother, and her mother. The family was in disagreement about it, but I thought she did the right thing. My sister said she was proud of her for taking a stand. She told me that she and her husband raised their kids to think independently.  But my sister still believed in Trump.

I think her church gave her a sense of community and belonging.

When Betty was in her last days we didn’t argue about Trump anymore. I postponed visiting her because I don’t like flying and we’d seen each other in Chautauqua a few years ago (I took a bus). I knew if I went to her church the Holy Spirit might demand I make an even bigger scene. Betty and I said our goodbyes on the phone.

Betty died before she could vote to re-elect Trump. She admired Marjorie Taylor Green. MTG’s rethinking of her opinion of Trump over the Epstein Files helps me to wonder if my sister might have also had a change of heart about some things. Would she have listened to the survivors? Green said that the President told her if he released all the files unredacted his friends would be hurt. His friends in the Epstein class. I want to believe that at some point in the last year some line was crossed, some hearts changed, but I don’t know if the spell will soon be broken. He still has supporters.

It is no oversight that some of the President’s friends´ names were redacted from the files released so far. And I am certain that it was no accident that the names of some of the Epstein/Trump survivors were not redacted. It is a deliberate act of retaliation by Trump. He is punishing the accusers and intimidating any witnesses who have not yet spoken.

If you don’t understand why those girls let themselves be dominated and degraded by the creep in the White House you need to understand that we are all letting ourselves be dominated and degraded by a corrupt and cruel system. The Epstein/Trump crimes and the continued coverup disgraces the nation.

I thought what my niece did was comparable to the Gospel story of Jesus acting up in The Temple. Jesus warned he would divide families and start intergenerational warfare. Maybe God chose her to do a necessary prophetic action because I chickened out.  I thought of her when the protest in a church in St. Paul was in the news and Don Lemon was arrested for committing an act of journalism.  If Jesus of Nazareth walked into that Trump cult church and started to teach about loving the stranger and loving your neighbors, actual Bible teaching, that ICE preacher would’ve had him killed or deported. 

Cruelty is the style of the Trump Cult. They have no good ideas. No New Deal. No New Frontier. No Morning in America. Just the political equivalent of a low budget exploitation movie, a splatter flick. Just cheap shocks to fill the screens of our information devices. Fascist porn.

America is a disgrace. We need to change. In evangelical terms, we need to repent. The people of Minneapolis are doing what they can. My niece has been participating in the resistance and bearing witness. Many people are doing what they can.

Where do you draw the line ?

When will you change your mind?

When will you stand up?

When will I?

Liberty on ice.