Forgiving Evangelicals

I confess to feeling a lot of anger and a lot of frustration with the American Christian right-wing, whether we call them evangelicals or fundamentalists or some other less flattering term.  This group of folks has me totally stymied and dumbfounded.  Claiming to be the most Christian of the Christians they act in ways that defy both logic and belief.

For now, let’s set aside their stringent commitment to falsehoods, beliefs that are totally contradicted by fact, knowledge and reason.  Among those set-asides are the beliefs that the earth is around 6,000 years old, humans and dinosaurs walked the planet together, the earth is flat, it was created in 6 days, there really was a Noah and an Ark and a flood, and evolution is not a fact.  There are more, but just looking at the belief structure that is in such denial of reality might be enough to get most of them certified and committed.  But, for now, let’s set that aside.

Let’s not set aside the primary tenets of Christianity as defined in the New Testament.  Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, an atheist or a Hindu the core teachings are pretty obvious even to the most superficial reader:  Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Have no hatred for your brother.  If anyone has worldly goods and sees his neighbor in need he does not have God’s love in him.  Honor everyone.  It is more difficult for the rich to enter heaven.  Love your enemies.  Everyone is a child of God. 

So, for 8 years this group attacked the President.  They claimed he was not born in America.  He was.  They claimed he was a Muslim.  He is not.  They claimed he would come and take their guns away.  He did not.  What he did was save our economy from destruction due to the conservative policies of the previous years, he enacted health insurance for the poor and needy, he improved our international relations with other nations, he took great steps in ending the conflicts in the middle east, and he worked on protecting the climate.  There was no hint of scandal or corruption, and yet the Christian right continued their assault.

Now, we have a President who is a known adulterer, a known sex offender, a bigot, a misogynist, a racist, a person who unleashes verbal assault on anyone who dares question him, a person who consistently lies and misrepresents reality, and a person who prides himself on his wealth.  And yet, the Christian right not only ignores those attributes, they defend him fervently.  There are even some who believe that God chose this man to become our President when it is growing more and more clear the Russians chose this man to become our President.  What am I missing? 

If we lay the basic tenets of Christianity down and attempt to align Trump’s programs we have a total mismatch.  Accusing immigrants of being criminals is anti-Christian.  Building a wall to keep people out is anti-Christian.  Dismantling a health care system for the poor and for children is anti-Christian.  Placing oneself above all others is anti-Christian.  Using women as sex objects is anti-Christian.  Blaming the victims of poverty as villains is anti-Christian.  Having great wealth and not sharing it with the neediest is anti-Christian.  And on and on.  This man is clearly the most anti-Christian President we have ever had and yet he enjoys the support of the Christian right-wing more than any other President.

I can reach only several possible conclusions.  Those who call themselves Christian are liars and charlatans.  Or, those who call themselves Christian really rely less on the tenets of their beliefs than they do their own fear and prejudice and greed.  Or, Christians are just stupid sheep.  I can find no way to salute their stand.

Unless, their position is that we should forgive our neighbors.  But, if that was the basis of their support, why did they attack the previous President so much?  No, it cannot be that.

Those of us who struggle with our beliefs, who wonder if there really is a God and if Jesus really existed and was His son, are rocked to our core watching those who claim to be Christian.  I do not understand why so-called Christians are not rising up and offering both forgiveness of Trump and a demand for his impeachment.

Unlike those so-called Christians, I am at least attempting to forgive the evangelicals for the harm they are doing to our country.  I am not there yet.  But I am trying.

Unfriended

Dear Friend from High School,

I mourn the loss of your friendship.  I mourn that we have reached such a polarized time in our nation that we divorce ourselves from people who think differently.  I do not see myself as an evil man.  I see myself as a man seeking truth, facts, reality and when what I once believed conflicts with the truth I am willing to abandon my beliefs.  Santa Claus is not real.  Women should be able to make reproductive decisions for themselves and not follow the rules made by old white men.  The earth is round, it is billions of years old, we orbit the sun, evolution is a fact, all humans merit love and respect regardless of gender, race, sexual identity, ethnicity, country of origin, and religious belief.  We shall be judged on how we treat the neediest among us, not the richest.  We shall be judged by what we inflict on the only planet we have.  We should build bridges, not walls. 

I know those positions are a minority perspective in Texas, but they are not a minority perspective nationally or internationally.  And I believe tolerance is much more powerful than judgement, listening is more powerful than preaching.  So yes, my friend.  I am a liberal.  I may be the only liberal you know.  And though you took offense when I asked what religious beliefs could support a verified racist, adulterer, sexual predator, liar, and misogynist I was simply seeking to understand how a person of faith could support such a man.  Sad that you saw that as an insult.  Sad that you chose not to give me insight.  Sadder still that rather than seek to understand my perspective you have chosen to run from me. 

I mourn the loss of your friendship.

Non Sequiturs

Biologists and creationists.  

Archaeologists and creationists.  

Geologists and creationists.  

Astronomers and astrologers.  

Astrophysicists and flat-earthers.  

Physicists and ghost hunters.  

Marine biologists and whalers.  

Climatologists and lumberjacks.  

Generals and pacifists.  

Suicide bombers and diplomats.  

Psychiatrists and exorcists.  

The Pope and atheists.  

Fox News and truth.  

Trump supporters and civil liberties.  

Racists and Christians.

Generic Bigotry

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and our President has declared he is not a racist.  He also has used the term “shithole” for countries filled with poor non-Anglos.  Right.  He is a racist and a bigot and like many folks I know does not know and does not believe he is one.

It is simple, really.  If one claims to know and like members of an identifiable minority then one has accomplished nothing more than anyone else.  Everyone knows and likes people they know and like.  Duh.  If you know a gay person and think of him or her as a friend, good for you.  Same is true for a Black person, or a Hispanic person, or if you respect the talents and abilities of a female person, or if you are a Christian and know and like an atheist, or if you know and like an Arab or a Muslim, then good for you.  You have accomplished nothing of any significance at all other than admitting that you know and like the people you know and like.  You should not do those people the disservice of attempting to ride their friendship and their label into a claimed state of open-minded tolerance and support.  Your bigotry is not based on those you know and like.  If you say, “I have Black friends,” or gay friends or Arab friends you are not off the hook.  Your bigotry is based on a state of prejudicial opinion for an entire group of folks you do not know.  Generic bigotry is real and dangerous bigotry. 

Generic bigotry allows the bigot to make assumptions about identifiable groups and apply those assumptions to isolated individuals from that group.  If you see a group of protestors and in that group are African Americans and you use those individuals to confirm your negative thoughts about Black people, then you are a bigot.  If you picture welfare recipients as lazy Blacks when you see a Black woman using food stamps then you are a bigot.  If you see a Muslim woman with her face and head covered and use that image to confirm what you think of Muslims you are a bigot.  If you racially profile anyone you are a bigot. 

If you think of poor countries where most of the people are not Anglo as shithole countries you are a bigot and racist of the worst degree.  It will not occur to you that poor people are people too, that non-White people are people too, that non-heterosexual people are people too, that non-Christian people are people too, and that there is likely some other bigot somewhere who counts all those individuals as friends and exempt from their own generic bigotry. 

In fact, if you discover you are a generic bigot you cannot claim the title of a good person, much less a religious person.  Tolerance, love, understanding and support for the downtrodden, the sick, the hungry, the forlorn is the hallmark of goodness.  To disparage any group as a group is a source of evil, in my opinion, and should trigger significant soul-searching rather than defensive search for verification of the bigotry.  Bigotry of any sort is anti-human and diminishes the humanity of the bigot.  Bigotry is likely grounded in fear, perhaps anger, perhaps selfishness.  But bigotry is surely not grounded in fact, reality, empathy, love, tolerance or any other worthy human characteristic.

The flip side of generic bigotry, of course, is to assume that only a certain group of people are superior to other people.  All other people.  White supremacists simply announce they are bigots regarding everyone who does not meet their very narrow racial criteria.  They are equally evil.

Yes, I see Trump as a bigot, a racist and a White supremacist.  I see him as an evil person.  And in doing so admit I am a generic bigot against those who think as he thinks.  This post is one of my humble efforts to reach out and help members of the racist groups.  Rather than stereotype those groups and write them off I prefer to open their eyes. 

I believe using generic bigotry to help and support the identifiable group is an act of goodness, not evil.  Banning them, belittling them, and building walls against them are all evil acts grounded in bigotry, not economics. 

Prerequisites for Greatness

My asterisk key is taking a beating from quoting Trump without typing the full words he uses.  “Shi*hole,” “P*ssy,” etc.  So there are now nations that Trump perceives are latrine-like.  Before I yell “how dare he!” (I know.  It should read “how dare him” but that just does not sound correct.)  I take a deep breath and realize there are likely Americans who agree with him.  Yes, Americans.  Land of the free, home of the brave, the pillar of democracy and the home of civil rights and diversity Americans who would rather see America as a white man’s land with not a care in the world for the world.  And with that realization it occurs to me that until we are able to walk away from some of our beliefs we will never achieve greatness.  In fact, I believe we will not survive.  So what are those beliefs that not only keep us frozen in time but make it impossible to move forward to better times?  Here is my list:

Globalization as a concept has been a failure for virtually everyone except multinational corporations.  Corporations get it that healthy economies everywhere promote their own growth and prosperity.  Individual humans tend not to get that so much.  We still act as though we can see international boundaries if we look out the window of our airliners.  We cannot.  Such boundaries are man-made so they can be man-changed, or perhaps we should say people-changed.  Nationalization must stop.  If people are suffering in Bangladesh or Haiti or Puerto Rico or Burundi or Syria or Afghanistan we will feel the effects here just as we feel the effects here after hurricanes and typhoons, mudslides and fires, tsunamis and tornadoes somewhere on the planet.  We must help those who are hurt and injured and need food and shelter.  It is one planet and we are all stuck on it.  We must think globally because all that happens impacts the entire globe.  It is not a choice.  It is reality.  A nation that says, “My nation comes first.” will be the nation left out in the cold when the storms hit and the people of that nation realize none of us can survive for long without all of us.  It also means that there is no way to be born on this planet and be considered an alien.

Weaponization and militarization is prima facie the antithesis of world peace.  No wars are fought without weapons.  Now that we already have enough atomic, nuclear, and hydrogen bombs to blow up the planet many times over it seems foolish to allow more to develop.  We actually have people who are certifiable with their fingers on the buttons that can kill millions and destroy the planet. We have got to find another approach to the brinkmanship and the deterrent philosophy.  Weapons do not solve problems, they exacerbate them.  We always assumed that if the mature nations of the world controlled the nukes everything would likely be OK.  Those days are now gone.  Even nations that were formally mature have devolved to name calling and bullying.  It is not a safe planet anymore.

Religious beliefs are killing us.  Anyone who believes their god is THE god, and if their god whispers in their ear telling them what is good and what is bad, and who is good and who is bad, then those believers feel authorized to hurt other people, even kill other people in the name of their deity.  That is obscene.  Even worse, some of the theists promote practices that are harming the planet immensely.  Unless we can get population growth under control we will all starve or die of thirst.  Any religion that opposes contraception control must cease and desist immediately.  Any religion that opposes the rights of human beings based on skin color, nation of birth, gender, sexual identity, and sexual preference is harming human beings and must cease and desist immediately.  Any religious belief that is willing to mandate that 50% of the humans on the planet must be subservient to the other 50% must cease and desist immediately.  We are losing too many contributions from women for our own survival and they must have the right to govern, be free to learn and drive and dress as they please, and to govern their own bodies regardless of what some insecure male religious leaders teach.  We are not likely to ever simply eliminate religious beliefs because some folks will always feel the need for mystical and mythical explanations of things.  However, those beliefs have had a hand in more deaths and more discrimination and more persecution than almost anything else I can name.  There are millions of people who worship hundreds or thousands of deities and all of them believe they are right and they are the chosen ones.  Until we can realize it is not in our worship of the unseen that makes us great, it is the help and support of those in need that makes us great.

Fossil fuel dependence must also end.  We are destroying our planet and we are not only not prepared to evacuate we have nowhere else to go.  We can no longer allow those who have made fortunes from the discovery, refining and marketing of fossil fuels to continue to do so.  We must implement clean, renewable energy immediately.  We must protect the cleanliness of our water and our oceans and the very air we breathe.  We must stop driving cars and motorbikes and ships and planes that burn fossil fuels.  It is only if we do this across the globe can we save the planet.

So there it is:  nationalism, weaponization, religious beliefs and fossil fuel dependence are the prerequisite beliefs that must be abandoned in order for us to survive.  I have hope that we can move in these directions. 

At least I did have hope until a year ago when we inaugurated a President who believes we should go backward and support the very belief systems that will doom us.  America First will doom the planet.  It is impossible to become great again when we have never been great.  We have never been great because we supported fossil fuel dependence, bigotry, nationalism and conservative religious beliefs.  We must let go to move on to greatness.  The hoarding of wealth is not a sign of greatness.  Living as a member of humanity is.

America is Dummy-Downed

Trump could not have surprised me more when he tweeted that he was a stable genius.  If he claimed to be able to walk on water that would not have surprised me as much because that would not only be immediately verifiable but it would contribute to the data that makes him certifiable and delusional, and even his evangelical followers would scoff and be offended.  But to claim genius level mental ability in light of all the observational data of this man, is truly galling.  Those data include his vocabulary that hovers between 4^th and 6^th grade level, his lack of knowledge of science, his lack of knowledge of history, his lack of knowledge of the Constitution, his lack of knowledge of the Bill of Rights, his lack of knowledge of policy and economics, his inability to accept a reality that differs from his delusions, and on and on we go.  He is proud to announce he does not read books.  He is not only not a genius, he is a poorly informed, poorly educated man.  Genius does not need to announce itself.  Genius is obvious. 

How in the world have we reached a point in our history where this man has adamant supporters who believe we just need to give him a chance?  There is, sadly, only one explanation I can see.

We have become anti-intellectual.  We have become stupid.  We have reached a point where knowledge, science, expertise, understanding, scholarship and research have become irrelevant when juxtaposed with arcane belief systems.

For instance, we know that people with a college degree earn 31% more in their lifetime than people with an associate’s degree, and college degreed people earn 74% more in their lifetime than people with just a high school diploma.  Of course there are outliers.  But given the dramatic difference in earning potential one would think every public school would be pushing students to go to college.  But I have sat with school board members who articulate that “not everyone should go to college.”  Really?  Is there a group of students you would like to see underpaid in their lifetimes?  Why would you want that?  Because those board members did not go to college so they have formed a belief system that is contrary to fact.

Why do conservative parents worry that if their kids go to college they will be influenced by liberal college professors?  Simply put, college professors tend to know much more than the average population and therefore tend to be liberal.  When students have grown up only hearing the conservative side of an argument and then begin to see the facts, the data, the research, they tend to become more liberal.

Have you read Descartes, Hume, Spinoza, Locke, Bacon, and Hobbes?  Our founding fathers had.  Our nation was born on intellectual principles mapped out for centuries by the best minds on the planet.  The entire notion that people should rule rather than kings or queens or military dictators is not a notion that sprung full grown from the head of Zeus in 1776.  Our democracy was grounded in great philosophy.  Liberal philosophy.  The very notion that the rich, wealthy, powerful and/or ancestry should rule was anathema to our foundation.  The notion that all men are created equal, that all should be able to pursue life, liberty and happiness, that rights of freedom of the press, freedom of and from religion, freedom to protest, freedom from false imprisonment, etc., were so important that they needed to be included in the Constitution.  We have lost sight of those intellectuals and the great work they did to establish this nation.  They were not perfect, and in hindsight we see the flaws in their practice regarding women and slavery.  But they were liberal thinkers.  They were intellectuals.

When Trump talked about draining the swamp he was really talking about removing those people with knowledge, expertise and experience from the halls of government.  There could not be a more clear declaration of anti-intellectualism than that phrase.  Trump is creating a new swamp.  His swamp is anti-intellectual.  He has made appointments for positions where family and friends and supporters means so much more than expertise and wisdom.  We now have a bureaucracy considerably less well equipped to handle the challenges of today than we had before. 

As a kid in church on Sunday morning we sang from a hymnbook.  There were not only lyrics, there were notes, keys, meter, clefs, and dynamics.  I learned to read music in church, further advanced by learning to play instruments as I grew older.  Now even that is no longer true.  We have a church service where lyrics are projected on a screen and no one can or does read music.  We are dumber.  It is very difficult to value the fine arts when one does not possess the skills of even the simplest forms of those arts.  Sadly, those services with projected lyrics are self-proclaimed “contemporary” services.  Lord help us.

As a college student I was taught to question everything.  I was taught critical thinking.  I was taught problem solving.  I was taught to examine my belief systems in light of the truth, facts, science and knowledge.  Now, to suggest to those without such skills that perhaps they may want to examine their beliefs is not only a waste of time, it may be viewed as fighting words.

“For every complex problem there is a simple solution.  And it is wrong.”  H.L. Mencken.  An intellectual who understood that the solution to immigration issues is not a wall.  The solution for creating jobs is not to give the wealthy tax breaks.  The solution for promoting peace on planet earth is not to insult other leaders.  The solution to saving the climate of our planet is not to withdraw from international efforts to do so while making the pollution of the planet easier.  And on and on.

Whether you believe it or not, scientific truths remain.  Those truths do not need for you to believe in them because they are true.  The planet is about 4.5 billion years old, not 6,000.  Humans and dinosaurs were never on this planet together.  Evolution is real and a scientific fact.  The earth is not flat.  We orbit the sun, not vice versa.  Global warming is happening.  Humans have caused and contributed to global warming.  90% of all life forms in the history of our planet are now extinct and we are in the midst of the 6^th great extinction event.  There are more gifted kids in China than there are total number of kids in the US.  All true.

We should be concerned.  Very concerned.  We have in so many ways abandoned our heritage of seeking truth, seeking justice, exploring and learning.  We enjoy all the benefits of modern science and math and archeology and geology and history and physics and chemistry, etc., etc.  Would those who chose to belief false beliefs over science be willing to sacrifice all the benefits of science?  I do not think so.  But frankly I see it as unethical to ignore or deny science while using a computer, a cell phone, a microwave in an air conditioned home, and taking modern pharmacology to live longer. 

Intellectuals are not evil people.  They want the same things everyone wants.  They just study, learn, think, review, and question everything.  They would never place personal loyalty above commitment to noble causes, facts, science and truth.  If beliefs conflict with facts intellectuals will go with the facts, not deny them.

Please read a book.  Please befriend an intellectual.  Intellectuals are becoming an endangered species and we can ill afford to progress and prosper without them.

Backward School Accountability

Over the past 30 years or longer school reformers have implemented a host of strategies under the stated purpose of improving schools.  Those strategies have included rigorous high-stakes standardized tests, increased prerequisites for teacher certification, teacher competency tests, teacher retention based on students’ test scores, school choice, financial vouchers for parents, standardized curriculum, etc., etc.  Each of these strategies has focused on the students and the teachers, and if schools did not show improvement using these strategies professional educators could be removed or replaced. 

It is almost funny that when we learned these strategies do not work, state and federal governments have implemented even more of those very same strategies.  If the high-stakes test does not work to improve student learning as measured by the high-stakes test let’s make the stakes higher.  Brilliant!  If certifying teachers is more difficult and students do not perform better let’s make getting a teacher certificate even more demanding.  If public schools are not performing better let’s take some money away from them and fund a charter school!  And if that does not work, let’s let the rich parents who already pay school taxes in addition to private school tuition be exempt from school taxes via vouchers.  Brilliant!  All these strategies have served to stress the public school system, reduce money for the public school system but create profits for testing companies and charter school companies while students languish and teachers crack under the pressure.

So, we must assume that those who implement such strategies do not do so to improve public schools.  They do so because they are willing to support the results, that is, schools do not improve but private companies make a lot of money.  The more pressure on the public school the more money the private enterprises make.  That is the most immoral formula there is, make kids suffer so that entrepreneurs can make more money. 

What we need to do is to turn the accountability upside down.  If a legislature proposes high stakes tests and the evidence is outcomes have not improved then we need to abandon that effort and remove those legislators.  Same thing true for charter schools.  If a state implements charter schools and the public schools do not do better, then the charter schools must go and the legislators who created them.  On and on and on.

Suddenly the implementation of a so called reform to improve public schooling will be revealed for what it really is, not a strategy to improve public schools, but a strategy to improve the wealth of a few.  Any legislator guilty of such an implementation should probably be prosecuted for child abuse, but I would be content if they were summarily dismissed and a special election was held. 

Do not tell me you are here to help when 30 years of data prove you have done nothing but hurt the children in public schools and professional educators while enriching the likes of Betsy DeVos and empowering the likes of Dan Patrick.  If that is not a crime it sure as hell ought to be.

What’s Wrong with the NFL?

Headlines today tout the issue in professional football:  fewer people are watching the games.  So, why are fewer people watching the games?  I have some thoughts to share after the full disclosure that I love watching football and am a supporter of the Houston Texans and the Dallas Cowboys, and hope someday to support a winning team.  Set that aside, these are reasons that discourage me from watching NFL games:

Every televised game has a lead announcer who describes the play-by-play and an “analyst” who tells us what just happened.  Many of the analysts are former coaches or former players.  The best in the business in my humble opinion is Chris Collinsworth.  The worse, absolute worst, is Jon Gruden.  It is clear he remains a frustrated coach.  He does not so much provide analysis as he shares what he would do if he was the coach.  I don’t want to hear that.  Don’t tell me it is time to run up the middle or throw a screen pass.  Just analyze what I just saw and don’t predict what will happen.  If I have to watch a Gruden game I do so with the sound muted.

I am also put off by the entire sports analysts’ entourage.  If I have to listen to one more group of overpaid, poorly (but expensively) dressed former athletes and coaches sit around a semi-circular table telling us what they think has happened, will happen, etc., I am going to scream.  I don’t care what you think.  I resent the fact that you guys, and now gals, are making a small fortune just talking about football.  Every guy in every bar in America can do the same, and many have more insight and humor than any of you.  Just have commercials, show the half-time shows, or show highlight reels and get the talking heads out of here.

I am growing more and more sad watching professional football, or college ball and high school ball for that matter.  I know I am watching men in prime physical condition encouraging the onslaught of CTE.  Every player will have some brain damage, some more than others.  And I wonder how long bright young men will be willing to perform in this sport knowing they are killing their brains.  In many ways, it is time for the sport to radically change the rules or the equipment to protect athletes.  Otherwise, the brightest athletes will not play and the less than bright will continue to migrate toward the less than bright end of the scale.

I totally support players’ rights to protest peacefully.  Kneeling before a game does not offend me because I know America is bigger than its symbols and one of the ways it is bigger is that we allow protests.  What I have a hard time mastering is the thought that these adults want to be seen a serious citizens with an issue until they score a touchdown at which point they become terrible juvenile vaudevillian dancers.  I hate the celebrations.  It does not happen in baseball, golf, track, basketball, etc.  Only in football do grown men do stupid little dances after they do something they are paid to do.  Be like baseball players and if the fans continue to clap, turn around and tip your cap.  The message you send is “I am great and to hell with the concept of team.”  Please, grow up.  I will respect your humility but not your personalized celebration.

And football has saturated the market.  Games on Sunday, Monday, Thursday, sometimes Friday is way too much.  Just play on Sunday.  All those games expand the need for talking heads and they need to go as well.  Even if a game is not on the TV there are always people talking about the games that have been on TV or will be on TV.  That is too much.

I have Netflix and Amazon Prime and CBS all access.  Television in general has dramatically improved.  Almost any time of the day or night I can find quality television to watch, and if it is not being broadcast I can watch it via one of my subscriber services.  If a Thursday night game competes with my favorite TV show and one of my teams is not playing, I will watch the TV show and skip the game.  As the quality of TV improves the football fan base will shrink.  We will stop watching millionaires playing a game under the direction and ownership of other millionaires.  

In the end I suspect football players will go the way of the gladiators, and billion dollar stadiums the way of the coliseum.  If so, high school boys and their parents can stop dreaming of a free ride in college that will scramble brains and actually focus on academics, which, silly me, I think is the purpose of school.