Theology 2018

Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom before things can start to get better. I thought we had hit rock bottom on November 8, 2016. We had not. Things have gotten far worse.

I knew it would be bad, but I thought it would end swiftly. There would be no sudden shift to presidential; I was realistic enough to know that he would become no less vile, no less egomaniacal, no less willfully uninformed, no less pathological in his lies. His inarticulateness and his schoolyard bullying would continue to dominate the airwaves, fodder for jokes and consternation all at once, all the time.

I knew -- I thought -- even if "we the people" couldn't save ourselves from this mess, the good folks in Congress would step up. Especially the ones he had attacked in so many undignified, if not un-American, ways. I never really had much patience for politicians and their pandering, but who, really, could stoop this low?

God I'm naive.

Here we are, more than a year and a half into what I always knew would be a disaster, nowhere near rock bottom -- just flirting with the unthinkable as we circle the edges of what appears to be a bottomless abyss.

Evil henchmen are everywhere. Jeff Sessions, who thought nothing of lying repeatedly through selective amnesia at his confirmation hearings, has cited the Bible (a Bible not particularly relevant to some of us who are either not Bible thumpers or thump different bibles) to command us to obey (and forgive me for a bit of paraphrasing) the laws of an ignorant buffoon because God has ordained him for the purpose of order. At least I finally understand how Hitler happened. And, speaking of Hitler, snatching children away from parents seeking asylum in the City on the Hill is qualitatively different from what Hitler did -- keeping the Jews in the country so he could finish them off there. Oh. I see. Thank you AG Sessions.

Okay. I'm not going to waste time suggesting that Bibles of all stripes are more about love than blind obedience to madmen, or noting the irony of the passage just after the one cited by Sessions, the one about paying taxes and anything else you owe.  Hahahahaha. That's rich. Far be it from me to argue with the New Testament or the distinguished attorney general, especially when it has all been the given imprimatur of that great theologian and pillar of morality, Sarah Sanders.  "It is very biblical to enforce the law." Now I really understand Hitler. God's will is God's will. Amen to that.

At least we're playing nice with Kim Jong Un. Great guy. Loves his people. Actually knows how to keep them in country, and our president wants nothing more than to know his secret. This should end well.

What's a citizen to do? I can't remember last week's atrocity, can barely remember listening to the Parkland dad and Parkland students speaking at a ladies luncheon last week. My head is spinning.

Breaking news: The president is still an asshole; an asshole with a shitload of power. His henchmen are still evil, and they will continue to lick his ring and put their water bottles on the floor just because he does (oh dear, just a heart beat away). And too many Republicans are willing to sell their souls to the devil incarnate, which means "we the people" are pretty much on our own. We aren't even close to rock bottom, but I fear that once we find ourselves there it will be too late.