August 14 2016
THE TRUMP CARD
Even before he became an international disaster I immensely disliked the man: his phony hair, his boasting, the flaunting of his riches, the pursuit of the perfect female body resulting in a succession of marriages. I hardly ever look at TV so I had never seen his show, but even for an oddball like me, I could not miss seeing him or reading about him, and my disgust simply grew.
Yet, some thirty five percent of the US electorate sees Trump as a potential savior. That either makes me look stupid or relegates a large portion of the American public to the category of nitwits.
What’s going on in America? That’s what fascinates me. What even more intrigues me is that a good segment of those who call themselves “Christians” endorse him, a man divorced three times. Christ is pretty straightforward on divorce, saying that even the remarriage of the innocent party constitutes adultery. (Luke 16: 18). This makes Trump a three time sinner. Actually the divorce rate among the American Christians is at least equal to that among the non-church people.
Then there is the money angle. Trump’s wealth or income is derived from casinos where “The lust for money” is the main motive of going there. That Paul once wrote to his dear friend Timothy (1 Timothy 6: 10) “for the love of money is the root of all evil” is conveniently forgotten.
It seems that Trump’s trump card is ignorance on the part of his devotees.
Then there is abortion. Harold Bloom in his THE AMERICAN RELIGION wrote that the American Christian core belief centers on THE FLAG AND THE FETUS. The FLAG is obvious: America rules the world, at the expense of domestic matters. On the fetus Bloom comments: “The fetus must not be aborted, but whether the infant starves or not seems a very secondary matter.” Family support costs a lot and these same anti-abortion Republicans have continuously voted against tax money going to needy parents and children, because that means tax increases and taxes are seen as a sign of the devil.
All this is totally inconsistent and also a most Un-Christian thing to do for a nation that calls itself Christian. No wonder most Western nations just shake their heads. Yet this behavior is doing immense harm to the concept of true Christianity.
I can only conclude that ignorance of what Christianity really means is Trump’s trump card.
Oh yes, the FLAG.
Part of the Trump attraction is his catering to THE AMERICAN FLAG, symbolized by the so-revered Armed Forces. Again THE AMERICA RELIGION has no inkling of what Christ really teaches concerning war. Christ taught us to LOVE THE ENEMY, to TURN THE OTHER CHEEK, warning that those who use the sword or gun will perish by the sword or gun.
Again Trump’s trump card is religious ignorance.
Nevertheless ignorance has a deep anti-religious root. The Bible repeatedly tells us that THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM. Fear of the Lord means being awed by the greatness, the beauty, the intricacy, the harmony of God’s creation. When we lack that characteristic then THE FEAR OF THE LORD becomes impossible. That means that a religious expression that does not deeply cherish God’s creation is a false religion.
The Trump voters have no real clue about themselves, what they believe and what TIME it is in the world. They have never heard of the difference between KAIROS and CHRONOS. Chronos indicates the year we live in: 2016. Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. The minute you confess that Christ is the Creator and Lord of Life indicates a KAIROS moment. That we see all of life from the perspective of the Kingdom, the future New EDEN that Christ has promised, that is a KAIROS inspiration, something totally lacking in the American Religion.
The TRUMP followers do not look forward to the New Creation, no, they look back to the 1970s and 1980s.
Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la,
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days.
“Those were the days, my friend: we wished they’d never end”. Well, they have ended, never to return.
What were those days? Those were the days when America was populated by the white race, males of course, preferably of West European lineage, and, of course, unabashedly heterosexuals. In the glorious Seventies and early Eighties there was a Reagan in charge of the nation, not a black President now occupying the White House, whom they see as not really a true American.
Those were the days, my friend, when the churches were full and young people came in droves to listen to Billy Graham. Then the people had moral fiber, knew what was really important. Now much of the church has become irrelevant.
Look what happened in France:
There an 84 year old priest was killed, Father Hamel. It happened in an almost empty church, two parishioners, three nuns, an old priest, a perfect illustration of the condition of the faith in Western Europe. Indeed a dying church.
And look at Europe in general. There the broader liberal order is also showing signs of strain. The European Union, a great dream when Father Hamel was ordained a priest in 1958, is now a creaking and unpopular bureaucracy, threatened by nationalism from within and struggling to assimilate immigrants from cultures that never made the liberal leap.
No, they hark back to the Seventies. Those were the days, my friend, when well-paying jobs were plentiful, when Detroit was the place to go to with its set-for-life-union jobs at The Big Three.
Even the US military hegemony is gone. As Paul Kennedy in his THE RISE AND FALL OF GREAT POWERS has shown, all of these military nations sooner or later must face economic reality. Budget deficits are increasing and if the USA would try to come even close to a balanced budget drastic cuts for the Pentagon are needed. Both presidential candidates promise more benefits and extra billions for the military TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, without ever mentioning the true reality, because the US economic domination too is gone, and soon the deficit will run into trillions.
Again Trump’s trump card is ignorance, ignorance how the real economy works and what the future will be.
All signs, in the economy, in the state of nature, in the minds of the young people, point to the sad fact that the good days are gone. Political promises are as empty as the water bins in California.
And Hillary is no better than Trump.
The naked truth is that we live in a new world, a world that has an EXPIRY DATE. We see it everywhere, not only on all food products. Our WAY OF LIFE also has an expiry date. By WAY OF LIFE I mean our energy-rich, wasteful, the sky-is-the-limit mode of modernity.
CLIMATE CHANGE
While I am writing this, August 12, the outside temperature is 37 degrees Celsius, some 100 degrees Fahrenheit, until now an unheard-of high reading, but this year just one of the many record heat days.
Heat and drought are closely allied. In California, in Siberia, actually in all the world’s forested areas trees are dying due to lack of rain, giving Climate Change a double boost as dead trees add Carbon to the air while these same trees no longer absorb the man-made CO2 that causes Global Warming.
But the real hot spot – where the temperatures have really skyrocketed – is the Arctic. If the current trend there continues a temperature rise of more than 10 degrees Celsius could be recorded by the year 2026. That would spell the end of the world.
Yes, you read it correctly. According to responsible people the world’s expiry date could be as early as 2026.
Trump’s trump card is a Joker. Ignorance may be bliss, but, in reality, it spells doom.
Hillary’s financial plan too is equally hilarious, because both people aspiring to become president, base their claims on INFINITE GROWTH, simply impossible in a Finite World.
The financial problems that the world is now encountering will eventually resolve badly. This seems to be how the Peak Oil – Peak Water – Peak Debt – story will finally play out. Without rising energy per capita, the world economy tends to shrink. Without economic growth, it becomes very difficult to repay debt with interest. Wealth disparity becomes more and more of a problem and it becomes increasingly difficult for governments to collect enough revenue to support their needs. Our problems begin to look more and more like those of earlier economies that hit resource limits: they all collapsed.
THE REAL CULPRIT
Last week the New York Times reported that neither candidate ever mentioned how they will deal with the poor, a growing segment in US society. It reminds me of some texts in the Bible book of Jeremiah where is says that:
He defended the cause of the poor and the needy; and so it went well.
Is this not what it means to know me? declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 22: 16, NIV.)
Just imagine! Care for the vulnerable, the poor and needy, gives people “knowledge of God.” If there is one country that deals harshly with the vulnerable, this is the USA. “Help yourself, so helps you God” is seen as a biblical given of the utmost priority, yet this so-called Bible text nowhere appears in the Scriptures. It effectively negates what Jeremiah tries to tell us. And that is that dismissal of God and disregard of neighbor leads to disaster. This happened to Israel time and again, and it will happen to the USA where increasingly the poor section is neglected and suffers as especially the Republican Party advocates abolishing food stamps and cutting back on Medical support. No wonder the poor revolt. No wonder they listen to a false Prophet who will make matters worse.
THE BIBLE AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Not only the lack of care for the most vulnerable in society leads to severe judgment: lack of faithfulness, lack of love, lack of acknowledging that God is the creator, leads to Climate Change. I read this in Hosea in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, the book that follows Daniel.
There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land mourns and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds in the air and the fish of the sea are dying. Hosea 4: 2-3.
Those are words we do not hear on the campaign trail by either candidate. What they say are mostly lies, are empty promises. It looks that Hillary will win, and when she does, the murder and stealing will only accelerate and a police state is guaranteed.
The same is true also in Europe where disparity too, the difference between rich and poor is increasing. The welfare state will collapse because it is based on perpetual growth. Once it stops, and this might already be the case now, the entire welfare pyramid will prove to be built on illusions and false assumptions. It now is being financed by adding debt upon debt, but the trouble with debt is that it must be repaid. And if it is not repaid, then debt will go bad and banks and governments will default and crash the entire system.
We live in very perilous times. Beware.