Inferno

Simon Adebesi: I have created a paradise.

Kareem Said: This isn't paradise, it's an inferno.

~From the HBO Series "Oz" Season 4, Episode "A word to the wise.".

I work third shift, as such I generally get up about the time most people go to bed. So last night, I got up and I took a shower and took the dog out. I decided for the hell of it to check Facebook and Twitter because I had a few extra minutes. On John Pavlovitz's Twitter feed, I saw a comment "Somebody told me we're supposed to 'Love the sinner, hate the sin' regarding Donald Trump." Due to slow bandwidth and having to go to work, I didn't have time to respond effectively. So I got to think about it all night.

Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin.

Right... [...Trying to sound like Bill Cosby in the "Complete Noah Act" sketch...]

Now 20 years ago, as I've mentioned before, I was a conservative Baptist. I was as much of a follower of current events, politics and religious matters, and active in my church and within the End Times Prophecy movement (as a member of it) up to and including posting on various "Christian" message boards...the social media of the day...regarding these subjects. It's safe to say I was around when the phrase "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin" came into common usage. Hell, I remember the first time I heard it...specifically regarding a member of my Baptist church who had come out as gay. And trust me...you never heard this as anything but a thinly veiled slam against gay people.

I was also an avid follower of a number of TV shows that were on in the 1990's, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager, Seinfeld, and on the rougher side of things the HBO TV series "Oz." I found myself drawn to the show as much by the interplay of politics and religion, conservatism and liberalism, as anything else. Despite...or perhaps even because of...my own (fairly moderate) conservative views at the time, I could understand the generally liberal viewpoint of the show's writers and of the characters they created, and that the show had some valid points regarding social justice and other such issues. In Season 4, Adebesi, one of the inmates, manages to manipulate the cell block supervisors into disgracing themselves and they're replaced by somebody considerably more shady...who in return for an end to the violence, allows Adebesi and his gang to turn the cell block into a drug-infested hellhole. That's where the quote at the beginning comes from, as of course, the principal resistance to this (as well as the eventual end of the arrangement, leading to the firing of the corrupt supervisor and reinstatement of the old one) comes by way of the Muslims, led by Kareem Said...who eventually kills Adebesi in self-defense.

I can't help but think of that in the context of how this whole Trump thing is turning out. Climate Change is kicking in hard core, corruption and espionage investigations, deregulation that makes literally no sense, floods, two recent hurricanes, with a third coming our way, massive wildfires, Nazis, racists running amok, and now another effort underway to repeal the Affordable Care Act and strip up to 32 MILLION Americans of their health insurance. We can't seem to go one single damned day without some ridiculous, stupid scandal...

Fuck, you'd think God was pissed off at us or something...

Love the sinner, hate the sin?

Yeah, I don't think so.

First of all, that's not...ever...a very nice thing to say about somebody. That's basically Evangelical-Speak for "I hate you but I'm a try and sound all righteous while I do it." So, somebody actually said this in defense of Trump?

My guess is, they don't like him either, whether they'll admit that or not.

These people, these Republicans? They don't believe in anything...not really. Well, hate and nihilism, maybe. Money, power, and tax cuts? Perhaps some overwhelming desire to try to "punish" the majority of the country for not toeing their line and for basically...even in the face of their political control...rejecting their viewpoint and their nominal leader.

Yes, you heard me.

Love the sinner, hate the sin.

Their nominal leader...and they hate him, but they'll try and use him for as much as they can...and they don't care that he's a piece of shit. Why? Because that's what they are, too. The problem with a con-man like Trump is that he's going to try and use them for as much as he can, and I suspect he's better at it then they are. After all, the motherfucker got elected.

Trump isn't a conservative, he isn't a Christian, he doesn't believe in the things that they believe in and he doesn't give a flying fuck about most of the stuff that they do. Well, except maybe tax cuts. He's out for glory and money and power for himself and he's already made it evident that he's going to betray the Republicans repeatedly and that he will lie and cheat and steal as much as we all let him get away with and betray anybody he feels like or has to in order to do it. Oh, he might say some conservative-sounding things now and again, or echo the "Popular wisdom" right-wing sentiments...because that's always worked before...not because he actually believes any of that crap. (Part of the trouble with "popular" wisdom is that it's popular because it's complete bullshit.) Well, maybe he believes in the racism...maybe it's just a "bit" to attract followers. I don't know and I'm not going to speculate or try to sound authoritative here. 

I will say that I think Donald Trump is a white supremacist, and I think he's quite probably a Russian Intelligence asset...because that's his track record and the racists and the Russians are two groups he refuses to criticize and against whom any actions taken are obviously half-hearted and only done in response to massive bipartisan public pressure.

He's also very crappy at providing actual leadership and he appears to seriously suck at politics.

For all of their power, the Republicans are proving to be about as confused and as literally impotent as an old rich guy that takes Propecia. These people have absolutely no idea what they're doing...and Trump is even beginning to alienate the hard-core racists who make up the most driven part of his base...because after the recent DACA deal with Pelosi and Schumer, they can see that Trump is obviously not racist enough.

...I love the smell of burning MAGA hats in the morning by the way.

Love the sinner, hate the sin.

You know, if that works out for these yahoos as well as it did for the anti-gay movement, the betrayal, the break-up, and the resulting political reckoning are going to be fucking epic. 

Speaking from experience, these Church people are great at destroying people's faith. If you're not careful, if you don't have a good grounding in morality and scripture and some experience of the world or some element of a spiritual nature....chances are good they'll make an Atheist out of you. It almost happened to me. I suspect in a few months, maybe a year or two at most, there's going to be a lot of that going around.

Always remember that Man cannot save Man, only God can do that. These people put their trust in Trump for their Salvation. I've more than a passing familiarity with what the Bible says about that kind of thing and I fully expect these people will reap every bit of the consequences in this life or the next.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mueller just keeps plugging away, I hear Paul Manafort is probably going to get indicted. Flynn has seven lawyers. They'll fall like dominoes and sing like Frank Sinatra from there on. There's no mafia law of "Omerta" when it comes to terrorism or treason and most of these plots, historically, are not executed by terribly competent people.

Work, for the night is coming.

Just so ya know, my personal feelings regarding "Love the sinner, hate the sin?"

The Muslims taught me better than that: 

Hadith 34: Whoever Sees An Evil

On the authority of Abu Saeed al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say, “Whoever of you sees an evil must then change it with his hand. If he is not able to do so, then [he must change it ] with his tongue. And if he is not able to do so, then [he must change it] with his heart. And that is the slightest [effort of] faith.” 

Think about that for a second. If you want a better nation you have to be better citizens. If you want a better world you have to be better people.

Nobody else can fix it for you.