And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. ~Revelation 6:9-11
I had to work last night, in the employee dining dish area at work.
This gave me a full view of several of the break room This gave me a full view of several of the break room TV's and it was a slow night. The news was full of the (per the time difference, Singapore being a full 12 hours ahead of US EST) then-ongoing Singapore "Summit." In which, as I understand it, Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un briefly met, signed an "unspecified" document, snubbed the White House press corps and not much else. In return for vague promises of Denuclearization, Trump canceled joint military exercises between the United States Armed Forces and the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, without notifying either the Pentagon or the South Koreans first.
Seriously?
I set a land-speed record to change the channel on the one TV from Fox News to CNN, only to find that CNN wasn't any better. Seriously, media, Trump and his supporters fucking hate you. Stop being so desperate to credit this asshole with something when you know that if the shoe was on the other foot, he never would.
I've spend the whole day angrily simmering and watching hordes of Trumpers, like the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz, dog-pile on anybody on Twitter who questions
In all of this there was not one damned word about human rights violations by the North Korean government.
I didn't make a point of going and looking, but I imagine a lot of these Trump people doing this would identify as Evangelical Christians. Granted it's been my personal observation that almost every last one of them believes in Trump more than they believe in Christ.
Oh, did I mention that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Orwellian phrasing if there ever was) is literally the worst nation in the world in terms of its persecution of Christians?
In the article that I chose to use those words as a link for, the writer describes a New York Times interview of four female North Korean defectors in which one of the women says "If the government found out I was reading the Bible, I'd be dead."
Think about that for a second.
Let me tell you a little secret: I, along with everybody else in my Baptist church Men's Group back in the 1990's donated to Voice of the Martyrs. We had one of those little maps they send you on the wall in the church basement. Yeah, pretty much the same as the one in the header photo.
North Korea always figured prominently in their literature. I remember reading about how some North Korean Christians built themselves a tunnel complex, and the North Korean Army literally bombed it. When they captured some of the survivors, these people were run over with a steamroller in the name of "Suppressing superstition."
I have not heard one God-Damned word about North Korean Christians from the Evangelicals, or the Trump Supporters, let alone from Trump himself...
Remember how last week, Fox News claimed a still photo of the Philadelphia Eagles players praying was the players taking a knee in protest?
I'm a tell it like it is, Christians, Trump and his supporters don't give a shit about you, and they damned sure don't give a shit about the Christianity of any person who isn't a white (presumably male) American conservative. The North Korean Christians we used to read the horror stories about? They might as well not exist as far as the Trumpanzees are concerned.
When people like Franklin Graham go on speaking tours like Frank's recent effort to "Win back California for Christ" (which I gather isn't going that well) they're not talking about preaching to the masses or spreading the Word. They're talking about preaching to the choir to solidify a political ideology and motivate their base. American Evangelicalism isn't about Jesus, at least not anymore. What it's about is the Republican Party and selling their souls for a few more right-wing judges.
Just as modern, libertarian-influenced Republicanism doesn't give a shit about Democracy or any of the original conservative values that were in place even ten years ago, modern Evangelicalism doesn't give two shits about Jesus Christ or even about its own claimed core values.
Christians in other parts of the world...or at least those who don't jack off the Trumpers' extreme authoritarianism hard-ons like some weird ideas I've seen these people have about the Russians...just don't count. They want Christians to be rulers and kings. The truth is, historically Christians...most especially Christians of Color...spend an awful lot of time under the jackboots of tyranny rather than being the tyrants. An awful lot of the time Christians persecute other Christians, too. As in the case of Russians and pro-Putin Ukraine rebels persecuting Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians and even other Russian Orthodox believers in the parts of the Ukraine that they've conquered.
Just remember, if you're a Christian, you could be next and the rising tide of Evangelical indifference will be exceeded only by their ecstatic worship of Donald Trump.
Here's the thing, Don. Nobody in North Korea who isn't a member of the Kim family in good standing has any money. I realize you'd rather bro down with dictators than have a lick of common sense, and I realize you're an idiot, but come on, dude. This shit is ridiculous even for you.
Fucking moron.
I think the North Koreans would rather have some sandwiches or maybe even a few of the cats out of my trailer park than some damn shit-hole Trump hotels. Have to wonder, if North Korea gets Trump hotels and they go under, will Scott Pruitt still want the mattresses?
Yes, I will make all the inappropriate bad jokes I want and you can't stop me. It's my blog.
Oh, and let's not forget how Trump said that Kim Jong Un "Loved his country" and the people had "Zeal" for him?
Most people, if given the choice between zeal and death, no matter how fake the zeal has to be they're gonna choose it.
At this point I'd rather have HIM back in Congress than all these Trump suck-ups that are running...and don't you forget it.
I'll hate myself for having said that later, I'm sure, but right now it's the fucking truth. A man specifically known for being a terrible person has more of a heart than the President does, and don't you forget that, either.
Think about that, take all the time you need.
Trump's mood toward Kim has been described as warm and aspirational. Think about that, too.
Think about the fact that we have fascists in America again, actual fucking Nazis...who long to terrorize whoever they can, for any or no reason.
Think about that in the context of the worst human-rights record on the planet.
Think about that in the context of the Evangelicals and their blind acceptance of it all.
Vote, like your life depends on it...because at this point it probably does especially if you or anybody you care about has to have health insurance or has any kind of medical condition.
If we don't stop this shit with ballots, it's going to come down to bullets, it's going to have to.
If we don't stop it, literally anything is permissible just so whoever is doing it has enough anti-liberal sentiments and interest in performative cruelty.
It's all up for grabs and that motherfucker sure as shit doesn't care what the rest of the world...or even the rest of this country...thinks.
In point of fact, Trump views more than half of America as his enemy. If you don't surrender totally...and yes...it will come down to Christianity being viewed as a threat because it gives people something to believe in or a platform for political and social organization that doesn't revolve around the State and Trump.
All you people that wanted to "Burn it all down?"
Well, Trump wants to burn it down more than you do, 'Tis better to reign in hell' and all that. Not that I'd expect he'd know where the quote comes from, and he's President.
Now, we can keep talking, or we can do something about this bullshit.
Frankly I think we owe it to ourselves, to future generations, to American school kids and Latino immigrant kids and to North Korean Christians Syrian Muslim refugees and to our society and the global civilization that sustains us all to start doing better than this, America. Stop putting up with this bullshit. Stop going along to get along and stop putting up with idiocy when we see it.
You know what every immigrant and naturalized citizen I've ever met has always done, up to and including people in my own family?
Vote.
Participate in your society and the world around you.
Stand up, when standing up needs to be done.
If you want a better nation, you have to be a better citizen.
If you want change, you may have to change too.
Do what has to be done, because if we don't there's a good chance we're dead.
...
I'd like to take a minute to dedicate this post to an old man I knew named Ernie Trim, a retired General Motors union worker, staunch Union Democrat, and Korean War veteran who rose to the rank of Sergeant while serving in the United States Army. He never spoke much about the war, but in 20+ years of knowing the man before he died, I almost never saw him without his Korean War Veteran hat on.
Dude survived, and we can too.
He didn't speak much about it, but you could tell he was proud do have been there and done that.
We can all be that guy, in 20 or 30 years when we finally dig ourselves out of this mess.
But you have to show up and you have to fight back. It's not easy and it's not glorious.
But it's still gotta be done, yo.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
This ain't it.
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