Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. ~Matthew 4: 8-10
What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?
Such verses were central pillars of understanding Christianity as I was taught it. I mean, if Jesus is, as we were taught "The way, the truth, and the life" what's even the point of following after some human being who tells you what they think you want to hear? Can that person save you from hell?
It was likewise explained to me that Man cannot save Man, so don't follow after your buddy Joe, the crowd, the church people, or your Pastor. I was taught if you were a Christian, you answer to two things, God and your own conscience. I was likewise taught that your word is important. Don't break your oaths, keep your promises, if you say you're going to do something, do it. etc.
Why? Because among other things, it's the right thing to do. Also, if you ever intend to Evangelize people, you have to have the credibility of being somebody they'll listen to. Respect is earned, every action, every day. That's life, them's the breaks, deal with it.
Fast forward about 40 years and it's the people who most harped on this stuff who've been shown to be the most corrupt. If you'd told me 21 years ago that in 2020 Republicans would have abrogated all moral responsibility and reverted to base moral relativism and some kind of squishy situational ethics, I'd have laughed at you.
If you'd told me that the Democrats, that era's practitioners of said moral relativism and situational ethics would be consistently holding the feet of a corrupt Republican President to the fire simply by replaying his own publicly said words on the Senate floor? At best I'd have reminded you that we'd just got done dealing with a Democratic President who spent weeks constantly trying to redefine "Is" to make it sound like if the chubby intern wasn't hiding in the podium giving him a blowjob like the hooker in Police Academy then nothing really happened.
At worst, I'd have punched you right in the mouth.
Functionally, I see it as stemming from misogyny, racism and willful ignorance. Or perhaps it could be reduced more simply to fear, hate and unreason.
As an example, I'll point to the ridiculous amount of venom poured out against Meghan Markle by everybody from the British tabloid press to...ordinary everyday American conservatives?
What the fuck?
Why in the hell do American conservatives even in the least give a shit who some British prince marries? Didn't we fight a war and become our own country so we wouldn't have to give a shit about British royalty?
And then, now that Harry and Meghan have stepped away from royal duties on the rather solid grounds of doing something about how abominably they've been treated, these same fucking people don't like that, either. Harry and Meghan more or less get the same bullshit treatment that the Obama family did, mostly from the same people. I'm just saying, when ya'll go around acting like a black or mixed-race person or whoever they're with can never do anything right, the odds are better than average that you're a fucking racist.
You can be the most rah-rah American exceptionalist person around, keep two wars going, while very nearly adding two more, expand health care, rebuild the economy from the last big crash and even preside over the mission that took out the Big Bad terrorist who'd haunted our fears and fever dreams for a decade...and it's not good enough and these fucking assholes will still find something to bitch about or even just make stuff up completely out of the blue.
I'm just sayin' if Barack Obama had been a Republican and/or a white dude, the same people lighting their own asses and political futures on fire trying to cover for Donald Trump's lard-ass in the impeachment trial would goddamned well be demanding that space be made for him on Mount Rushmore.
But since he's black and not a Republican...
You do the math.
And if you don't think this groveling, inept, stupid hyper-partisanship on the part of Republicans is joined at the hip with racism and made possible by it, you have another thing coming.
And they're debasing themselves and the Senate while they're at it.
Either we say no to this fear, hate, misogyny and racism or it's going to destroy us. Imagine Bosnia on steroids, with more guns...and nukes.
Donald Trump promised his supporters and everybody else the world too. It was a lie, nobody but him and some other rich assholes got shit.
Think about that.
What shall it profit a man, indeed?
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