Without Excuse (Part Three.)

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: ~Romans 1:20

My workplace started shutting down yesterday afternoon. I got the call right about 24 hours ago from the time I started typing this. I went in early, at 9:00 P.M. last night, and as of 5:06 A.M. this morning I'm off from work for two weeks, with pay, because of Coronavirus. I'm stocked up on all the stuff I need, and in point of fact I shouldn't have to go anywhere until Friday...because that's payday.

A lot of the credit for this is due to the governor of my state, Gretchen Whitmer, and to the tribal council of the tribe I work for actually being ahead of the curve and prepared for once.

And all things considered, I've not seen so much as a single damn reason in this whole mess, for either bigotry against Chinese people, or for misogyny, but then I'm not a conservative anymore either. Given how little of anything else even from their own supposed value system that conservatives bother to preach, let alone observe, these days...I don't think it's unreasonable to believe that bigotry and hate and misogyny are all that modern conservatism has left itself to stand on.

But it's worse than that, it really is. Given the opportunity to publicly stand up for other stuff, like all the values they used to espouse, let alone their claimed preference for getting results...Conservatives have almost universally declined such in favor of bigotry and generalized meanness. The only two things they appear to care about are shouting "FUCK YOU!" at literally everybody else and following it up with "Give me money."

I spent most of my life as a conservative and I can't support that. Not only that, but this whole "Fuck you, pay me" ethos of modern Republicanism turns me off to such a degree that I'm ashamed I ever was a Republican, or a Christian, or a conservative...and they've made any number of other things that I am or once was into things that it grates on my nerves whenever somebody brings it up.

Why?

Because instead of calling out bigotry when they see it...like I was taught to do as a kid way back when I was in Christian schools and being raised up in a moderately conservative family...Very Serious People like Erick Erickson respond by shouting "YES!!!" like 1980's teenagers when they see a post about people making racist comments right to a person's face would not have gone over well.

I am here to tell you that if I would have said something that's being said by White House Officials today, way back 35 or 40 years ago when I was learning this stuff I'd have got at least one ass whuppin. If I'd have said it at school I sure would have, my Mom would have got a call, a note would have been sent home and I'd get my butt beat as soon as my Dad got home, at least. I'd probably have got my moth washed out with soap, too. Oh, and in 1980, in the Baptist school I was attending at the time...we had a Chinese student and a Korean student, they were my friends...and in the case of the Chinese kid, my neighbor. That kid and his dad would sometimes go fishing with me and my Dad, or we'd all go to the gun range...and his mom worked with my mom at the church school.

He lived around the corner, next to some other friends of ours...the back end of his family's mobile home faced the side of ours and his yard was a place I could go. The people on the corner had this big gray Giant Schnauzer named Schnapps that our little group would give Milkbones to try to get him to stop barking when he was outside and we were playing in the big grassy space between my parents mobile home and the back ends of all the ones on the next street. Eventually, we figured out something that did work. Throw the ball....then throw it again, and again...

During the yearly Christmas thing at the church one year, he read some Bible verses...naturally from Luke, chapter 2, in Chinese. I remember, because I was one of the kids who followed up by reading them in English.

These are simple things, but they're things I remember. Half-forgotten like much of that early Christian education, but like that education these are things that serve as an anchor to my soul. It's stuff like this...and specific lessons and sayings from the people who taught me this stuff...that tell me not to be a crowd-follower in this day and age, and that first put it in my head that things like racism and misogyny were wrong.

It's funny how rarely one ever hears Christians preach about right and wrong these days...and telling what they do talk about if they do it.

It's a simple thing, yes, but let me teach you something that the Baptists taught me.

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red, brown, yellow
Black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children
Of the world

Jesus died for all the children
All the children of the world
Red, brown, yellow
Black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus died for all the children
Of the world.

Jesus rose for all the children
All the children of the world
Red, brown, yellow
Black and white
They are precious in His sight
Jesus rose for all the children
Of the world

It's really as simple as that...and you don't actually have to have the same foundation in Christianity that I do, to not be a total dickbag about this stuff. There's a million different ways to not be an asshole.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it, just what all these shitty people who call themselves "Christians" really expect would happen if Jesus came back and saw their rampant mistreatment of others?

I suspect some people are going to be very surprised where they end up in the afterlife.

If we want to have a better world, yes, we have to be better people. In fact, I'd argue that this is exactly what God expects of us.