John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT

 

“Charlatan or saviour: What will Trump’s controversial new pastor [Paula White] bring to the White House?”

 

Oh, please, there is only one thing a “pastor” like this woman brings to the White House of a “president” like Trump.

America has an entire subculture of empire-building televangelists and monster-church pastors who really are in the business of creating illusions to scam people out of their money in the Name of the Lord. It’s a rather unique American institution, at least on the scale it exists in America.

This woman’s background puts her in the same camp as much grander past operators, such as Pat Robertson, Robert Schuller, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jerry Falwell, Franklin Graham, and Oral Roberts. So, of course, she’s very comfortable with a shabby figure like Donald Trump, just as he is with her.

Her sole purpose is to provide plenty of opportunities for stagey photos like the one you have at the top of the article. She’s a hired, roving photo-op for Christ.

Such images go down like cotton candy with the Religious Right, a group Trump counts on fairly heavily for political support.

In the case of this appointment, the pubic relations folks managed to hit two targets at once, the Religious Right and women, at least some women.

Trump has always been an irreligious man. Almost grotesquely so. That’s just an established fact.

But photos of this slight woman with her well-practiced sympathetic expressions looking up into his looming hulk of a face give pathetic believers something to fantasize over, her bringing him “to the Lord.”

Most of America’s huge flock of offering plate-chasing evangelists or pastors, like this woman, wouldn’t be able to contribute much of anything to anyone, except claptrap.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT

 

“Antisemitic beliefs spreading among evangelical Christians in America

“Why do we have pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ values, and we do not have more freedom to protect our faith?”

 

Evangelicals, despite Old Testament story connections, were not traditionally overly friendly towards Jews and Jewish interests.

Jews were not “saved,” and for a true Evangelical, that is the make-or-break criterion in judging all relationships.

Over and above that, there is the plain fact that American Jews in general were never particularly fond of Evangelicals, some Jews even being rather contemptuous.

I am aware of these things because I grew up in a neighborhood that had a substantial Jewish population. It had also a significant Evangelical population, especially people of Swedish origin, plus a very large Catholic population, people of Irish and Eastern European origins.

Recent connections between Evangelicals and Jews concerning Israel I think are not built with lasting bonds. However, that does not mean that changes in attitude may be accurately characterized as “anti-Semitic,” as your headline does.

We’ve lost all capacity for subtlety and nuance in contemporary society, and just not caring for someone or some interests in fact does not automatically connote hate or anti-anything, it only means a preference for those resembling yourself and sharing common interests.

That ipso-facto way of looking at things such as personal likes and preferences and describing them as hate is now regularly pushed at us in popular media and politics, but that fact alone certainly doesn’t make the claims accurate.

Recent past connections between Evangelicals and Jews at least in part reflect certain American Evangelical leaders and their personal relationships with Israel’s leadership and America’s Israel lobby. An Israeli leader like Netanyahu has actually sought out some these guys in the past to cultivate, and that clearly represents a pragmatic political connection having little to do with fundamental views or values.

Those Evangelical leaders, more ambitious political leaders and empire builders than truly religious leaders, I’m pretty sure never reflected what’s really in the average Evangelical’s heart on the matter.

And those leaders are getting old and some of them have died off, so over time you might expect a change in attitudes. I’m referring to men like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

Also, such leadership is subject to abrupt change, as we saw in the case of Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggart. The preaching business is a fairly volatile one.

You can find, for example, Evangelical businessmen who do not like to do business with the “unsaved” of any description. And it’s the same for bonds of friendship. Parts of the American Jewish community, especially the orthodox, display the same kind of preferences.

In Israel, it is actually illegal to proselytize Jews for conversion, a law indicating a very deep separation in values between Evangelicals and Israelis. And it is well known that many parts of the American Jewish community, again especially conservatives, frown on marriage with non-Jews, a view that has often been expressed publicly.

Another factor at work here is that long enough exposure to the harsh realities of modern Israel might be enough to convince even some fervent believers that any relationship between it and the Israel of the Bible is pretty much wishful thinking. Certainly, we know there are American Jews who feel that very way.

I think the existing alliance with Israel’s interest has some parallels with the current alliance of some Evangelical leaders and Donald Trump. It is political in nature and largely synthetic. In some respects, almost unnatural.

Trump represents absolutely no fundamental Evangelical value. He is often foul-mouthed, dishonest, unfaithful, and he is, most certainly, “unsaved.” I am sure many ordinary Evangelicals are uncomfortable with a political relationship some of their politically ambitious leaders promote.

Any strength in the bond comes only from the sloshing overflow of American Patriotism into American Evangelism plus some attitudes like racism and xenophobia, both not impossible to find anywhere in America, including in American fundamentalism. But when so many other factors are wrong, I think the bond cannot not strong or enduring.

There is also the simple fact of a gradual decline in the number of traditional American fundamentalists. Evangelism is fading.

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

 

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY MATTHEW NORMAN IN THE INDEPENDENT

Now?

Where has Matthew Norman been the last thirty years or so?

The Republican Party has long been a breeding ground for hate and stupidity.

Spiro Agnew’s many ridiculous and shabby words at a time he was taking brown paper bags of money in his vice-presidential office?

Phil Gramm and all his dumb talk about what his mama used to say about “gettin’ down outta the wagon to he’p push the wagon”?

Nixon and wife Pat’s “Republican” cloth coat and their little dog?

Nixon’s filthy, vicious first Congressional campaign won by insulting an honest and capable woman?

Every word ever uttered by that dense chunk of sod, Bush?

Dick Cheney’s organized programs of murder, hate, and denial of rights?

Rumsfeld’s murder of 3,000 prisoners in Afghanistan?

Dan Quayle and everything he ever said?

The late Senator Roman Hruska and his claim that the Supreme Court should reflect all groups, including mediocrity?

Lamar Alexander and his ridiculous custom-made red lumber-jack shirts and his ideas about having a part-time government?

The absurd former Senator Bob Smith and his claim that Clinton was running a “damned concentration camp” when they rescued that poor Cuban boy Elian from his hateful kidnappers in Miami.

Tom Delay and his name-calling and spitting venom while all the time running a crooked fund-raising scheme?

Pat Robertson’s claims that natural disasters were God’s vengeance on America for immoral ways plus just about everything else ever uttered by Robertson?

Newt Gingrich and his “family values” crap while divorcing a wife dying of cancer?

JOHN CHUCKMAN

 

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

Obama’s right, of course.

The American Right has a large number of truly unpleasant people.

Just think of their conscienceless behavior around the poor Cuban boy Elian, intimidating him and insulting the boy’s father and country.

Or their ceaseless assault on Hillary Clinton in the White House.

Tom Delay on Clinton’s trip to Africa.

Phil Gramm on almost anything.

The late hateful Jesse Helms on military personnel
reacting to President Clinton.

The wonderful late Jerry Falwell on gays.

Pat Robertson on why natural disasters happen.

Oh, there is a huge list that could be made.

Spewing hatred is part of the essence of America’s ugly Right.

And then there is the irony that whenever someone prominent in conservative circles is shown to have questionable ethics – a not infrequent event – it’s perfectly okay.

It is simply a matter of public record that Cindy McCain stole drugs for her own use – she was a closet drug addict – from the charitable organization for which she worked.

She paid no price for this behavior which would land you or me in federal prison. And her “straight talk” husband assisted in getting her off easy.

Then we have Cindy’s very public behavior with regard to McCain’s first wife, the woman who waited for him all those years while he was prisoner. She was disfigured in an ugly car accident, and McCain left her to marry Cindy. Very admirable behavior.

But that’s all just fine.

What is unforgivable is ever to be honest and sensitive and say you were disappointed in your country, as Michelle has done.