God doesn’t find this funny¶
By accident I stumbled into another example of dividing propaganda that indoctrinates its followers to believe in Donald Trump as a Messiah. It assumes that Christians own the Bible as a cookbook with clear instructions to be followed even when evidence shows us they are wrong.
Two quotes and how I imagine the intended reaction
Preacher: We tend to focus on the physical reality at play, forgetting that the devil genuinely is in the details, and those details undergird a greater spiritual reality that is always and ever at play.
Intended reaction: How true! I must not get disturbed by details of the physical world! The spiritual world is what counts! Donald is right! I must not ask, I must just believe!
Preacher: Despite appearances, there is much greater unity in our world than meets the eye. (…) [T]he nations seek to throw off the fetters that bind them.
Intended reaction: How true! Our enemies accuse Donald of bringing division, but actually He brings unity! Those who are against him are angry because they want a world without God!
Shame on those who participated in the work of telling a false Gospel to simple people who just want what we all want:
Note to my friends who would have preferred Trump over Biden: there is no reason to feel ashamed. Trump did have something fascinating. Biden won’t be perfect. Reality is much more complex than a choice between two presidents. Our individual preferences regarding such binary situations depend on our personal history. Your choice is as valuable as mine.
To be fair, here is one of the most beautiful pleas for Trump I have read in the last two months. The following is of course not my opinion, a valuable friend of mine wrote who deserves being quoted. May it help us understand why Trump would have almost been re-elected:
I admire Donald Trump first and foremost for his courage, honesty and masculinity. As people, we cannot help but be drawn towards displays of power. Donald Trump, whatever people think of him, carries himself honestly and fearlessly. He is the type of man one wants when something needs to get done. He is the resurgence of the alpha white male and someone that millions of betas would follow. Most liberals, with whom one speaks, loathe him, but when pressed, cannot explain why in concrete, adult language. They are so far removed from the realm of honest communication, that they have forgotten how to be honest even with themselves. Donald Trump is the president of one of the most economically, technologically, scientifically, and militarily powerful nations on earth. Such a nation, possessing advanced industry and enormous military strength, requires a strong, courageous, and resolute leader to govern it. Without strong leadership, such a great country will collapse into anarchism and lose its economic and military potential very quickly. Donald Trump’s policies have boosted the American economy significantly, created a historically high number of jobs, and made the United States a much more formidable opponent in the eyes of ISIS. The United States of America holds a leading position in scientific, medical and technological advancement, and for those things to keep advancing, stability in the country is requisite. Strong and resolute leadership is a guarantee of that stability. Weak leadership, however, will only bring the country into ruin and we, the people who rely on science, medicine and technology, will definitely feel the harmful effects of such political deterioration. Those who oppose Donald Trump, are in seeming opposition to the biblical principle which states that a tree is known by its fruits. Seeing how drastically the United States economy and welfare of the common man began moving in a positive direction in the years following Donald Trump’s election as President, it becomes more difficult, if not downright impossible, to ignore the immense contribution Donald Trump has made to his country. But the economic growth is but a potion of his achievements. Donald Trump, while not a Catholic himself, is definitely someone who values America’s Christian heritage. He understands that it is ultimately Christianity, and not financial welfare, that has made America a great nation in the past. His is the president who appeared in public with a Bible in his hand, and the one who, unlike his opponents, believes wholeheartedly in the sanctity of life. While anarchists and other criminals were busy defacing, damaging, and even destroying churches and statues of great Catholic men, it was Donald Trump who stood up for the historical monuments. The fact that you view Donald Trump as a militant fighter is only to his credit. Peace cannot be achieved through weakness and sweet talk. One must have strength in order to keep things in order and create an environment where peace can thrive. Where no dominant force exists, other smaller fractions begin to compete for the ruling position and that is a perfect scenario for chaos, for if the combating sides possess relatively equal strength, the battle is bound to last longer and leave greater ruins behind. It is axiomatic that a sword keeps another in its sheath, for the only reason your enemy does not use his military force against you is because he fears the manifestation of yours. Should you relinquish your weapons and lose your courage, your idea of peaceful coexistence will soon fall into oblivion, for the goddess of peace can only walk with the god of war by her side.
Donald Trump most certainly does not divide the nation into two camps; he merely made obvious what had remained in the shadow. It is a fact, and one does not have to be a rocket scientist to understand this, that American society has always been divided racially, politically, and ideologically. With the arrival of Donald Trump on the scene, the conservative rhetoric simply received a stronger voice which made it possible to make a clear distinction between the already existing rival groups. Needless to say, Donald Trump addressed numerous sensitive issues, such as immigration and religion, which serve as a great force of division in American society. In order to weaken the divisive power of the aforementioned issues, one must possess the courage and confidence to confront those issues by bringing them to the public discussion. Without public discussion, however, these sensitive issues will remain in the dark corners of the society where they, instead of being solved, will continue to grow like cancer cells and, eventually, when the right moment comes, will be released from their artificial suppression and wreak havoc upon the entire nation. The real enemies of the United States of America, and of civilization in general, are not the ones who dare to debate sensitive topics, but rather those who remain silent on them, for one does not cure cancer by letting it be.
To love other nations, one must recognize them as “others”, and in order to love others, one must be willing to recognize oneself as distinct from others. This distinction plays a vital role in forming one’s identity, for there is no “me” without an identity to attribute to oneself. Simply put, “others” means they are not you. Our relationships with others are based upon this distinction. In order to treat someone with respect, one must not only treat them as “someone”, but also to consider oneself to be “someone”. It you possess no identity, then you are, by definition, a nobody, and a nobody can never show due respect to another because communication between persons is only possible when both parties possess the characteristics of a person. A nobody does not possess such characteristics, therefore lacking potential to offer others meaningful and enjoyable conversations. A nobody can only distract and fatigue his vis-a-vis with meaningless babble. And so in order to love another, one must recognize and value their identity and that can be achieved only by recognizing and knowing how to value one’s own identity. Failure to recognize other nations as “other” and to treat them as “yourself” would constitute nothing short of an infringement upon their identity and an attempt to rob them of their uniqueness. It would be equivalent to saying: “You are not you. You are me.” To keep these distinctions clear, we need to draw lines between different groups of people, for, as the saying goes, good fences make good neighbors, and as the Bible states in Deuteronomy 27:17: “Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s landmark.” and in Proverbs 22:28: “Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set.”
Nationalism in never a default state of being, but a reaction. It arises when the nation has begun to lose its vigor and, subsequently, identity. When a people’s history is being forgotten, its language has lost its uniqueness, its culture is suppressed by soulless entertainment, and its customs are lost in the darkness of nihilistic existence, the people lose the very components which constitute its identity. Nationalism is an attitude of defense, made necessary by the weakness of the state, and it is most intense where a nation is only a name. Nationalism is therefore the awakening of the instinct for self-preservation. It is an attempt by the people to reconnect with their past, to reclaim a sense of meaningful life in the jungle of internationalism, to restore their vision of a brighter tomorrow, and to rediscover their place in history. One must never talk of nationalism in isolation, for such discussions will always prove to be meaningless. Instead, one must observe nationalism and its development in their proper context, with references to the events and transformations around which nationalism ultimately revolves. I leave you with this quote concerning nationalism to consider.
“Let us not speak ill of nationalism. Without the virulence of nationalism, Europe and the world would already be ruled by a technical, rational, uniform empire. Let us give credit to nationalism for two centuries, at least, of spiritual spontaneity, of free expression of the national soul, of rich historical diversity. Nationalism was the last spasm of the individual before the gray death awaiting it.” - Nicolás Gómez Davila
Friday, November 6, 2020