Motivation

I don’t understand. But yeah, I do. There’s a rationale behind our president’s behavior. Twisted? Yes. Ugly? Yes. Unpatriotic? Yes. Un-Christian. Yes. Effective? We’ll see.

Take last week, for example. The stock market took a breather from its plummet, stabilized, and rose a little. There was much oohing and aahing.

What did our president do?

He announced plans to apply additional tariffs against China. Seems they started the Covid-19 Virus in a lab and sent it here to hurt his, the president’s, reputation, standing, and re-election chances. Let’s beat them up for it with tariffs. I know. I know. It’s lunacy, reminiscent of the scene from the movie Blazing Saddles where the new sheriff thwarted the angry crowd by threatening to “Shoot the …” Well, you remember. We also remember one of the more famous quotes from my generation’s war, “It became necessary to destroy the [village] to save it.” So the prez threatened to start another trade war right in the middle of a global epidemic in order to save us.

What did the market do?

Plummeted. There was much gasping and wonderment.

Here’s the deal. Somewhere along the line, the president and his followers discovered the power of hate. The idea probably grew from the success of the so-called “Southern Strategy.” It’s like this: Haters gotta hate. It doesn’t always matter whom or what they hate. It may be minorities. It may be immigrants. Hell, it may even be the idea of health care for everyone. It’s hate that is the sine qua non. That’s all you need to control the crowd.

Hate gets them moving toward a goal, gets them going. It may be to the state capitol with rifles strapped in front of them for maximum show. It may be to sit in front of the Fox channel to get a fresh infusion of rage. It may be to the streets in an effort to scare people.

Heaven help us if it is ever to the town square with their “penis-elongating” rifles, this time in their brown uniforms, hats, and faux military insignia to complete they fantasy.

Yep, it’s hate. Get people hating hard enough and all you have to do is provide the object of the hate and yell, in Southern parlance, “Sic ‘em.”

The hate is what makes their system work. The objects of the hate are interchangeable. Right now, they’ve decided that it’s China. Look for it to focus here in America as November approaches. Sadly, many of us see lots of target groups ahead of us and figure we’ll be okay as long as the trains run on … uh … as long as the barber shops stay open. Indifference is a major catalyst for hate.

I guess it’s time for each of us to start figuring out how far we are down on the list.

Funny in a movie.
Hell of a way to run a country.

Helping Capitalism

Woke up this morning with an angel from the Dark Side in my ear. “Look,” it said, “You once put yourself in mortal danger for the sake of big corporations like MacDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, United Technologies, Boeing, General Electric, Remington, and a slew of others.”

“To my eternal shame,” I said.

“General Dynamics,” it said. “Remember them?”

“Didn’t they make those planes that kept crashing?”

“Never mind,” it said. “The Boss is proud of you. You helped those corporations by going in harm’s way, right? Kept the economy going?"

“To my everlasting shame,” I said. Was that the second time I answered with that? I couldn’t remember.

“But now,” it said, “you won’t even go out and help your friends at the Mexican restaurant. Are you saying you did it for General Dynamics but you won’t do if for Jesús?”

He kinda had me there. I was still groggy and couldn’t quite think straight. “Go to hell,” I offered in way of debate.

“Can’t,” he said.

“And why not?” I was eager to change the subject and gain some time to think.

“Remodeling going on down there.”

“Say what?”

“His Excellency is expecting a big influx. We’re going to be, as someone close to you said, ‘busting at the seams’ in a short while.”

“Say what?” I had him completely distracted now.

“Haven’t you noticed people in high places who are refusing to wear masks?”

“Ahh.”

“But you need to go out and do your part.”

“I’ll do that the day Jesús starts producing fighter planes,” I said.

That left him scratching his horns.

On honoring honor …

Yesterday, a friend and I discussed the phenomenon that has accompanied death of Senator John McCain. It has been amazing, nearly causing a psychotic episode with at least one of his enemies. Overall, the outpouring of respect and admiration has been grandly comforting and reassuring. But why?

One can’t simply apply the usual explanations to this unusual situation.

We must, I think, avoid the temptation to under-symptomize our analysis, that is we shouldn’t seek one overlaying reason for the national outpouring of respect for John McCain’s life. It isn’t based on any uniform set of catalysts.

There are those who respected his military service but didn’t care for his political views.

There are those who scarcely know of his military service but resected his career as a senator.

There are those that believe he was following noxious orders when shot down but exhibited sublime heroism as a POW.

There are those who simply believe he was an orchid growing from a cesspool.

We could go on and on, and add greater complexity, but let me add a reason of my own to the mix.

First, I recall that someone once commented, I think it might have been Thomas Hobbes but I’m not sure and too lazy to research it, that “Our passions don’t change, just the objects of those passions.” Add to this my belief that our passions can either be good or evil “monsters of our Id.”

This reference to the film Forbidden Planet responds to my lifelong fascination with the science fiction films of my youth. In many, the Earth harbored subterranean monsters of cosmic threat and danger. Something (in the 1950s it was nuclear testing) unlocked these monsters, often mutations of insects or reptiles. The monsters rose to surface and threatened to destroy our way of life until some hero, often as not B-Actor John Agar, pronounced the ubiquitous phrase “It just might work.” He would then save us all from the monster-of-the-day.

In a social, but horrific, negative example, we witnessed, with the election of Barack Obama as president, such a seismic release of our national monster. We thought we were conquering the lingering rot of racial hatred. Alas, that monster only lay buried, awaiting a nuclear bomb-like explosion in the form of the election, to our highest office, of an African-American. In contrast to the movies, though, society was not united in defeating the monster and sending it back to the bowels of the earth.

No, evil people fed and nourished the monster. Worse, they set it upon their enemies and opponents, enlisting the services of a foreign enemy and the foreign owners of an influential television show. It worked. The monster grew and began consuming us. Would we survive? Where is our John Agar?

Perhaps we see hope. Can goodness lay buried in a subterranean tomb? Can some event loose it from its captivity? Can the better monster of our nature rise to fight the other?

Enter the phenomenon of John McCain’s death. Has it freed forgotten forms of decency and respect for honor that have lain buried for so many years? If so, how can we find ways to nourish it and make it grow? Can our salvation await us, birthed from the contemplation of this brave man’s life?

Perhaps it can if we realize that we are our own John Agars.

What's normal?

Okay, here goes. Seems we need to repeat this from to time.

Gender orientation and sexual preference are physiological conditions. They result from perhaps billions of impulses, triggers, and connections within our genetic makeup, any one of which may affect our final condition. One scientific premise, for example, is that all embryos start out as female. Over time, and countless genetic maneuvers, physical folding, merging, and transformations, some develop as male, although with useless breasts, hirsute shortcomings, and a dearth of nurturing synapses.

Over geologic time, the pairings of genetic types of mostly male and mostly female tend to enjoy of the evolutionary advantage of reproduction-capability. Thus the predominance of so-called, “heterosexual” genetic models. Since we don’t believe it aborting rarer genetic types, (Right?) we fully expect to share the planet with models whose sexual preference or identity lies outside the majority but who stand among us nonetheless. In short, we are all brothers and sisters within the genomic bell-curve.

It all evolves from scientific determinants.

On the other hand. Bigotry and prejudice are conditions that erupt like projectile vomit from the basest of human sources, the worst of those among us. We, as individuals, must accept or reject the venomous teaching and societally induced impulses generated by humans, even when they are fed by so-called religious sources. Actually, we should reject those in particular, as they demean and sour the acts of truly spiritual people seeking love, stability and harmony in an unpredictable world.

So there you have it. If you went to church this morning and paid attention to the minister when he or she preached love and grace, go forth in peace. Peace and understanding may yet save the planet.

On the other hand, if you listened to a drooling bigot when he urged hatred and bigotry against a fellow creature whose genetic makeup differs from yours, you need to find another source of religion.

In short, using an exalted position to repeat false witness, hatred, and bigotry to a cult audience deprived of critical-thinking skills is a sin.

Being born with a genetic makeup that differs from that of a hegemonic minority is not.

Quit trying to create a moral equivalency.

Amen. Closing hym: Just As I Am Without One Plea.

Contributions to this sermon may be mailed to my home address or to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, folks who really know how to treat kids.

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