They are Christian in name only, a cult of meanness. Many of Trump’s so-called evangelical supporters do not attend religious services, are not active in any religious community, do not hold church membership, do not engage in formal prayer, do not read Scripture, and do not participate in good works or service. These FAKE Christians that support Donald Trump are intolerant, bigoted, hateful, and militant.
Charles Foster Johnson is a pastor, a supporter of public education, and a great advocate for separation of church and state. He founded Pastors for Texas Children to marshall support for public school students and their teachers and schools. PTC has been a major force in blocking vouchers every year in the Texas Legislature. He has worked with pastors in other states to encourage them to speak out against vouchers and privatization. He has reminded his colleagues that the best way to protect religious liberty is to avoid any funding by the government for religious activities or schools. He has attended national meetings of NPE and was a keynote speaker at our meeting in Oakland, CA. It was a rare treat to watch 500 educators prepare to listen to a Baptist preacher, tense up, then break into smiles when they realized that he is on our side and wants to…
Charles Foster Johnson is a Baptist minister in Texas and founder of Pastors for Texas Children.
He wrote an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle about the threats that vouchers pose to religious liberty, and his specific concern that Brett Kavanaugh endangers religious liberty because of his hostility to the wall of separation, which protects the church from the intrusions of the state.
He writes, in part:
For nearly 150 years, our state Constitution has included a “no-aid” clause that protects the religious freedom of all Texans by ensuring that public funds are not used to support any private religious school or religious denomination. In fact, the Texas Constitution’s ironclad, explicit requirement for the Texas State Legislature to “make suitable provision for the operation and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools” was in direct reaction against Texas settlers’ taxes having to underwrite religious schools at the founding of…
William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Dear Mr. President:
Former CIA director John Brennan, whose security clearance you revoked on Wednesday, is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.
Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can…
Trump is allegedly guilty. The next step is to erase the word “allegedly” and judge him guilty through the Congress and the courts. Trump doesn’t want the next step to take place and has demonstrated that he is willing to destroy the United States if that is what it will take.
The term “collusion” may be useful shorthand for describing an illicit political alliance between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, but it has been far less productive as a framework for understanding possible illegal conduct committed as a result of that association. Alan Dershowitz has seized on the point there is no election law “crime” of collusion and thinks that settles matters: no crime, and therefore no grounds for impeachment. Now Rudy Giuliani has embraced this theory of the case, apparently motivated by the renewed attention to the Trump campaign meeting with a Kremlin delegation in 2016 and the reports that Michael Cohen is ready…
In the Bible, Luke 6:31 says, “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” In addition, Matthew 7:12 says, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Susan Caraway, aka Stargirl, literally lives by those two passages from the Bible, but the Bible is never mentioned in the book.
I finished reading “Stargirl” by Jerry Spinelli late at night on 8-10-18. A New York Times Bestseller, “Stargirl” was published by Random House Children’s Books. Since I’m fast approaching 73, why was I reading a teen novel?
The reason I read “Stargirl” is because I’m a super fan of singer-songwriter Grace VanderWaal who landed the lead role in the future Disney film for “Stargirl”. If you don’t know who Grace is, go to YouTube and put her name into a YouTube search. I suggest focusing on her iHeartRadio and MTV performances.
After reading the book, I think Grace is the perfect choice to play this role. The setting in Arizona is also the perfect location for this story. Stargirl’s boyfriend Leo Borlock plays an important part in developing the painful allegory that reveals a tragic truth about what’s happening in the United States today.
Back to why I think this book and the character Susan Caraway is an allegory. Simply put, Stargirl lives her life, even if she doesn’t know it, by the two Bible verses above, and she ends up being shunned by almost every student in the high school she is attending because of it. The majority of students shunning Stargirl are led by a hateful bully and troll called Hillari Kimble, and how they treat her reveals why and how the United States is being divided by hate.
The definition of allegory means “a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.”
To understand what I mean, you will have to read the book. There is also a sequel, “Love, Stargirl”, and I’m going to buy a copy and read that one too.
After reading this short novel, you might think that anyone calling themselves a Christian that does not live by the Luke and Mathew versus that started this post are fake Christians, and that is exactly what I think.
We need many more Stargirls in this country and the world to make it a better, safer place to live.
_______________________
Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam combat veteran with a BA in journalism and an MFA in writing, who taught in the public schools for thirty years (1975 – 2005).
People power in the United States is often hijacked by mobs both small and big, but we are often saved by the fact that the United States is a Constitutional Republic that allows adult citizens to register and vote for their state and federal representatives who, when elected, take an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution against enemies both domestic and foreign.
The oath says: “I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
How many of those elected representatives allegedly lied when they took the oath, just like Donald Trump did when he became president of the United States?
In the United States, adult citizens that vote have little or no power beyond their individual vote, unless they have a lot of money to buy elected officials. And even then, millionaires and billionaires that buy the loyalty of elected officials through campaign donations often run into the U.S. Constitutional when what they want done turns out to be unconstitutional.
In fact, at the state level, when voters pass new legislation/laws through Ballot initiatives, the litmus test is if that initiative is constitutional. If the majority of voters approve an initiative and it is challenged in court and the case reaches the US Supreme Court, the US Supreme Court has a long history of ruling against Ballot initiatives that are judged unconstitutional.
No matter what elected state and federal representatives promise their supporters, if the promise is unconstitutional, then they are lying and also breaking the oath they took to support the U.S. Constitution.
The three branches of the federal government are supposed to lead the country guided by what the U.S. Constitution says, not what the majority of voters or a few millionaires and billionaires want them to do. That explains why the Koch brothers, their allies, and ALEC want a Constitutional Convention so they can rewrite the Constitution to change the United States into what they and a few thousand very wealthy Americans want the country to be.
Just like Social Security and Medicare are not pure socialism, the United States is not a pure democracy ruled by the majority of its citizens. If the majority of voters ruled the country as a pure democracy, what they wanted could not be ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
There is a story that upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
_______________________
Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam combat veteran with a BA in journalism and an MFA in writing, who taught in the public schools for thirty years (1975 – 2005).
