Charming Billy

This is outside of my expertise, but I think Billy Graham is going to Hell. To be with Ruth. Is that mean? Okay, it was in a whisper. Somewhere in there the man went over the line. What's his name--oh, I've repressed it--but the guy who won or at least stole the '00 presidential election, and went on to wreck the nation and kill tens of thousands of people, aren't you supposed to not do that? And didn't Billy help get him there, big time? And did he ever repent? Not publicly, that I know of.

I don't get the idea that you can die assured of salvation. I would be quaking in my Birks. Talk about presumption. And evidently Ruth expressed concern, before she passed, that America had lost its way or broke bad or whatever. I don't think that countries exist, as a unit of account, in the Christian scheme. Countries don't go to heaven or hell. Salvation is personal, period. Point is, to the extent that the US has any claim to be a Christian country, it's about individualism. And standards of behavior. It follows.

The Republicans are about anything but individualism. They're about identification. About conformity. Unanimity. Power is policy. Privilege is principle. Or maybe the other way around. Anyway, there is one way to do things, their way, the right way. So what happens in their heads when they screw up? Like throwing the whole world into an economic death spiral with their deregulatory madness? Millions of people went over the line from subsistence to starvation on that one. DENIAL.

And isn't that kind of unchristian? Aren't you supposed to own your shit, as in repent of your sins? Not in their air force. They think they're right irrespective of how they behave. They've got the franchise, own the patent, got the card stamped. So of course, if any Democrat, on a bad hair day, criticizes the USA in any way, they're all over it. Apologizing for America! When really the Democrats just believe that we're as right as we act. Makes you sad for the countries that have to deal with us. Ever been involved with someone who thinks they're existentially right?

So, they're a little touchy about dissent. As in they want to annihilate you if you disagree with them. And do they ever love privilege. Something for nothing. God's way, I guess, according to John Calvin or someone. But the Christian way is not tribal, where rightness is a group attribute, and the Republicans are tribalists, corporatists and elitists. It's a bad sign when people worry more about other people's morality than their own, and the Republicans excel at this.

The Christian way actually gives you something that looks like an ecosystem. Multiplicity. Diversity. That's the brilliance of a free system, relatively unencumbered by privilege. Everyone can find their place, make their contribution. And benefit and be held responsible, as an individual. It doesn't give you (the-name-that-must-not-be-spoken) as president. That's privilege. Didn't he put out a book, "Revision Points"? This guy will never own his stuff. Lost cause. God may forgive him. Not my call.

Freedom gives you diversity. And what's true of your stocks, if you have any, is true of everything, there's strength and stability in diversity. It's nature's way, God's way, but not the Republican way. The Republican way gives you a weed free lawn of white men, the most unstable thing ever. And, according to the laws of ecology, it takes an enormous energy subsidy to run. Hence their sucking up of the resources of the world, all into their death star.

And this is what Billy bought into. Sorry, I don't mean to pick on you, Billy, but it's supposed to bother us when we screw up, and you should come out and say "I backed the wrong rhino," or whatever. Best wishes to you, really. No hard feelings. You must be old as hell.