So, let me get this straight, Madison Cawthorn smuggles multiple weapons into the US capitol then distributes them to his right wing congressional pals? Isn't that an illegal transfer of firearms? If he was taped saying this on Charlie Kirk's show on January 6th, 2021, why isn't he, and anyone else who did the same thing, in jail? Do these people really get a pass just because they hold a seat in the House, (or Senate, if applicable)?
Actually, they get a pass because of the stupendous timidity of Kevin McCarthy. We should all hope, for our country's sake, that McCarthy fails to become Speaker of the House. He's the big guy in his party. And he won't do anything to discipline gun toters or racists. What else does one need to know about his character?
Democrats need to keep the majority in the House. McCarthy is from a very conservative area of California so I think he’s likely to be re-elected. But I’ve also heard that if we turn out the voters we can retain our House majority.
Unfortunately, if the Republicans take control of the House, it won't be Kevin McCarthy as speaker. It will be the abominable Jim Jordan. That is why we absolutely MUST focus on holding the House!
The thought of Jim Jordan wresting control of the speaker's gavel is terrifying. Is there any other GOP leader more often on the wrong side of issues and more vocal about it? If FOX starts cheering him on, it will be all he needs. Ugh.
White conservative evangelicals will support GOP candidates in the midterms, read "Jesus & John Wayne", a disturbing book. It is imperative that Republicans do not win the Senate, or the House. Their conservative evangelical base does not trust science, nor reason to cope with the problems we encounter. They offer no HOPE for the future of America but only seek the power to transform our culture. As a theologian, I am inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer to confront their "cheap grace theology". This is why I support the poorpeolescampaign.org & their theology which glorifies God, read "We Cry Justice".
I have the book but haven't read it yet! My Republican friend started reading it and responded to me that it was clear that it was written by a Democrat! And I thought yes you would think that because of being addicted to Fox Entertainment Channel for years!
It was written by a professor from Calvin University. Tell your friend to read "The Power Worshippers" or "American Fascists" which also discuss the disturbing history of conservative evangelicals, & the GOP.
In which case, I hope it is just timid. Regardless, not fit for the Speaker's gavel. Though someone else mentioned the possibility that he could lose out to Jim Jordan. That horror show is, if possible, even worse.
Cathy, I couldn’t reasonably hide more than a few pistols in my chair. Not that I have tried, mind you.... He is an embarrassment to veterans. Good night, all. Beauty sleep, and all that.
That low??? 80 is barely functional, and not deriding people with low IQs. But our congressional representatives need a higher bar. But NO IQ tests - come on
100 in the Stanford-Binet is exactly "normal" intelligence. It means the person taking the test has age-appropriate intelligence. That's why "genius" IQ is so relatively low (125-165): The assumption is that a 10 year old is responding in ways that a 12-16 year-old might. So, yes, I'd be happy if the bar was set at 100. IQ represents potentiality, not performance. Looking at the crop of slubberdegullions in the extreme right of the GOP ranks has me thinking they're not performant due to laziness; it's because they don't have the necessary reasoning/problem-solving abilities baked in their brains.
He is a spoiled, arrogant little snot. Nothing short of jail time would make an impression on him. Sadly, he would use his disability to wangle special treatment while incarcerated.
It’s just another case of the “haves and the have nots”…it seems those in government or with $$$$$$ can get away with most everything. “I can shoot someone on 5th Avenue… I can grab their pussy”….And why is Matt Gaetz still walking free and then there is Prince Andrew lurking in the shadow of Epstein. 🤯
At least it would merit a thorough investigation as the "gentleman" in question has rarely been associated with telling the truth. This could be the one exception or indeed an attempt to further curry favour with you know who.
Listened to the Met's concert for Ukraine yesterday which started with the their national anthem. It ended with Ode to Joy from Beethoven's 9th. Inspiring people and music.
I am urging everyone in this group, as we struggle with more than we can grasp or fix, to use your assets and gifts. Use what you have, and work at what you are good at, in other words. If we try to do it all, we will be overcome by overload and a helpless sense of guilt.
Some have wealth; there is much need. Climate, candidates, humanitarian Ukraine issues.
Some are very good with politics. Others, like me, aren’t; we are needed elsewhere.
Some of us are experts in information and teaching, as is our professor.
Some are gifted scientists, already at work on global climate and ecology.
Some are counselors and healers. Keep us healthy and wise, and ethical.
Some are spiritually gifted. There is great power to be used. Love, and Light!
Some are experts at Law, or communication, or government, or motivation.
We need Mothers and Workers and Helpers, to make it all happen.
I could go on, but don’t waste energy on worry or frustration!
Lift where you stand. Use what you have. Employ your gifts. Keep your heads!
This group has an abundance of unique individuals, whom I admire and learn from! Every single one of you contributes wisdom, knowledge, inspiration, and so much more to each other, by your expertise, experience, even your thoughtful questions. There is a Reason we have found each other, some to learn, some to teach, others to motivate. I find that I need you all, and I’m so glad to be here, and able to offer what I have to the ‘pot.’ Thank you all!
Lynell, Yes, I was very lucky! One of my very best friend's dad was on his Secret Service detail, but he won't tell me nuthin! Jimmy Carter is the only president I ever met, and up until Presidents Obama and Biden, the only president I ever truly believed -- and believed IN. Absolutely no guile in any of these men.
I love this, Gus. I am an old woman, and I am finally learning from HCR and you all. I wish I was younger, but I really think I may have lived mentally blind during the "glory days". It is going to take more strength in the future than I have currently! I am still fighting but I get tired!
Sharon, I so sympathize with you! I'm almost 72, and don't regret anything about it -- except in these times I do wish to be 20 years younger because I believe I could do so much more to help. Of course, 20 years ago I was "mentally blind" myself!
Please remember: your health comes first! Do whatever you can to de-stress; we ancients are especially vulnerable to stress....and the world needs us right now! Thank you!
I am starting to feel the stress. Now with running for Treasurer of my county and never experiencing campaigning in all my 78 years I am totally stressed. I don't want to lose in a Republican county!
Yes, music. I read a report that a group of Ukranians hunkered down in a shelter kept singing, both to keep spirits up and because it helped keep them warm.
A young Ukrainian girl sang in a basement bomb shelter. And Yo-Yo Ma (a great mensch all his life) played the cello last week outside the Russian Embassy, in honor of Ukrainians, and many orchestras play and/or sing the Ukrainian national anthem before concerts.
I also saw, and wept, as a woman took the dust cover off her white piano and played some Chopin before she left it and the rubble of what was once her home. You can see her too, here:
Dear Gus, I restate what I have said before: if you and I were in school together, you would be the kid I'd try to sit next to. Thank you for your light and loving posts. They almost always lift me up in some way. You are a gift to us.
Becky, I didn't hear it the first time, but thank you so much! I can't read more than maybe 200 posts and letter, someday not that many. But thank you! You could find me at the very front in the classes I liked, and the very back in the ones I didn't. Or in the principal's office....
Becky, I'm afraid you would lose that bet! Over the years we did have a pretty good relationship. My offenses probably wouldn't warrant detention today, and the Army did a good job of working out my rebellious kinks.
YES, Daria! We have to have the Artists! I left out so many gifts and talents, but we all know what we have, and this group is richly endowed. I just don't want anyone to burn out or blow a fuse at the enormity of need in these times. Thanks for the compliment.
And bless you, Gus. I think your posts today must be the reason I am up and reading LFAA this early in the morning. (I am famously not a morning person.) At this point I really needed to hear this. I am trying out here, and making some headway, but yesterday someone went head to head on me out of the blue over some imagined slight. We are all so stressed, and so invested that sometimes it gets too much. Thank you for the wisdom you just gave us, and your reminder to focus on what we CAN do, not on trying to all do the same thing. Bless YOU.
I don't know where in the Pacific Northwet you are, but sending you a blast of love from Eugene, OR. (Northwet is intentional this morning; we've had steady rain since I went to band rehearsal last night.)
Thanks for the blast of love, Ally. I needed it. I wish I were still in the PacNW where I grew up, went to college, raised my family. You just gave me a taste of why I miss it so much. Sadly, I am currently stuck in Vermont, which has its own merits, but misses feeling like home for me.
I was born in PDX during the war. Parents moved to southern Oregon post-war, where I grew up, started college and married. Moved to Portland, raised my kids and finished college as a single parent. Joined my brothers in Washington State, went to grad school and started working for State of WA (environmental specialist) my second term in. Love both those states: that is home to me. Here in VT, we are just emerging from what I hope is our last big snowstorm, the sun is coming out, and the air has a decided spring feel to it. This is the first real "Vermont winter" that we've had in about a decade. I'm ready for rain.
I started at SOC (as it was then) in 1965! Still have friends from that era. One is a "brother from another mother" I've known since the year between jr high and senior high, who still lives there, retired from teaching at SOU. When I can get out there, I always make a special trip to visit him and his family, stay at least a week. They are family. My original extended family was just about its own community in the western hills of the valley. But with the elders dying out, and younger people going afield, I don't think I have any blood relatives there now. Most in Washington, pretty close to each other (we tend to be like that. Though "stuck in Vermont" (we have a tongue in cheek tv show by that name), I do have a family here: my daughter came out to go to school, meet a nice young man, and ended up staying. I have been adopted by their friends and families of their friends, and by my son-in-law's family. It all amazes me.
Thank you for this as always Professor. My jaw dropped at the Tweet about Cawthorne and although it tracks, and falls squarely into the “no shit, Sherlock” category of politics, it is still just GOBSMACKING to see it laid out there. As always you do this work for us and how can we even quantify how many person-hours of doomscrolling you save us all?!?
Thank you for another profound "Letter from an American." I am grateful every day for the work you do for us assembling, analyzing, and reporting on the important topics each and every day! And accompanying it all with documentation allowing us to get a deeper understanding. Thank you is not forceful enough to convey what you give us your readers.
Thank you Kathleen for the words i could not assemble as I read Professor Richardson’s letter tonight. I can’t seem to get my head around the events unfolding on this planet. It’s hard to comprehend the terror the Ukrainian citizens must be living through and literally dying from. All the while the Russian army was moving toward Ukraine, our search for the rot that’s been lurking in our own midst which exploded January 6 of last year. Yet they are getting away with IT and I cannot understand how or why that is possible. Can the light of freedom overcome the darkness once again? That’s my fervent prayer.
Pat, mine as well. And I pray for all of us, as our hearts and minds strain at their seams with everything we are trying to comprehend and find our place in.
This is so true. Heather is a phenomenon, only possible in a country where there is free speech. She is showing us exactly who and what these Republicans are. We know it in our hearts but the facts just more than underscore how much they are a menace.
On another note entirely… is there a playwright in this group who can imagine a play about the marriage of Clarence and Ginni Thomas? Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. On steroids
That may come later if we survive, now a little comeuppance would be be nice. I heaved when I read Thomas’ screed about the danger of politicizing the court.
You and me both. Biden regrets his role in Thomas' confirmation, but he more than makes up for it now. It was part of his learning process to be a GREAT president. Mistakes are necessary for development-- if we are willing to actually learn from them.
However, if mistakes were the only way to learn, I would be a genius....
I wish republicans understood that our country is in the mess we are in, domestically and globally, because they allowed the amplification of Russian disinformation through their online-created echo chamber and validated their anger by voting for Donald Trump in 2016.
Right on, Rupert’s propaganda machine was just what Reagan ordered. From a dinner honoring Rupert Murdoch in Jan 1981, Jack Kemp was quoted as saying “Rupert Murdoch used the editorial page, the front page, and every other page necessary to elect Ronald Reagan president.” Bill Moyers warned us where this would lead. As always, follow the money…
Reagan: the beginning of "me" vs "we". We went from "compassion and sacrifice for others" to "greed is good" in that election. And people lapped it up. Layer on the Olsteens and Grahams and our society headed for the bottom - where the new Christianity became a call to selfishness, arrogance and exclusion.
And the parties have been ultra-divided since. It’s a monumental fete to pass legislation that helps children, society as a whole or addresses poverty, inequality, racism. TFG was elected with all his greediness and dishonesty in full view. I didn’t mention morals. Amoral? By both wealthy to keep their wealth and the poor who believed his lies.
I'm sorry, but IMO the biggest threat to our democracy (which I really feel is slipping away from us) is that trump and his minions have gotten away with what essentially amounts to treason and the January 6th plot to overthrow the legitimately elected Biden administration. The DOJ has waited too long and quite frankly many people feel we now live in a country where the rule of law no longer exists. When trump took office, I said he is a Russian agent. There certainly is enough evidence to get him on anything from tax fraud to sedition and everything in between. The U.S. and the world is paying a very heavy price for our years of sitting back and wringing our collective hands and educated minds while the whirling dervish of evil takes over.
Among my S. Sudanese "Lost Boys" (who came to the U.S. 20 years ago after surviving the horrors of their homeland) there has been a constant political dialogue explaining/apologizing about trump and being Black in America. I have found it impossible to explain what is going on now with putin's invasion but they see it pretty clearly - a desperate dictator who will destroy everything for no reason. They are still dealing (remotely) with family members living under unbearable conditions in S. Sudan - watching the war in Ukraine in real time brings back overwhelmingly difficult memories for them. We all feel sickened.
I think the Biden Administration is doing an amazing job walking the gauntlet of a near impossible situation - and that is to keep putin from pulling the chemical/nuclear trigger and starting WWIII. And, of course China is a major part of what has become a complicated 3-D chess game with no room for a miscalculation. This sequence (trump, pandemic, invasion of Ukraine) is taking a big toll on all of us.
Ginni Thomas says she did not help organize the White House rally? She has been hand in glove with Leonard Leo funneling money - which Leo has moved through his shell game apparatus - to right wing extremist groups, including some involved in the rally.
I would suggest that a more fruitful (and strategic) place to start might be with Kavanaugh. Yes, the Thomases need investigating, but let's start with the entitled white boy with questionable qualifications and doubtful capabilities.
When we gain enough seats for very clear majorities in both Houses, let the impeachment of Thomas begin. he has been an embarrassment since the day he was nominated.
Who are these people arming themselves against? Do they think we all own the same high capacity pistols and assault rifles as them? Do they really believe we have the same desire to form irregular militias to enforce our views at the ballot box, in legislatures and courts? The only weapons I own are the strength of my convictions and the power of the pen, to mark my ballot. If they are hoping for a shooting war over political power, they're going to have to shoot at themselves. I'll let sanctioned forces like the police, the military and the national guard bear arms on my behalf, in the assurance that they all swore to defend the constitution. God help us all if our law enforcement and military turn against the principles on which our nation was founded and has operated for over 200 years. If they want to act like the patriots of old, how about those tri-corner hats, muskets and flintlock pistols...
Nathan, YES! Thank you! You must be reading my mind. Your words: “The only weapons I own are the strength of my convictions and the power of the pen to mark my ballot…” and I don’t want to touch a lethal weapon.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, David Duke spent 5 years in Russia. There been cross pollination between American and European racists since before WW2. Putin has been their Great White Hope for years.
David Duke…shiver me timbers!! Yes, he was there. I tried to forget about him but how can you forget a nasty SOB like that? The Donald was back and forth in Russia for 10 years (my understanding) cozying up to the oligarchs so he could open a hotel. I agree cross pollination definitely has existed for way too long. Let’s not forget the Republicans who went to Moscow on July 4th.
Oh, there was racism in Russia long before David Duke. Romanis lived in constant fear. In Moscow, my hosts shocked me with the way they regarded the Romanis, and in the east, the reluctance to even talk about the indigenous people. It is sad: they are all in the same boat, but as always the divisions are exploited for no purpose other than diversion away from the reality of living under authoritarianism.
Used to be that Uber Conservatives would crush any citizen that had a whiff of Russian scent on his elbow as McCarthyism reigned. How far the chosen have fallen, but don’t teach bad history to our little comrades in training
Now I am clear on the profound stupidity of ultra right-wing posters of Obama the “fascist/socialist” that showed up before his first election. Always thought it was a funny way to “meet in the middle of a political circle! 😈
The posters I saw in Texas made me wonder how he could survive one term, much less two. The venom was palpable. And the socialist crap was obvious, as HST said “Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.”
I was interested to see that in the 2008 election, the Democrats had the choice to pick either a white woman (who's reputation had been being battered since her husband was the Governor of Arkansas and who was also completely qualified by experience to be President) and a young, Black man. I had flippantly wondered which "ism" would be the worst burden to bear. I think now that while H. Clinton would have had as much opposition and resistance from the Republiqans, I think that what Obama's election did was rip the scab off of the injury of racism and reveal that it was not healing, but infected, and unleashed the blatant expression of racism that we are reaping the benefits of today.
"American focus on the horrors unleashed on Ukraine has clarified our own struggle between democracy and authoritarianism here at home."
For some of us perhaps. But I am wondering what democracy loving American citizens are prepared to suffer in opposition to the very possible voter fraud and manipulation that may usher in a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate in the mid-terms. Are enough Americans awake to the real threat? I don't know.
Are a sufficient number of Americans prepared to do what is necessary to ensure democracy's continuation here? I don't know.
You said it! I see signs that say, “Drive as if your kids lived here.” Between now and November we need a few million signs that say, “Vote as if democracy is at stake.”
Ally, half of Congress is not the same thing as "half our government." Our government includes a lot more than just Congress. Voting against impeachment doesn't translate to "enemies of democracy" without a whole lot of analysis of the motivations behind the individual votes. That leap is so far from critical thinking I don't even know what to call it.
Speaking of which . . . thanks for the reminder. I need a second cup. Can't go into details, pretty minor but time-consuming anyway (up late and up early. Some elements here have got some work to do on lateral communication, it seems. I'm exhausted. Coffee . . .
Professor Richardson, Your details about our democracy and how close to losing it on Jan 6: “At the same time, the findings of the January 6 committee reveal that the pro-Putin wing of the Republican Party appears to have been willing to overturn our own liberal democracy so long as it could get what it wanted” are a perfect lead into the PBS FRONTLINE interview I just now finished. An absolute must watch and the follow up episode will be March 15. “Putin’s Road to War”
“In an interview for the FRONTLINE documentary “Putin’s Road to War,” journalist Julia Loffe discusses Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — and why she believes the Russian leader is now “more dangerous than he’s ever been at any point in the last 22 years.” I hope sometime in the next week to take a deep breath. And you, too, Heather. Thank you!
Thank you for your clear, dispassionate distillation of the day’s events. Even after reading your letters I get so overwhelmed that I just want to crawl in a hole and whimper. But then I remember that we once had a “civil” war fought over slavery, that the American Nazi party marched in New York as Hitler tightened his grip on power in Germany, and threat of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago. We managed to overcome each crisis in the past. My hope that we can eventually get through the current crisis (and your letters) gives me the courage to stop whimpering, crawl out of that hole and face the day again.
Taking a cue from what HCR touches on as to the religious implications of the war on Ukraine, this past Sunday, I came upon this very probing essay by centrist Evangelical Christian David French on the not insignificant religious part of the equation that is driving Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. I think it is a very important consideration that has heretofore largely not been as prominent on the radar screen but which is VERY pertinent. Putin, allied with the Russian Orthodox Church, is, in essence, seeking a return to Russian greatness not just from a secular chauvinistic, global political standpoint, but out of a religious mission rooted in the Russian Orthodox Church. This isn't at all strictly about politics. French goes into detailed explanations and evidence to back up the idea that this is very much a "holy" war and it makes total sense. He also asserts that this shows the worst of Christianity when a church allies itself with and becomes a mouthpiece for a state-sponsored war on another Christian nation. As he says, it's easy to see why our founders were so careful to avoid any mention of a state-sponsored church. But, he also is inspired by how the world, especially the religious world, is coming together for good and going out of its way to help Ukraine. Here's the bulk of his essay, a long-ish read, which I highly recommend...it is interesting and makes a LOT of sense. I read French's blog on Substack every Sunday and always find his viewpoint refreshing compared to so many of his Evangelical brethren. I do disagree with him at times, but he is someone who does actually THINK and is often very critical of his fellow Evangelicals (he is VERY anti-T***p, BTW).
"As you watch the horror unfolding in Ukraine, you are watching two immensely important, competing religious events unfold in real time. First, Russia’s invasion is laced with religious elements. In many ways, it’s a religious war, representing religion at its worst. Second, as we watch the Ukrainian and international church race to Ukraine’s aide, we’re seeing Christianity at its best. In one stark moment, we are seeing the extremes of what Christians can do, for evil and for good. Let’s start by describing the evil.
"There are times when you read an essay so illuminating and informative that you think about it for years. That happened to me in December 2014, several months after the Russian invasion of Crimea. The essay was by former National Security Agency analyst John Schindler, and it was called 'Putin’s Orthodox Jihad.' An Orthodox Christian himself, Schindler provided an analysis of Putin’s Russia I’d seen nowhere else.
"The essay is long and complex, but at the risk of oversimplifying the argument, Schindler described an ideological 'fusion' between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the FSB, Russia’s intelligence service. This fusion culminated 'in the 2002 dedication of an Orthodox church at the Lubyanka, the FSB—and former KGB’s—notorious Moscow headquarters.'
"This ideological fusion, Schindler argued, was at the heart of Putin’s emerging ideology. In essence, Putin didn’t just seek Russian greatness out of a sense of secular national chauvinism, but out of religious mission, and that mission was rooted in the ROC.
"Moreover, the church provided the core of the Russian moral argument against the west. Again, here was Schindler:
"'ROC agitprop, which has Kremlin endorsement, depicts a West that is declining down to its death at the hands of decadence and sin, mired in confused unbelief, bored and failing to even reproduce itself. Patriarch Kirill, head of the church, recently explained that the “main threat” to Russia is “the loss of faith” in the Western style, while ROC spokesmen constantly denounce feminism and the LGBT movement as Satanic creations of the West that aim to destroy faith, family, and nation.'
"Indeed, Russia even adopted a term called 'spiritual security,' which 'gives the ROC a mission in defending Russia from negative Western spiritual influences, in partnership with Moscow’s intelligence agencies.'
"Since Schindler’s piece—little-noticed at the time—the evidence of Putin’s religious motivations has grown overwhelming. As Giles Fraser argued in the British website Unherd, 'Putin regards his spiritual destiny as the rebuilding of Christendom, based in Moscow.'
"But what does this have to do with Ukraine? It turns out that Kiev is of central importance in Russian Orthodoxy. It’s the birthplace of the ROC, the church’s 'Jerusalem' according to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill:
"'Ukraine is not on the periphery of our church. We call Kiev "the mother of all Russian cities." For us Kiev is what Jerusalem is for many. Russian Orthodoxy began there, so under no circumstances can we abandon this historical and spiritual relationship. The whole unity of our Local Church is based on these spiritual ties.'
"Now, let’s add one final ingredient. In 2019 large numbers of Ukrainian parishes separated from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was formerly under the ROC, to join a new Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In a February report describing the religious dimensions of the war, Schindler noted that 'the schism rendered Moscow white-hot with rage. The ROC viewed this as a direct attack on its "canonical territory" and on world Orthodoxy itself.'
"To make this as simple as possible, Putin has fused Russian identity with the ROC, sees his nation and his church as a bulwark against western decadence, and is now not just attempting to seize his church’s 'Jerusalem' but potentially forcibly reuniting his church after a schism it rejects. There are nationalist, historical, and strategic reasons for Putin’s move against Ukraine, but the religious elements are real, and important.
"The religious dimension of this conflict is yet another reason why the Cold War analogies are incorrect. As I’ve said before, Putin isn’t trying to recreate the Soviet Union. The better analogy is to the deeply religious Russian Empire that existed before the Russian Civil War.
"This is the church at its worst, when it weds itself to state power and wields the sword to advance God’s kingdom on earth. We are watching the deep darkness of malevolent Christendom, a religious movement that will slaughter innocents to fight 'decadence' and bomb hospitals to combat 'sin.' When you see Putin’s armies advance, you can think, this is why our nation rejects established religion.
"But when great evil arises, great good answers. And in this case, the great good is also in the church. Yes, it’s represented by individual Christian Ukrainian soldiers laying down their lives in defense of their nation and their homes, but it’s also represented by a very different kind of institutional Christian response.
"I’m thinking, for example, of the report that the average Baptist World Alliance Church in Ukraine is 'feeding and sheltering 100 people.' I’m thinking of Samaritan’s Purse setting up an emergency field hospital outside of Lviv, Ukraine. I’m thinking of churches like First Baptist Church of Robertsdale, Alabama, sending a team to Moldova to help Ukrainian refugees.
"I’m also thinking of my colleague Harvest Prude’s moving story about the bonds between Christians in the United States and Christians in Ukraine:
"'It’s personal for us in the Southern Baptist world,' Brent Leatherwood, acting president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told The Dispatch. 'Most folks don’t realize it, but Ukraine has the second largest population of Baptists in Europe.' In churches across America, Leatherwood said, pastors are utilizing prayer guides and partnering with Send Relief and other organizations helping on the ground.
"I have friends who’ve spent time in Ukraine. Our churches are praying for Ukraine. They’re sending people and goods to Ukraine, flooding Eastern Europe with tangible support for a people who are suffering from terrible harm.
"In this circumstance, national borders and national identities matter far less than the Christian brotherhood with Ukrainian churches and the shared humanity of Ukrainian refugees.
"This is Christianity at its best. It’s not pacifistic. Its members are resisting tyranny with the force of arms. But its focus isn’t on conquest, but rather compassion. A religious war is being met with a religious response, and that religious response represents the true face of the faith that Putin purports to defend.
[...]
"I’ve been frankly surprised at the number of people who’ve asked me why we don’t intervene directly to save Ukraine. In an extended piece for The Atlantic, I tried to explain in detail why direct intervention would be extraordinarily perilous. Vladimir Putin just might try to fight—and win—a limited nuclear war:
"'Since the dawn of modern warfare, the world’s most powerful countries have inflicted terrible destruction on the nations they conquer. But nuclear weapons raise the stakes higher still. It’s vitally important that Americans understand the true nature of Putin’s forces, and the doctrines that might dictate their use.'
"'It’s one thing to confront a potential nuclear conflict when both sides know they’ll lose. Mutual assured destruction kept the peace even during the darkest days of the Cold War. It’s another thing entirely to confront a potential nuclear conflict when one side believes it can win. That’s the most dangerous confrontation of all, and we may be close to that now.'"
Religion has been the “reason,” the cause of wars forever, at least centuries. FRONTLINE also documents Putin’s religious zeal. And then there’s antisemitism. Not only in Russia. Some of the quotes in your piece sound like USA, George W Bush, then TFG who were supported by Evangelical Christian churches at the pulpit.
Putin very successfully enlisted the evangelical faction in US for the benefit of Bush and Trump both by his manipulation of “family values.” They were knee capped and didn’t feel a thing. In my own opinion they were far more grievously damaged by their own self mutilation.
And speaking of failing to enforce the law, why didn't those pulpits lose their tax-exempt status? Or, at least pay penalties? Their videos were all over social media. Why wasn't the IRS enforcing the law? The sermon from the Sunday before the 2016 presidential election from the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida set my hair on fire.
Agreed. I think the antisemitism is pretty much a given and has long been a not-so-well-kept-secret of the traditional Russian Orthodox Church. The newer sect of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has embraced a more Western approach to morality and to antisemitism, and this is heretical to the ROC & Putin. As I noted, David French is an Evangelical who is very much against the church having anything to do with politics. His viewpoint is not the only one, thankfully, as the recently elected head of the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas has spoken out very strongly on the church staying out of politics, citing their drastic loss of members in the past 10 years as proof that people, especially young people, are rejecting a church that comes across as interested more in political power. It's a very welcome step in the right direction.
Christianity has a long history of this kind of "ideological fusion" of religious and political powers. In every case the fusion hollows out and distorts the Gospel on which Christianity is based. It has certainly happened in the U.S., and is happening now, as the ultra-right Evangelicals and the ultra-conservative Roman Catholics join forces in the cultural wars. Their so called "religious freedom" platform sounds a lot like Putin's " spiritual security" .....We call it "religious" because it is being steered by the leadership ( not necessarily all of the membership) of powerful organizations--businesses really--which operate in the U.S. at least under the banner of a 501(c)(3) but which provide yet one more code label for the culture "war"! Once this fusion happens within various Christian denominations, the resulting entity is so far removed from religion ( and such a distortion) as to be anti- religion! But the reason French can identify "good" and "bad" players within Christianity is that some Christians remain tethered to Gospel values despite the actions of their leaders.
Exactly. And as French has pointed out in some of his other writings, the fact that organised religion is losing members right and left shows that people are sick of the bullsh!t they see masquerading as "representing" Christ on earth. Christ is unconditional love. Period. What does all this other stuff have to do with what is essentially a beautiful and simple message?
Organized religions have been the cause of/participants in wars, is what caused me to discount the organized religion that I grew up in, when in college (eons ago), with a couple of backslides since then :)
When religion becomes weaponized and becomes a club with which one brutalizes another it is no longer religion. A friend of mine who happens to be of the Flathead Tribe near St. Ignatius, MT., once told me - “the most dangerous animal on the planet was a middle aged Christian white lady”.
It makes sense to me that Putin is trying to recreate a time before the USSR because I heard all my life that communism dissed religion, and consequently destroyed much of the orthodoxy. What doesn’t make sense is that Putin is a religious man, maybe using religion as many power-hungry cretins do, but a believer? Beyond my comprehension.
Bruce, I had to read your “essay” one more time and it’s even more illuminating and disturbing. I see the debate as degrees of faith and Christianity. Interesting that the church in Ukraine competes with Putin’s ROC. My relatives, Jews from Kiev and Vilnius, Lithuania, left (escaped ?) in 1909 to USA. I believe a few remain but I’m not in touch. I don’t see any mention of Jews, but note the degrees of Christianity. Another article might tell us about the Inquisitions, about Christians, Jews and Muslims. Then and now. Thank you for sharing your research and connecting it to this war. Religions have a way of protecting their beliefs to the point of losing touch with what would seem to be “godly.” Frontline in some of its stories on Putin and Russia include the religious connections which are missing in much of other reporting. There is a line that is crossed from religious to fanatical that loses all perspective, which brings the conversation back to Putin’s beliefs and objectives in this war. Where to next?
As I said, David French, the author of the article I quoted, notes that this war is showing both the good and bad side of religion in a society. French is a staunch believer in separation of church and state, and fervently believes religion and government don't and should not mix. You should read his diatribes against the Falwells, Franklin Graham, and kooks like Pat Robertson. It is a refreshing take that is frequently at odds with so many of his Evangelical cohorts. There are some decent thinkers among them--they're not ALL nuts--and I am interested to see their views. His blog on Substack has a comments section like this one and attracts a wide range of religious views, believers of every stripe and non-believers. Some of the dialogue can get feisty. I'm surrounded down here by every sort of Evangelical group imaginable, so finding a fairly liberal Evangelical viewpoint is reassuring. French is not in any way supportive of Putin and his fake religiosity. And yes, where this will lead is anybody's guess.
Yes, I will check out the blog. And after reading my comment. I think I would add “religion” as I understand its not just Christianity that doesn’t mix with politics, but most, all Religion. And the different viewpoints about religion and politics within families is not new. Including my family.
The idea of a clear separation of church and government does seem to be a concept that has been specific to the US Constitution and as such hasn't been enshrined in too many other government systems around the globe. It goes hand in hand with our Constitution being a product of Enlightenment Era minds, an era that saw the rise of science and reasoning, and a waning of influence of religion, even going so far as questioning of its validity. When you think about it, it's fascinating how in a relatively short time of say a hundred years or so we went from a highly superstitious sort of mindset that could lead to such things as the Salem witch trials, all the way to coming up with documents like the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. It shows the occurrence of a seismic shift in thinking that led to our founders jettisoning what had been a fairly general idea of a state religion. Have we always followed it exactly to the letter throughout our history? No, not really, but we've done pretty well keeping its influence at bay. I just hope we can keep it that way.
The intertwined uses of religion for politics and political power for religious power have long been around. Thanks for your summary of French's argument. Do you have a link/reference for it, and/or Schindler's article?
Oh my gosh. I thought tRUMP, his enablers and cronies said there were no weapons brought into the Capitol. I've always been leery of guys in wheelchairs with blankets over their laps. Once in an airport, the TSAs had me stripped practically naked as I set off all the alarms (titanium hips) while they pushed a guy in a wheelchair with a heavy blanket over his lap and never said a word to him. I made sure he wasn't on my flight before I got on. A chunk of C3 the size of a wheelchair makes a pretty good bang. Do they check Cawthorn before he enters the Senate?
Resonating with the titanium hip pat-down. A grey-haired granny gets multiple pat-downs every time after declaring that I got a metal hip on Dec. 21st 2013 at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Pat-pat-pat...
I got a pat down in a CA airport due to artificial knee. Side bar: I also had a right upper arm break (a break that cannot be cast, only splinted) and had to hold that arm up level with my shoulder for a prolonged pat down! It was excruciating, but no effort was made to accommodate my situation.
As horrible as the war is, it has jarred people who have ignored and sidestepped those among us who have aligned themselves with white supremacists, oligarchs, and dictators. Thanks for confirming what many of us were starting to see ourselves. Hard to know how to say or word it when it took something and someone as vile as Putin to shake cowards who were letting their party slide into what it has. Fingers crossed all the way around.
If the ruble becomes rubble, will republican politicians look for alternatives sources of income to fund their campaigns? This is based on the assumption that Russian money buys influence by funding political campaigns.
There’s always China. And, by the way, who decided that outsourcing so much of our manufacturing capability was a strategic benefit to America? Finance, Union busters, and their ilk all bear some responsibility.
There are always the Remnimbi or the Yuan to take the rouble's place. All's fair in love and war.....as the saying goes. One paymaster is as good as another.
So, let me get this straight, Madison Cawthorn smuggles multiple weapons into the US capitol then distributes them to his right wing congressional pals? Isn't that an illegal transfer of firearms? If he was taped saying this on Charlie Kirk's show on January 6th, 2021, why isn't he, and anyone else who did the same thing, in jail? Do these people really get a pass just because they hold a seat in the House, (or Senate, if applicable)?
Actually, they get a pass because of the stupendous timidity of Kevin McCarthy. We should all hope, for our country's sake, that McCarthy fails to become Speaker of the House. He's the big guy in his party. And he won't do anything to discipline gun toters or racists. What else does one need to know about his character?
Maybe CA won't re-elect him in Nov. as I believe he is up for re-election.
All the House reps are up for election - every two years, like clockwork. HOPING McCarthy will NOT be re-elected.
I am sure he has lots of Russian money to campaign!
I wonder if Putin will call in all that money since his economy is floundering now?
Democrats need to keep the majority in the House. McCarthy is from a very conservative area of California so I think he’s likely to be re-elected. But I’ve also heard that if we turn out the voters we can retain our House majority.
That would be wonderful!
Unfortunately, if the Republicans take control of the House, it won't be Kevin McCarthy as speaker. It will be the abominable Jim Jordan. That is why we absolutely MUST focus on holding the House!
The thought of Jim Jordan wresting control of the speaker's gavel is terrifying. Is there any other GOP leader more often on the wrong side of issues and more vocal about it? If FOX starts cheering him on, it will be all he needs. Ugh.
Should I have said "wrestling"?
You got that right!
White conservative evangelicals will support GOP candidates in the midterms, read "Jesus & John Wayne", a disturbing book. It is imperative that Republicans do not win the Senate, or the House. Their conservative evangelical base does not trust science, nor reason to cope with the problems we encounter. They offer no HOPE for the future of America but only seek the power to transform our culture. As a theologian, I am inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer to confront their "cheap grace theology". This is why I support the poorpeolescampaign.org & their theology which glorifies God, read "We Cry Justice".
I have the book but haven't read it yet! My Republican friend started reading it and responded to me that it was clear that it was written by a Democrat! And I thought yes you would think that because of being addicted to Fox Entertainment Channel for years!
It was written by a professor from Calvin University. Tell your friend to read "The Power Worshippers" or "American Fascists" which also discuss the disturbing history of conservative evangelicals, & the GOP.
I also admire the Poor People's Campaign. May they grow ever stronger.
It would be great if McCarthy were voted out of office.
Point taken.
Can't you just see all the support K. McCarthy is getting from Russia!
McCarthy may not be so timid but rather more complicit.
In which case, I hope it is just timid. Regardless, not fit for the Speaker's gavel. Though someone else mentioned the possibility that he could lose out to Jim Jordan. That horror show is, if possible, even worse.
I don't think there is Speaker of The House material in in the GOP.
Liz Cheney would get my vote.
Apparently, the NC election board is trying to deny him access to the Nov ballot due to his activity on Jan 6. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/08/politics/north-carolina-elections-board-madison-cawthorn-january-6/index.html
That would be decent of them!
As of March 10, the fight for keeping Cawthorn off the ballot was severely impaired: https://freespeechforpeople.salsalabs.org/20220309-cawthorn-appeal?fbclid=IwAR1IXbMJV6EoRnPiUR1t7mVz3vTgUf8OD0i69CxPf0Uxx1U_1_0zqY1G4bU
He put the weapons in his wheelchair!
Cathy, I couldn’t reasonably hide more than a few pistols in my chair. Not that I have tried, mind you.... He is an embarrassment to veterans. Good night, all. Beauty sleep, and all that.
“ Cawthorn was seriously injured while returning from a spring-break trip to Florida.” He is just another insane fascist loving scummer
And scammer.
... and he's likely a Russian asset, with sketchy ties to Russia plus openly supporting Putin.
…a FEW pistols! 3..4..5… enough to murder a dozen…two dozen …. What a silly remark. Cawthorn is far more than an mere embarrassment!!
Honestly, I think most Republicans have brain damage these days!
(snark intended) Brain injuries? Hmm. Explains a lot.
And apparently never recovered!
Thank you! Relieved. At one time he claimed 'military service,' so I assumed he was chaired in Iraq or Afghanistan. I really am bad at politics!
I know! Can you believe it? Insanely audacious.
Is this a fact? Oh, my goodness! How do these people get elected for our Representatives and Senators? Oh, that's right corrupt money!
Also, Cawthorn was recently charged with driving under a revoked license. I read more than one source - he may need remedial driving lessons given the number of times he has been pulled over in the past 2 years. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rep-madison-cawthorn-charged-driving-revoked-license-rcna19461
He needs to be declared unfit for office. Maybe members of congress should have a higher minimum age level, like 30.
It'd be a better idea if they had a higher minimum IQ, like 100.
That low??? 80 is barely functional, and not deriding people with low IQs. But our congressional representatives need a higher bar. But NO IQ tests - come on
100 in the Stanford-Binet is exactly "normal" intelligence. It means the person taking the test has age-appropriate intelligence. That's why "genius" IQ is so relatively low (125-165): The assumption is that a 10 year old is responding in ways that a 12-16 year-old might. So, yes, I'd be happy if the bar was set at 100. IQ represents potentiality, not performance. Looking at the crop of slubberdegullions in the extreme right of the GOP ranks has me thinking they're not performant due to laziness; it's because they don't have the necessary reasoning/problem-solving abilities baked in their brains.
Hearts 💝💝💝
And they need to pass a test for qualifications instead of collecting our tax dollars!
He will simply scream discrimination against his disability!
He is a spoiled, arrogant little snot. Nothing short of jail time would make an impression on him. Sadly, he would use his disability to wangle special treatment while incarcerated.
Double up on the spoiled, arrogant little snot.
He must come from money!
My thoughts exactly!!!
Driving isn’t the only thing he needs remedial lessons in.
It’s just another case of the “haves and the have nots”…it seems those in government or with $$$$$$ can get away with most everything. “I can shoot someone on 5th Avenue… I can grab their pussy”….And why is Matt Gaetz still walking free and then there is Prince Andrew lurking in the shadow of Epstein. 🤯
At least it would merit a thorough investigation as the "gentleman" in question has rarely been associated with telling the truth. This could be the one exception or indeed an attempt to further curry favour with you know who.
Hard to know who is evil and who is just tagging along. I tend to paint them all with the same brush
He does seem to be a pathological liar.
It seems to me he isn't the only one!
No, they do not get a pass. Nor any honor. And a pittance of vote.
Listen to the national anthem of Ukraine, Daria. No wonder such a proud, brave, and beautiful people.
https://youtu.be/einTXaSeGAI
Slava Ukraini! ☮️
Listened to the Met's concert for Ukraine yesterday which started with the their national anthem. It ended with Ode to Joy from Beethoven's 9th. Inspiring people and music.
Слава Україні! Slava Ukraini!
Just had contact with Allen. He expects to leave for Canada in a week.
The St Louis Symphony opened its program this weekend with the Ukrainian national anthem. It brought tears to my eyes.
Great point Daria!
Thanks, G!
Apparently what is “Swift and Severe “ to you and I does NOT apply to all of us.
?
So do MoC get a pass on breaking DC's gun laws? #UniteAgainstTheRight
It seems that way, doesn't it?
He gets a pass because IOKIYAR.
Well, of course, because Jesus says so.
What do the abbreviations mean?
It’s OK If You are Republican
I am urging everyone in this group, as we struggle with more than we can grasp or fix, to use your assets and gifts. Use what you have, and work at what you are good at, in other words. If we try to do it all, we will be overcome by overload and a helpless sense of guilt.
Some have wealth; there is much need. Climate, candidates, humanitarian Ukraine issues.
Some are very good with politics. Others, like me, aren’t; we are needed elsewhere.
Some of us are experts in information and teaching, as is our professor.
Some are gifted scientists, already at work on global climate and ecology.
Some are counselors and healers. Keep us healthy and wise, and ethical.
Some are spiritually gifted. There is great power to be used. Love, and Light!
Some are experts at Law, or communication, or government, or motivation.
We need Mothers and Workers and Helpers, to make it all happen.
I could go on, but don’t waste energy on worry or frustration!
Lift where you stand. Use what you have. Employ your gifts. Keep your heads!
Bless you all.
This group has an abundance of unique individuals, whom I admire and learn from! Every single one of you contributes wisdom, knowledge, inspiration, and so much more to each other, by your expertise, experience, even your thoughtful questions. There is a Reason we have found each other, some to learn, some to teach, others to motivate. I find that I need you all, and I’m so glad to be here, and able to offer what I have to the ‘pot.’ Thank you all!
Plus, you live in the same state as our beloved President Jimmy Carter!
Yes, beloved. Met him a few times, on Habitat sites and at Emory. Been to his Library several times, talked with members of his Sunday School class.
How I wish....
Lucky you. He's the best, and so is Rosalynn.
Lynell, Yes, I was very lucky! One of my very best friend's dad was on his Secret Service detail, but he won't tell me nuthin! Jimmy Carter is the only president I ever met, and up until Presidents Obama and Biden, the only president I ever truly believed -- and believed IN. Absolutely no guile in any of these men.
Agree 100%, Gus. And kudos to that Secret Service agent!
I love this, Gus. I am an old woman, and I am finally learning from HCR and you all. I wish I was younger, but I really think I may have lived mentally blind during the "glory days". It is going to take more strength in the future than I have currently! I am still fighting but I get tired!
If you are on this forum, Sharon, you are strong and always have been.
United!
Thank you, Christine! I needed that!
Sharon, I so sympathize with you! I'm almost 72, and don't regret anything about it -- except in these times I do wish to be 20 years younger because I believe I could do so much more to help. Of course, 20 years ago I was "mentally blind" myself!
Please remember: your health comes first! Do whatever you can to de-stress; we ancients are especially vulnerable to stress....and the world needs us right now! Thank you!
I am starting to feel the stress. Now with running for Treasurer of my county and never experiencing campaigning in all my 78 years I am totally stressed. I don't want to lose in a Republican county!
Brava, Sharon! It takes a lot of energy and courage to run for any public office and to do so at 78 is impressive!
Thank you, Mary Anne!
You go, girl!
Sharon you have my utmost respect! The fact that you are running for an elected office is a giant win all by itself!
Surround yourself with family and/or friends.
Seek the best, most experienced help you can find.
Accept help.
Ask for help!
Delegate details.
Breathe once in a while, and enjoy the experience as often as you can. You'll get younger!
Thank you so much, Gus!
Stone Soup:))
Exactly. Add musicians.
YES! Musicians! Life would be intolerable without music. And Jesters, like me!
And Poets! And Scribes! We have more gifts and talents than I could imagine....
Yes, music. I read a report that a group of Ukranians hunkered down in a shelter kept singing, both to keep spirits up and because it helped keep them warm.
A young Ukrainian girl sang in a basement bomb shelter. And Yo-Yo Ma (a great mensch all his life) played the cello last week outside the Russian Embassy, in honor of Ukrainians, and many orchestras play and/or sing the Ukrainian national anthem before concerts.
I also saw, and wept, as a woman took the dust cover off her white piano and played some Chopin before she left it and the rubble of what was once her home. You can see her too, here:
https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/ukrainian-woman-plays-piano-one-last-time-at-home-ruined-in-russian-shelling-4876664.html
Here's Yo-Yo Ma performing:
https://www.classicfm.com/artists/yo-yo-ma/cellist-plays-russian-embassy-protest/
Substack isn't letting me post multiple links in one comment, so here's the young girl:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/03/07/let-it-go-frozen-kyiv-shelter-ukraine-ac360-wknd-sot-intl-ovn-vpx.cnn
Thanks for these Mim. To add to the queue, this is from a few years ago but the fact that it's the EU's chosen theme song only adds to it now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceX5jJ5fggs
Note that the little girl stands in her spot until the end. I think she got her euro's worth.
Thanks so much, Mim.
You are welcome, Lynell.
And Poets!!!
Irenie, that's You!
Sorry, Autospell will not let me correct your name this morning.
Dear Gus, I restate what I have said before: if you and I were in school together, you would be the kid I'd try to sit next to. Thank you for your light and loving posts. They almost always lift me up in some way. You are a gift to us.
Becky, I didn't hear it the first time, but thank you so much! I can't read more than maybe 200 posts and letter, someday not that many. But thank you! You could find me at the very front in the classes I liked, and the very back in the ones I didn't. Or in the principal's office....
Aw, I'll bet in those cases the principal just wanted to enjoy your company :)
Becky, I'm afraid you would lose that bet! Over the years we did have a pretty good relationship. My offenses probably wouldn't warrant detention today, and the Army did a good job of working out my rebellious kinks.
Aw right you two, get a room.
😳
And visual artists! Thank you, Gus, for once again promoting inclusion and solidarity. You are a gifted, gentle leader.
YES, Daria! We have to have the Artists! I left out so many gifts and talents, but we all know what we have, and this group is richly endowed. I just don't want anyone to burn out or blow a fuse at the enormity of need in these times. Thanks for the compliment.
Very helpful advice, Gus!
Gus Koch you inspire me today! Be the helpers healing our world. And trust that doing
What we can, Where we can, When we can is pushing against the entropy of darkness. Every Moment is Transforming!
Michele, YES! Thank you
And bless you, Gus. I think your posts today must be the reason I am up and reading LFAA this early in the morning. (I am famously not a morning person.) At this point I really needed to hear this. I am trying out here, and making some headway, but yesterday someone went head to head on me out of the blue over some imagined slight. We are all so stressed, and so invested that sometimes it gets too much. Thank you for the wisdom you just gave us, and your reminder to focus on what we CAN do, not on trying to all do the same thing. Bless YOU.
Annie, you and Sharon are exactly the kind of people I was trying to reach. Thanks for your blessing!
I don't know where in the Pacific Northwet you are, but sending you a blast of love from Eugene, OR. (Northwet is intentional this morning; we've had steady rain since I went to band rehearsal last night.)
Thanks for the blast of love, Ally. I needed it. I wish I were still in the PacNW where I grew up, went to college, raised my family. You just gave me a taste of why I miss it so much. Sadly, I am currently stuck in Vermont, which has its own merits, but misses feeling like home for me.
I was born in PDX during the war. Parents moved to southern Oregon post-war, where I grew up, started college and married. Moved to Portland, raised my kids and finished college as a single parent. Joined my brothers in Washington State, went to grad school and started working for State of WA (environmental specialist) my second term in. Love both those states: that is home to me. Here in VT, we are just emerging from what I hope is our last big snowstorm, the sun is coming out, and the air has a decided spring feel to it. This is the first real "Vermont winter" that we've had in about a decade. I'm ready for rain.
I grew up in Medford, and graduated from Southern Oregon in 1981. My sister and sister-in-law still live there.
I started at SOC (as it was then) in 1965! Still have friends from that era. One is a "brother from another mother" I've known since the year between jr high and senior high, who still lives there, retired from teaching at SOU. When I can get out there, I always make a special trip to visit him and his family, stay at least a week. They are family. My original extended family was just about its own community in the western hills of the valley. But with the elders dying out, and younger people going afield, I don't think I have any blood relatives there now. Most in Washington, pretty close to each other (we tend to be like that. Though "stuck in Vermont" (we have a tongue in cheek tv show by that name), I do have a family here: my daughter came out to go to school, meet a nice young man, and ended up staying. I have been adopted by their friends and families of their friends, and by my son-in-law's family. It all amazes me.
Thank you for this as always Professor. My jaw dropped at the Tweet about Cawthorne and although it tracks, and falls squarely into the “no shit, Sherlock” category of politics, it is still just GOBSMACKING to see it laid out there. As always you do this work for us and how can we even quantify how many person-hours of doomscrolling you save us all?!?
Thank you once again louder for the people in the back❤️
No surprise, but gobsmacked, my permanent condition for much longer than chump has has been our worst nightmare…
Amen
Thank you for another profound "Letter from an American." I am grateful every day for the work you do for us assembling, analyzing, and reporting on the important topics each and every day! And accompanying it all with documentation allowing us to get a deeper understanding. Thank you is not forceful enough to convey what you give us your readers.
Thank you Kathleen for the words i could not assemble as I read Professor Richardson’s letter tonight. I can’t seem to get my head around the events unfolding on this planet. It’s hard to comprehend the terror the Ukrainian citizens must be living through and literally dying from. All the while the Russian army was moving toward Ukraine, our search for the rot that’s been lurking in our own midst which exploded January 6 of last year. Yet they are getting away with IT and I cannot understand how or why that is possible. Can the light of freedom overcome the darkness once again? That’s my fervent prayer.
Pat, mine as well. And I pray for all of us, as our hearts and minds strain at their seams with everything we are trying to comprehend and find our place in.
They are doing it in broad daylight. And Democrat’s Trojan Horses have signed on.
My fervent prayer as well.
This is so true. Heather is a phenomenon, only possible in a country where there is free speech. She is showing us exactly who and what these Republicans are. We know it in our hearts but the facts just more than underscore how much they are a menace.
On another note entirely… is there a playwright in this group who can imagine a play about the marriage of Clarence and Ginni Thomas? Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. On steroids
That may come later if we survive, now a little comeuppance would be be nice. I heaved when I read Thomas’ screed about the danger of politicizing the court.
How could he even keep a straight face speaking those very words.
You and me both. Biden regrets his role in Thomas' confirmation, but he more than makes up for it now. It was part of his learning process to be a GREAT president. Mistakes are necessary for development-- if we are willing to actually learn from them.
However, if mistakes were the only way to learn, I would be a genius....
Biden did vote against Thomas.
Yes, he did, Rebecca.
Joan, a theatrical rendering of their mingling ... Thanks for the image.
😂
Waiting on 'January 6th, The Musical' here. It'll never be produced if the election changes to disenfranchise certain voters stand.
I wish republicans understood that our country is in the mess we are in, domestically and globally, because they allowed the amplification of Russian disinformation through their online-created echo chamber and validated their anger by voting for Donald Trump in 2016.
My horrifying belief is they DO know, and revel in it.
Right on, Rupert’s propaganda machine was just what Reagan ordered. From a dinner honoring Rupert Murdoch in Jan 1981, Jack Kemp was quoted as saying “Rupert Murdoch used the editorial page, the front page, and every other page necessary to elect Ronald Reagan president.” Bill Moyers warned us where this would lead. As always, follow the money…
Reagan: the beginning of "me" vs "we". We went from "compassion and sacrifice for others" to "greed is good" in that election. And people lapped it up. Layer on the Olsteens and Grahams and our society headed for the bottom - where the new Christianity became a call to selfishness, arrogance and exclusion.
Neo Christians, unrecognizable by Christ’s teachings; the money changers and their acolytes
Dave, so we'll put! Add the Pharisees to the lot of them ...
And the parties have been ultra-divided since. It’s a monumental fete to pass legislation that helps children, society as a whole or addresses poverty, inequality, racism. TFG was elected with all his greediness and dishonesty in full view. I didn’t mention morals. Amoral? By both wealthy to keep their wealth and the poor who believed his lies.
I miss Bill Moyers terribly. We need him now. But Dr. Richardson is doing very nicely in his place!
I think you are right.
White, male, cisgendered, heterosexual, Christian dominance is what they want, and they really don't care how they get there.
If only that was the totality of the problem.........
I'm sorry, but IMO the biggest threat to our democracy (which I really feel is slipping away from us) is that trump and his minions have gotten away with what essentially amounts to treason and the January 6th plot to overthrow the legitimately elected Biden administration. The DOJ has waited too long and quite frankly many people feel we now live in a country where the rule of law no longer exists. When trump took office, I said he is a Russian agent. There certainly is enough evidence to get him on anything from tax fraud to sedition and everything in between. The U.S. and the world is paying a very heavy price for our years of sitting back and wringing our collective hands and educated minds while the whirling dervish of evil takes over.
Among my S. Sudanese "Lost Boys" (who came to the U.S. 20 years ago after surviving the horrors of their homeland) there has been a constant political dialogue explaining/apologizing about trump and being Black in America. I have found it impossible to explain what is going on now with putin's invasion but they see it pretty clearly - a desperate dictator who will destroy everything for no reason. They are still dealing (remotely) with family members living under unbearable conditions in S. Sudan - watching the war in Ukraine in real time brings back overwhelmingly difficult memories for them. We all feel sickened.
I think the Biden Administration is doing an amazing job walking the gauntlet of a near impossible situation - and that is to keep putin from pulling the chemical/nuclear trigger and starting WWIII. And, of course China is a major part of what has become a complicated 3-D chess game with no room for a miscalculation. This sequence (trump, pandemic, invasion of Ukraine) is taking a big toll on all of us.
I said same, way back there, easy to see, but we gave him the keys to the kingdom. That he used them should shock no one.
And, this . . .
NYTime's - March 15th Two Refugees, Both on Poland’s Border. But Worlds Apart.
A young man fleeing war in Sudan and a young woman evacuating Ukraine crossed into Poland at the same time. They had very different experiences.
"𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘨𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘵. 𝘈𝘭𝘣𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘰, 𝘈𝘭𝘣𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥, 𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵. 𝘒𝘢𝘵𝘺𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘩 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵."
[Gift Link]
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/world/europe/ukraine-refugees-poland-belarus.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DODm8eiPsSGYyMvErQf617apwu3C6SRdlMdaUiSuF9w-JEelRqTwCurt6OlZAMOTgu74KvW2d8l7T8YYcFyx64JG-oNLU4g7SloxONNDX3W_Pc2X1xIlp6oJY0dEWtjXAC2v-RELJqj4V9jv0qVs8uETgAdzDK66ezc2h2ONqGbBnY6AkkCaoOCXyIw4nqu_9Xex5SCFnGUHp-_W47jdtcM9kcN6v4RAUyLIu82f5CTzw1c_r6QsE5VIPWlL51sLPSqRHqyMG-xfU-Eak8r6oc96jqpx7NCj_CCtDl4r_Z&smid=url-share
Imagine the toll it is taking on President Biden.
No kidding! I cannot even imagine.
Ginni Thomas says she did not help organize the White House rally? She has been hand in glove with Leonard Leo funneling money - which Leo has moved through his shell game apparatus - to right wing extremist groups, including some involved in the rally.
She must be getting worried. Back on 01/08/21, she was cheering on the Capitol’s rioters and sending her blessings and love to them: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/ginni-thomas-donald-trump-clarence-thomas-capitol-riot.html
And
https://abovethelaw.com/2021/01/what-ginni-thomas-yes-wife-of-clarence-really-did-to-support-the-siege-on-the-capital/?amp=1
She lies! Let’s give her truth serum and see what happens.
just starting an enquiry into the complicity of her husband would be a good place to start too.
Yes, he should resign but his ego and Leonard Leo won’t let him.
I would suggest that a more fruitful (and strategic) place to start might be with Kavanaugh. Yes, the Thomases need investigating, but let's start with the entitled white boy with questionable qualifications and doubtful capabilities.
Way past time
Stuart, I agree. They both are a disgrace to the country.
Spontaneous combustion
When we gain enough seats for very clear majorities in both Houses, let the impeachment of Thomas begin. he has been an embarrassment since the day he was nominated.
Who are these people arming themselves against? Do they think we all own the same high capacity pistols and assault rifles as them? Do they really believe we have the same desire to form irregular militias to enforce our views at the ballot box, in legislatures and courts? The only weapons I own are the strength of my convictions and the power of the pen, to mark my ballot. If they are hoping for a shooting war over political power, they're going to have to shoot at themselves. I'll let sanctioned forces like the police, the military and the national guard bear arms on my behalf, in the assurance that they all swore to defend the constitution. God help us all if our law enforcement and military turn against the principles on which our nation was founded and has operated for over 200 years. If they want to act like the patriots of old, how about those tri-corner hats, muskets and flintlock pistols...
Nathan, YES! Thank you! You must be reading my mind. Your words: “The only weapons I own are the strength of my convictions and the power of the pen to mark my ballot…” and I don’t want to touch a lethal weapon.
Sadly, many of those who swore to protect have been hoodwinked. Pray they are not a significant number…
After the fall of the Soviet Union, David Duke spent 5 years in Russia. There been cross pollination between American and European racists since before WW2. Putin has been their Great White Hope for years.
David Duke…shiver me timbers!! Yes, he was there. I tried to forget about him but how can you forget a nasty SOB like that? The Donald was back and forth in Russia for 10 years (my understanding) cozying up to the oligarchs so he could open a hotel. I agree cross pollination definitely has existed for way too long. Let’s not forget the Republicans who went to Moscow on July 4th.
Kaye Granger my cross to bear, she has corrupted more politics in Texas than Dan Patrick
I see you have gotten very little sleep tonight, Jeri. Me too. Will soak in a warm bath. Nighty night.
Oh, there was racism in Russia long before David Duke. Romanis lived in constant fear. In Moscow, my hosts shocked me with the way they regarded the Romanis, and in the east, the reluctance to even talk about the indigenous people. It is sad: they are all in the same boat, but as always the divisions are exploited for no purpose other than diversion away from the reality of living under authoritarianism.
Used to be that Uber Conservatives would crush any citizen that had a whiff of Russian scent on his elbow as McCarthyism reigned. How far the chosen have fallen, but don’t teach bad history to our little comrades in training
Well, you can’t teach anything that would make them feel guilty or ashamed! (Funny how the far Right looks like their caricatures of the”woke” Left.)
Now I am clear on the profound stupidity of ultra right-wing posters of Obama the “fascist/socialist” that showed up before his first election. Always thought it was a funny way to “meet in the middle of a political circle! 😈
The posters I saw in Texas made me wonder how he could survive one term, much less two. The venom was palpable. And the socialist crap was obvious, as HST said “Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.”
I was interested to see that in the 2008 election, the Democrats had the choice to pick either a white woman (who's reputation had been being battered since her husband was the Governor of Arkansas and who was also completely qualified by experience to be President) and a young, Black man. I had flippantly wondered which "ism" would be the worst burden to bear. I think now that while H. Clinton would have had as much opposition and resistance from the Republiqans, I think that what Obama's election did was rip the scab off of the injury of racism and reveal that it was not healing, but infected, and unleashed the blatant expression of racism that we are reaping the benefits of today.
I completely agree, Ally. But Arkansas, not Alabama.
Sigh. Those “A” states. At last I didn’t say Alaska.
😂 they could’ve seen Russia from there at least.
Ha!!!
Didn’t know that, always thought Duke was a bridge too far, even for the tea party types. But those villages were losing their hateful idiots.
"American focus on the horrors unleashed on Ukraine has clarified our own struggle between democracy and authoritarianism here at home."
For some of us perhaps. But I am wondering what democracy loving American citizens are prepared to suffer in opposition to the very possible voter fraud and manipulation that may usher in a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate in the mid-terms. Are enough Americans awake to the real threat? I don't know.
Are a sufficient number of Americans prepared to do what is necessary to ensure democracy's continuation here? I don't know.
I do know the Ukrainians are.
We need to show up for the 2022 midterms as if we were Ukrainians:
https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1502820776302444545?s=20&t=k8X4JibB33fAEZc3kLgxgA
You said it! I see signs that say, “Drive as if your kids lived here.” Between now and November we need a few million signs that say, “Vote as if democracy is at stake.”
"Vote as if this were a democracy"
Yep, that's it. We are all Ukrainians now.
The best thing I've seen this week is the new slogan "2022, Vote Like A Ukranian"!
Half of our government are enemies of democracy.
Statistics always call for citations. Yours?
How about the half of congress that failed, twice, to convict the 45th President in an impeachment trial, for starters.
Ally, half of Congress is not the same thing as "half our government." Our government includes a lot more than just Congress. Voting against impeachment doesn't translate to "enemies of democracy" without a whole lot of analysis of the motivations behind the individual votes. That leap is so far from critical thinking I don't even know what to call it.
Call it not enough coffee.
Speaking of which . . . thanks for the reminder. I need a second cup. Can't go into details, pretty minor but time-consuming anyway (up late and up early. Some elements here have got some work to do on lateral communication, it seems. I'm exhausted. Coffee . . .
Professor Richardson, Your details about our democracy and how close to losing it on Jan 6: “At the same time, the findings of the January 6 committee reveal that the pro-Putin wing of the Republican Party appears to have been willing to overturn our own liberal democracy so long as it could get what it wanted” are a perfect lead into the PBS FRONTLINE interview I just now finished. An absolute must watch and the follow up episode will be March 15. “Putin’s Road to War”
https://youtu.be/kSNo2FPQDQw
“In an interview for the FRONTLINE documentary “Putin’s Road to War,” journalist Julia Loffe discusses Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — and why she believes the Russian leader is now “more dangerous than he’s ever been at any point in the last 22 years.” I hope sometime in the next week to take a deep breath. And you, too, Heather. Thank you!
Thank you Irenie, Julia Loffe needs to be heard. Wow!
Thank you, Pat, it really ties details together. And the newest FRONTLINE will be quite enlightening!
Thank you for your clear, dispassionate distillation of the day’s events. Even after reading your letters I get so overwhelmed that I just want to crawl in a hole and whimper. But then I remember that we once had a “civil” war fought over slavery, that the American Nazi party marched in New York as Hitler tightened his grip on power in Germany, and threat of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago. We managed to overcome each crisis in the past. My hope that we can eventually get through the current crisis (and your letters) gives me the courage to stop whimpering, crawl out of that hole and face the day again.
Taking a cue from what HCR touches on as to the religious implications of the war on Ukraine, this past Sunday, I came upon this very probing essay by centrist Evangelical Christian David French on the not insignificant religious part of the equation that is driving Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. I think it is a very important consideration that has heretofore largely not been as prominent on the radar screen but which is VERY pertinent. Putin, allied with the Russian Orthodox Church, is, in essence, seeking a return to Russian greatness not just from a secular chauvinistic, global political standpoint, but out of a religious mission rooted in the Russian Orthodox Church. This isn't at all strictly about politics. French goes into detailed explanations and evidence to back up the idea that this is very much a "holy" war and it makes total sense. He also asserts that this shows the worst of Christianity when a church allies itself with and becomes a mouthpiece for a state-sponsored war on another Christian nation. As he says, it's easy to see why our founders were so careful to avoid any mention of a state-sponsored church. But, he also is inspired by how the world, especially the religious world, is coming together for good and going out of its way to help Ukraine. Here's the bulk of his essay, a long-ish read, which I highly recommend...it is interesting and makes a LOT of sense. I read French's blog on Substack every Sunday and always find his viewpoint refreshing compared to so many of his Evangelical brethren. I do disagree with him at times, but he is someone who does actually THINK and is often very critical of his fellow Evangelicals (he is VERY anti-T***p, BTW).
"As you watch the horror unfolding in Ukraine, you are watching two immensely important, competing religious events unfold in real time. First, Russia’s invasion is laced with religious elements. In many ways, it’s a religious war, representing religion at its worst. Second, as we watch the Ukrainian and international church race to Ukraine’s aide, we’re seeing Christianity at its best. In one stark moment, we are seeing the extremes of what Christians can do, for evil and for good. Let’s start by describing the evil.
"There are times when you read an essay so illuminating and informative that you think about it for years. That happened to me in December 2014, several months after the Russian invasion of Crimea. The essay was by former National Security Agency analyst John Schindler, and it was called 'Putin’s Orthodox Jihad.' An Orthodox Christian himself, Schindler provided an analysis of Putin’s Russia I’d seen nowhere else.
"The essay is long and complex, but at the risk of oversimplifying the argument, Schindler described an ideological 'fusion' between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the FSB, Russia’s intelligence service. This fusion culminated 'in the 2002 dedication of an Orthodox church at the Lubyanka, the FSB—and former KGB’s—notorious Moscow headquarters.'
"This ideological fusion, Schindler argued, was at the heart of Putin’s emerging ideology. In essence, Putin didn’t just seek Russian greatness out of a sense of secular national chauvinism, but out of religious mission, and that mission was rooted in the ROC.
"Moreover, the church provided the core of the Russian moral argument against the west. Again, here was Schindler:
"'ROC agitprop, which has Kremlin endorsement, depicts a West that is declining down to its death at the hands of decadence and sin, mired in confused unbelief, bored and failing to even reproduce itself. Patriarch Kirill, head of the church, recently explained that the “main threat” to Russia is “the loss of faith” in the Western style, while ROC spokesmen constantly denounce feminism and the LGBT movement as Satanic creations of the West that aim to destroy faith, family, and nation.'
"Indeed, Russia even adopted a term called 'spiritual security,' which 'gives the ROC a mission in defending Russia from negative Western spiritual influences, in partnership with Moscow’s intelligence agencies.'
"Since Schindler’s piece—little-noticed at the time—the evidence of Putin’s religious motivations has grown overwhelming. As Giles Fraser argued in the British website Unherd, 'Putin regards his spiritual destiny as the rebuilding of Christendom, based in Moscow.'
"But what does this have to do with Ukraine? It turns out that Kiev is of central importance in Russian Orthodoxy. It’s the birthplace of the ROC, the church’s 'Jerusalem' according to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill:
"'Ukraine is not on the periphery of our church. We call Kiev "the mother of all Russian cities." For us Kiev is what Jerusalem is for many. Russian Orthodoxy began there, so under no circumstances can we abandon this historical and spiritual relationship. The whole unity of our Local Church is based on these spiritual ties.'
"Now, let’s add one final ingredient. In 2019 large numbers of Ukrainian parishes separated from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was formerly under the ROC, to join a new Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In a February report describing the religious dimensions of the war, Schindler noted that 'the schism rendered Moscow white-hot with rage. The ROC viewed this as a direct attack on its "canonical territory" and on world Orthodoxy itself.'
"To make this as simple as possible, Putin has fused Russian identity with the ROC, sees his nation and his church as a bulwark against western decadence, and is now not just attempting to seize his church’s 'Jerusalem' but potentially forcibly reuniting his church after a schism it rejects. There are nationalist, historical, and strategic reasons for Putin’s move against Ukraine, but the religious elements are real, and important.
"The religious dimension of this conflict is yet another reason why the Cold War analogies are incorrect. As I’ve said before, Putin isn’t trying to recreate the Soviet Union. The better analogy is to the deeply religious Russian Empire that existed before the Russian Civil War.
"This is the church at its worst, when it weds itself to state power and wields the sword to advance God’s kingdom on earth. We are watching the deep darkness of malevolent Christendom, a religious movement that will slaughter innocents to fight 'decadence' and bomb hospitals to combat 'sin.' When you see Putin’s armies advance, you can think, this is why our nation rejects established religion.
"But when great evil arises, great good answers. And in this case, the great good is also in the church. Yes, it’s represented by individual Christian Ukrainian soldiers laying down their lives in defense of their nation and their homes, but it’s also represented by a very different kind of institutional Christian response.
"I’m thinking, for example, of the report that the average Baptist World Alliance Church in Ukraine is 'feeding and sheltering 100 people.' I’m thinking of Samaritan’s Purse setting up an emergency field hospital outside of Lviv, Ukraine. I’m thinking of churches like First Baptist Church of Robertsdale, Alabama, sending a team to Moldova to help Ukrainian refugees.
"I’m also thinking of my colleague Harvest Prude’s moving story about the bonds between Christians in the United States and Christians in Ukraine:
"'It’s personal for us in the Southern Baptist world,' Brent Leatherwood, acting president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told The Dispatch. 'Most folks don’t realize it, but Ukraine has the second largest population of Baptists in Europe.' In churches across America, Leatherwood said, pastors are utilizing prayer guides and partnering with Send Relief and other organizations helping on the ground.
"I have friends who’ve spent time in Ukraine. Our churches are praying for Ukraine. They’re sending people and goods to Ukraine, flooding Eastern Europe with tangible support for a people who are suffering from terrible harm.
"In this circumstance, national borders and national identities matter far less than the Christian brotherhood with Ukrainian churches and the shared humanity of Ukrainian refugees.
"This is Christianity at its best. It’s not pacifistic. Its members are resisting tyranny with the force of arms. But its focus isn’t on conquest, but rather compassion. A religious war is being met with a religious response, and that religious response represents the true face of the faith that Putin purports to defend.
[...]
"I’ve been frankly surprised at the number of people who’ve asked me why we don’t intervene directly to save Ukraine. In an extended piece for The Atlantic, I tried to explain in detail why direct intervention would be extraordinarily perilous. Vladimir Putin just might try to fight—and win—a limited nuclear war:
"'Since the dawn of modern warfare, the world’s most powerful countries have inflicted terrible destruction on the nations they conquer. But nuclear weapons raise the stakes higher still. It’s vitally important that Americans understand the true nature of Putin’s forces, and the doctrines that might dictate their use.'
"'It’s one thing to confront a potential nuclear conflict when both sides know they’ll lose. Mutual assured destruction kept the peace even during the darkest days of the Cold War. It’s another thing entirely to confront a potential nuclear conflict when one side believes it can win. That’s the most dangerous confrontation of all, and we may be close to that now.'"
Religion has been the “reason,” the cause of wars forever, at least centuries. FRONTLINE also documents Putin’s religious zeal. And then there’s antisemitism. Not only in Russia. Some of the quotes in your piece sound like USA, George W Bush, then TFG who were supported by Evangelical Christian churches at the pulpit.
Putin very successfully enlisted the evangelical faction in US for the benefit of Bush and Trump both by his manipulation of “family values.” They were knee capped and didn’t feel a thing. In my own opinion they were far more grievously damaged by their own self mutilation.
And speaking of failing to enforce the law, why didn't those pulpits lose their tax-exempt status? Or, at least pay penalties? Their videos were all over social media. Why wasn't the IRS enforcing the law? The sermon from the Sunday before the 2016 presidential election from the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida set my hair on fire.
Agreed. I think the antisemitism is pretty much a given and has long been a not-so-well-kept-secret of the traditional Russian Orthodox Church. The newer sect of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has embraced a more Western approach to morality and to antisemitism, and this is heretical to the ROC & Putin. As I noted, David French is an Evangelical who is very much against the church having anything to do with politics. His viewpoint is not the only one, thankfully, as the recently elected head of the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas has spoken out very strongly on the church staying out of politics, citing their drastic loss of members in the past 10 years as proof that people, especially young people, are rejecting a church that comes across as interested more in political power. It's a very welcome step in the right direction.
Bruce, thanks for the French article.
Christianity has a long history of this kind of "ideological fusion" of religious and political powers. In every case the fusion hollows out and distorts the Gospel on which Christianity is based. It has certainly happened in the U.S., and is happening now, as the ultra-right Evangelicals and the ultra-conservative Roman Catholics join forces in the cultural wars. Their so called "religious freedom" platform sounds a lot like Putin's " spiritual security" .....We call it "religious" because it is being steered by the leadership ( not necessarily all of the membership) of powerful organizations--businesses really--which operate in the U.S. at least under the banner of a 501(c)(3) but which provide yet one more code label for the culture "war"! Once this fusion happens within various Christian denominations, the resulting entity is so far removed from religion ( and such a distortion) as to be anti- religion! But the reason French can identify "good" and "bad" players within Christianity is that some Christians remain tethered to Gospel values despite the actions of their leaders.
Exactly. And as French has pointed out in some of his other writings, the fact that organised religion is losing members right and left shows that people are sick of the bullsh!t they see masquerading as "representing" Christ on earth. Christ is unconditional love. Period. What does all this other stuff have to do with what is essentially a beautiful and simple message?
I remember, W especially
Organized religions have been the cause of/participants in wars, is what caused me to discount the organized religion that I grew up in, when in college (eons ago), with a couple of backslides since then :)
When religion becomes weaponized and becomes a club with which one brutalizes another it is no longer religion. A friend of mine who happens to be of the Flathead Tribe near St. Ignatius, MT., once told me - “the most dangerous animal on the planet was a middle aged Christian white lady”.
First phrase that came to mind, The Dark Ages. Terrible times ahead. Selfish fanatics.
It makes sense to me that Putin is trying to recreate a time before the USSR because I heard all my life that communism dissed religion, and consequently destroyed much of the orthodoxy. What doesn’t make sense is that Putin is a religious man, maybe using religion as many power-hungry cretins do, but a believer? Beyond my comprehension.
Putin's "religion" has served him well.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=putin%27s+palace&form=ANNTH1&refig=a18c0a6ba9bf445fa7f513726336a03d&sp=5&qs=EP&pq=putin%27s+&sk=PRES1FT2LS2&sc=8-8&cvid=a18c0a6ba9bf445fa7f513726336a03d
Jeri, you put into words just what I was thinking. Religion is a tool, no more, to him.
Bruce, I had to read your “essay” one more time and it’s even more illuminating and disturbing. I see the debate as degrees of faith and Christianity. Interesting that the church in Ukraine competes with Putin’s ROC. My relatives, Jews from Kiev and Vilnius, Lithuania, left (escaped ?) in 1909 to USA. I believe a few remain but I’m not in touch. I don’t see any mention of Jews, but note the degrees of Christianity. Another article might tell us about the Inquisitions, about Christians, Jews and Muslims. Then and now. Thank you for sharing your research and connecting it to this war. Religions have a way of protecting their beliefs to the point of losing touch with what would seem to be “godly.” Frontline in some of its stories on Putin and Russia include the religious connections which are missing in much of other reporting. There is a line that is crossed from religious to fanatical that loses all perspective, which brings the conversation back to Putin’s beliefs and objectives in this war. Where to next?
As I said, David French, the author of the article I quoted, notes that this war is showing both the good and bad side of religion in a society. French is a staunch believer in separation of church and state, and fervently believes religion and government don't and should not mix. You should read his diatribes against the Falwells, Franklin Graham, and kooks like Pat Robertson. It is a refreshing take that is frequently at odds with so many of his Evangelical cohorts. There are some decent thinkers among them--they're not ALL nuts--and I am interested to see their views. His blog on Substack has a comments section like this one and attracts a wide range of religious views, believers of every stripe and non-believers. Some of the dialogue can get feisty. I'm surrounded down here by every sort of Evangelical group imaginable, so finding a fairly liberal Evangelical viewpoint is reassuring. French is not in any way supportive of Putin and his fake religiosity. And yes, where this will lead is anybody's guess.
Yes, I will check out the blog. And after reading my comment. I think I would add “religion” as I understand its not just Christianity that doesn’t mix with politics, but most, all Religion. And the different viewpoints about religion and politics within families is not new. Including my family.
The idea of a clear separation of church and government does seem to be a concept that has been specific to the US Constitution and as such hasn't been enshrined in too many other government systems around the globe. It goes hand in hand with our Constitution being a product of Enlightenment Era minds, an era that saw the rise of science and reasoning, and a waning of influence of religion, even going so far as questioning of its validity. When you think about it, it's fascinating how in a relatively short time of say a hundred years or so we went from a highly superstitious sort of mindset that could lead to such things as the Salem witch trials, all the way to coming up with documents like the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. It shows the occurrence of a seismic shift in thinking that led to our founders jettisoning what had been a fairly general idea of a state religion. Have we always followed it exactly to the letter throughout our history? No, not really, but we've done pretty well keeping its influence at bay. I just hope we can keep it that way.
Hey, Bruce, this is excellent. Thank you.
I agree!
Morning, Lynell!
Do you know how tiny Robertsdale, AL is? In 2019, less than 7k people. It also happens to be the hometown of Apple CEO, Tim Cook.
The intertwined uses of religion for politics and political power for religious power have long been around. Thanks for your summary of French's argument. Do you have a link/reference for it, and/or Schindler's article?
Here's the link to the Schindler article from 2014 in Wordpress:
https://20committee.wordpress.com/2014/12/27/putins-orthodox-jihad/
Here's a link to David French's blog on Dispatch from last Sunday:
https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-best-of-christian-compassion?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMTkzNzQ4OSwicG9zdF9pZCI6NTAyMzQxNzIsIl8iOiJYb3JVWSIsImlhdCI6MTY0NzM2NzY3MSwiZXhwIjoxNjQ3MzcxMjcxLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjE3NjUiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.K-095sCqcHYNuyLXFeCiI1QWBSVvvYfydkNfpSBD-64&s=r
Thanks Bruce.
Oh my gosh. I thought tRUMP, his enablers and cronies said there were no weapons brought into the Capitol. I've always been leery of guys in wheelchairs with blankets over their laps. Once in an airport, the TSAs had me stripped practically naked as I set off all the alarms (titanium hips) while they pushed a guy in a wheelchair with a heavy blanket over his lap and never said a word to him. I made sure he wasn't on my flight before I got on. A chunk of C3 the size of a wheelchair makes a pretty good bang. Do they check Cawthorn before he enters the Senate?
Resonating with the titanium hip pat-down. A grey-haired granny gets multiple pat-downs every time after declaring that I got a metal hip on Dec. 21st 2013 at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Pat-pat-pat...
SMH 🙁
They lie
I got a pat down in a CA airport due to artificial knee. Side bar: I also had a right upper arm break (a break that cannot be cast, only splinted) and had to hold that arm up level with my shoulder for a prolonged pat down! It was excruciating, but no effort was made to accommodate my situation.
Disgusting - I was surprised to see how unfriendly the employees on the US side of the entry process were.
As horrible as the war is, it has jarred people who have ignored and sidestepped those among us who have aligned themselves with white supremacists, oligarchs, and dictators. Thanks for confirming what many of us were starting to see ourselves. Hard to know how to say or word it when it took something and someone as vile as Putin to shake cowards who were letting their party slide into what it has. Fingers crossed all the way around.
If the ruble becomes rubble, will republican politicians look for alternatives sources of income to fund their campaigns? This is based on the assumption that Russian money buys influence by funding political campaigns.
There’s always China. And, by the way, who decided that outsourcing so much of our manufacturing capability was a strategic benefit to America? Finance, Union busters, and their ilk all bear some responsibility.
There are always the Remnimbi or the Yuan to take the rouble's place. All's fair in love and war.....as the saying goes. One paymaster is as good as another.