I'm breaking my rules this week for my What the Heck column. Routinely I select the few stories from the previous week that left me the most bewildered, flummoxed, and bamboozled. But I'm going a few weeks back to start things off this time. In fairness, I just saw that this happened a couple days ago, so technically that means I'm only bending my rules, not breaking them.
MAGA-church minister
Just this week I saw that back on April 21, Texas mega-church (or MAGA-church, take your pick) minister Robert Jeffress had given his full-throated, unabashed endorsement to Donald Trump for the upcoming Republican primary. Leave aside the potential stumbling blocks to and distractions from the gospel that this kind of overt politicking within the sanctuary can do, and realize how goofy and revealing this move is.
I know that the minister's alliance with Trump the first time around got him invites onto Fox News. I know being wined and dined by the prestigious, powerful, and wealthy is a real enticement to a mortal man. But having your church compose and perform a "Make American Great Again" anthem during a worship service? Ceding the pulpit to Caesar…on Christmas Sunday? I mean, come on.
But Jeffress and others like him could always retreat behind the veneer that Trump, while imperfect, was better than the alternative. "He's better than Hillary" or "He's better than Biden" was always the fallback defense for men like Jeffress.
But what's the excuse this time? Trump already has Republican challengers far more palatable to a Christian's conscience, and there are more still to join. In his full-throated endorsement of Trump, Jeffress complained that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is "lackluster." "There is nothing he has done lately to sway evangelicals."
True, I suppose. Unless you count defeating the rabid abortion lobby and signing a ban on the barbaric practice once the baby is 6-weeks old. Or the parental rights bills. Or the ban on progressive trojan horse programs like DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). Or ensuring every child in Florida qualifies for a private school scholarship.
Perhaps Jeffress just overlooked those things? Or then again, the man who once defended Trump's adultery by falsely accusing Ronald Reagan of being a "known womanizer" (patently untrue), might be motivated less by what's good for evangelicals and more by what's good for preserving his own clout.
Rape is preferable to racism?
Well, we've arrived at the inevitable, I suppose. The basic intuition that women have which warns them of imminent danger? Their survival instinct that kicks in crossing a dark street? Yep, it's all racism.
I honestly cannot imagine worse advice for young women living in 2023 America. With the explosion of human trafficking, the elevated murder rate in countless cities, and sexual assault becoming epidemic, shaming women for trusting their instincts is simply appalling behavior.
All due respect to Ms. Loreto, my wife and I will be thoroughly ignoring her counsel when we tell our daughters to always listen to their gut, and never hesitate to seek help when they feel threatened in any way. If someone gets offended by that, racially or otherwise, that's a much better problem to be dealing with than the alternative.
Selma's second coming
I spend a good week and a half in my American history classes to teach the civil rights movement. From Emmett Till to Montgomery, a Birmingham jail to the Little Rock 9, we study it all. And it culminates each year with us watching the movie "Selma." That eats up about 3 days of class time, but I think there's value in letting the kids see recreations of the violence that happened on the Edmund Pettus Bridge – the inhumanity, savagery – the hideous face of racial hatred.
I sincerely apologize for the graphic nature of this video I'm about to post, and I'd encourage anyone bothered by violence and bloodshed to be cautious about viewing it. But this just happened in the streets of Oakland. A lawless crowd had taken over an entire intersection, with drivers performing stunts. One stunt apparently struck a white man's vehicle, who then made the mistake of getting out of his car and yelling at the crowd. What happened next was a scene straight out of Selma, 1965:
[Warning: Very Graphic Violence]
On Bloody Sunday 58 years ago, that was the type of violence perpetrated by white men against black citizens. Today on the streets of Oakland, the roles are reversed. Of course the circumstances are different and the man who was assaulted may have far less character than those nonviolent ministers who attempted to cross that bridge six decades ago. I'm not comparing characters and circumstances. I'm comparing human beings to human beings, brutality to brutality, savagery to savagery, racial hatred to racial hatred.
If one was wrong, the other is too. If one deserved societal condemnation and rectification, the other does too. And if we can't agree on that, then our civilization is hurtling towards collapse.
