35 years ago, I taught a course to psychotherapists on Culture, Religion and Psychotherapy. Throughout the early months of the seminar, I was struck by one fact and one fact, alone: every time one of my students -- all growed up and life experienced with maybe the average age being 45 -- every time a student mentioned a religious person, it was someone who was emotionally ill. I, at last, commented that not only was it true that most of the great works of the ages were God-Fearing but, indeed, the last psychoanalyst who had taught the course for years before he unexpectedly died was a religious person, as well.
All this to say: I don't know if Donald Trump "loves women" ... the tabloids certainly claim that he's bedded many of the "fairer sex" ... but I have been drawn, in my life, to devout and religious folk and their texts. Lord knows, some readers of these scribbles have complained that my blog is overly peppered ... too heavily spiced, that is, with quotes from various Scriptures.
So, I wonder .... and so does M ... how can it be that some Evangelical Christians and some Ultra-Orthodox Jews are supporting for the Presidency of the Nation (that gives them the right to pray to their God in whatever way they choose) a man who at least reportedly is a serial adulterer, a public smearer of others, an offender of women based on their weight or looks, a man who discusses his and his women's sex lives on such programs as the Howard Stern Show, and someone who garishly transgresses Deuteronomy's prohibition on even the King having too much stuff (horses, women, ...).
Where is this roughly 50% of religious folk coming from? In my own religious tradition, each day is started with a prayer asking God to protect the one praying from public displays of arrogance (עזות פנים) and from those who publicly display their arrogance (עזי פנים). How can this be that 50% of Indiana's Evangelicals supported such a man? As I noted in a recent posting, the sages of Babylonia were confused by the juxtaposition in Deuteronomy 17:18-21 of the rules for judges and public officials with the prohibition against idolatry (tree worship, there). They explained it by arguing, as I recall, in Tractate Sanhedrin (p 11, maybe) that "anyone who stands up for the election of an unfit judge/leader is essentially guilty of idolatry."
Somebody, please explain how religious folk can stand up for electing one such as the reported Donald Trump for leader of the Free World?
Elizabeth Warren said something similar but so much better than I ever could:
Donald Trump is now the leader of the Republican Party. It's real – he is one step away from the White House. Here's what else is real:
Elizabeth Warren said something similar but so much better than I ever could:
Donald Trump is now the leader of the Republican Party. It's real – he is one step away from the White House. Here's what else is real:
Trump has built his campaign on racism, sexism, and xenophobia. There's more enthusiasm for him among leaders of the KKK than leaders of the political party he now controls.
He incites supporters to violence, praises Putin, and, according to a columnist who recently interviewed him, is "cool with being called an authoritarian" and doesn't mind associations with history's worst dictators.
He attacks veterans like John McCain who were captured and puts our servicemembers at risk by cheerleading illegal torture. In a world with ISIS militants and leaders like North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un conducting nuclear tests, he surrounds himself with a foreign policy team that has been called a "collection of charlatans," and puts out contradictory and nonsensical national security ideas one expert recently called "incoherent" and "truly bizarre."
What happens next will test the character for all of us – Republican, Democrat, and Independent. It will determine whether we move forward as one nation or splinter at the hands of one man's narcissism and divisiveness. I know which side I'm on, and I’m going to fight my heart out to make sure Donald Trump’s toxic stew of hatred and insecurity never reaches the White House.
