Why I Still Talk to Jesus -- In Spite of Everything
Donald Trump prays with religious leaders, Kenneth Copeland, Paula White and others. I remember a group of evangelicals (Franklin Graham et al) laying hands on W Bush and holding him “up to the Lord for victory.” God answered prayer and so W destroyed the Middle East. Praise Jesus! Here’s the same crew blessing Trump (no kidding). The mind boggles! Watch! With W we only got tens of thousands dead.
What will Trump and the evangelical leadership achieve together? For the un-funny aftermath of the Bush fiasco and a preview of where Trump will take us, read what I write after watching this video and laughing.
Here’s the truth deal with it. I watched American Sniper for the first time last night instead of watching the Dems debate. I’d avoided the movie so far because as the father of a Marine who spent sleepless nights as my son fought in the war portrayed in the movie the last thing I need is more of this war crap. On the other hand I didn’t watch the debate because who cares what Hillary (who voted for the war in Iraq and earned a combined income with her husband Bill last year of 30 million) says. I’m a Bernie Sanders fan.
The movie struck me as powerful in the context of all the recent gun violence. America is not so much a country as a gun cult, a cult with roots so Deep even Sanders has had to bow before this religion. He has not stood up to the gun lobby. Guns are the only real and lasting symbol of American exceptionalism.
Whatever the critics said that was nice about the movie, Clint Eastwood seems to have returned to his old Dirty Harry ways. “Make my day” is still the theme of this new Dirty Harry hired gun as he shoots the bad guys in American Sniper.
The last shots in the movie of ordinary folks in Texas lining the highway to bid farewell to a mass killer who had shot hundreds of victims in a useless war that achieved nothing and is now utterly lost, more less summed up the entire American journey since the Second World war. It is a journey that neither Clinton or Sanders dares address. We are hooked on kitsch sentimentality “support” for our military married to willful ignorance of the world.
The hero of the movie is shot down by one of his own when back home in Texas having survived the war. What a perfect symbol of what America really is. How telling that the hero sniper thinks shooting yet more guns will be good therapy for Marines experiencing PTSD. That’s how he got killed, one of his own guys shot him. It never ends, just like the NRA who thinks more guns are what we need to protect ourselves never ends. Worked out great for the “hero” the sniper, huh?
We do not have the most powerful military on earth at least not as defined by winning. We’ve lost every single war since World War II and/or faced stalemate. Belgium has done better.
We are not winners, we are gun crazy losers who shoot their own. Terrorists don’t kill us, we do, gun violence does, suicide by gun does, W Bush killed far more Americans than bin Laden ever did.
The “hero” sniper comes home to be shot by a deranged Marine he hands a gun to for “fun”! Instead of lining the route to honor this sniper all those gun loving Texans should have been on their knees begging for mercy and/or talking to a shrink.
We ask ourselves “WHY” after each shooting. Look at yourself. You and me are “why.” ISIS may be a death cult but so are we. Even Bernie Sanders believes in the right to unrestricted (in any meaningful way) gun carrying.
Meanwhile in the real world, as opposed to the American imagination of our own heroism, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and every other part of the world we’ve touched with our “wonderful” “best” military, especially in the Middle East, is exploding precisely because we decided to “help.” God help any country we liberate! God help anyone the US military fights for. God help anyone who thinks anyone is safer with a gun.
As we go into the 2016 elections we have pygmies running for president arguing over the crumbs of what’s left of American power. That includes Trump, Sanders and Clinton. This is grim news for Americans especially for someone like myself who is the proud father of a Marine who served in Afghanistan after 9/11. It is tough to realize that all his good work all his valor was wasted on a leadership that can’t even stand up to the putrid little NRA.
Go watch American Sniper again and again until you get your head straight about one thing: Our worst enemy is us. Period. There are no heroes when your country is on the wrong side of history.
Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His latest book —WHY I AM AN ATHEIST WHO BELIEVES IN GOD: How to give love, create beauty and find peace
Available now on Amazon
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