The Unerring Talent of the Christian Right…

The Unerring Talent of the Christian Right… September 30, 2016

…for making visible-from-space wrong prudential judgments is on full display today.

It takes a special kind of discernment and genius to wait until just the moment that Trump has humiliated himself in debate and is in full Queeg Mode to say “As sober, thoughtful Christians that’s the man for me!” Trump has been obsessing for five days over Miss Universe Alicia Machado as his primary takeaway from the debate. He *must* justify calling her Miss Piggy (to insult her body) and Miss Housekeeping (to insult her ethnicity). He *can’t* be wrong about that and he can’t back down. And so now the man the Republican Party seriously chose as its nominee is suspending all normal adult activity to shriek that a duplicate key to the ward room did exist and there’s a sex tape in there and he’d have produced that sex tape if sinister forces were not conspiring to tamper with his microphone.

Meanwhile, normal people are quietly changing their vote to his opponent and backing away in horror.

All except the most brilliant conservative Christian scholars and writers. These people who have for years, told us that it’s okay to ignore the Church about any prudential judgment the Right disagrees with are once again demonstrating that prudence is in unbelievable short supply in their ranks.

It’s so simple. They didn’t have to back Hillary. They just did not have to endorse Trump. But no, with the trademark common sense that has led members of that august company to support a catastrophic war in Iraq against two popes and all the bishops of the world, to make excuses for torture, the declare Francis a Stalinist and “Che Guevara’s pope”, to battle the Church on the death penalty, and to pursue a host of other imprudent things, these folks pick this moment to back a pro-abortion, thrice-married strip club owning pornocratic racist misogynist who marinates himself in loony conspiracy theories, spouts eugenicist claptrap, mocks the disabled and POWs, and spits on Gold Star families as terrorist sympathizers.

Good job.

I will begin to take seriously the prudential judgment of right wing dissenters from Church guidance when they start to exhibit prudence.


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