![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2023\/03\/cranach-seal.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTrump\u2019s honeymoon is over.\u00a0 Abort the poor to save money.\u00a0 And Methodist schism sparks violence and arrests in Africa.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s Honeymoon Is Over<\/h4>\n
At first, after Donald Trump\u2019s re-election, his opposition seemed paralyzed in shock.\u00a0 The president began his administration with \u201cshock and awe\u201d aggression, with game-changing executive orders, in-your-face Cabinet appointments, and radical cuts in the federal bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
The Democrats seemed stunned into silence.\u00a0 But now the party and its media allies have gotten their voice back.<\/p>\n
Democrats<\/a>, grasping for a way to respond to the new political climate in which they are largely shut out of power, came to three alternatives:<\/p>\n (1) Go with the flow.<\/strong>\u00a0 Cooperate with the new regime for now.\u00a0 California Governor Gavin Newsom said, contrary to his earlier position, that he too opposes males competing in women\u2019s sports.\u00a0 Senate Minority Leader Schumer instructed Democratic senators to vote for the Republican budget plan so as not to shut down the federal government.\u00a0 But that acquiescence stirred up the Democratic base into suppor for the next option.<\/p>\n (2)\u00a0Bring Back the Resistance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Double down on our leftist convictions!\u00a0 Don\u2019t water down our woke ideology!\u00a0 Protest at every opportunity!\u00a0 Resist, like we did the first time Trump was elected!\u00a0 This is what the Democratic lawmakers who shouted, held signs, and waved a cane did at President Trump\u2019s speech to Congress.\u00a0 But that led only to wide-spread mockery, though the sentiment continues to simmer among the progressive grassroots, with talk of the emergence of a Democratic Tea-Party<\/a>. similar to the populist uprising among conservatives a decade or so ago.\u00a0 But the more seasoned politico James Carville, who was Bill Clinton\u2019s Machiavellian operative, suggested a different tactic. . . .<\/p>\n (3)\u00a0\u00a0Wait for Trump to Make Mistakes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Specifically, Carville said to \u201cplay dead,\u201d as quoted and summarized in the New Yorker:<\/p>\n His prescription<\/a>\u00a0is as follows: \u201cWith no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it\u2019s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead.\u201d\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0and his cronies, Carville argues, have underestimated the American public\u2019s tolerance for chaos, incompetence, and masculinity contests with other world leaders that may very well end in a crashed economy. The best path, then, is to just wait while Trump still has some afterglow from the election until his approval numbers have tanked and then \u201cmake like a pack of hyenas and go for the jugular.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Carville seems prophetic.\u00a0 In the rush of Trump\u2019s two months in office, mistakes were made (to use the bureaucratic passive).\u00a0 The economy is in turmoil over the possible effects and the on-again-off-again threats of the tariffs.\u00a0 Some of the DOGE cutbacks have had to be undone, due to the inadvertent cutting of essential services.\u00a0 Other countries are in a panic at the disruption of long-held alliances.\u00a0 Courts are slapping injunctions on Trump\u2019s executive orders.<\/p>\n And now a long-time anti-Trump reporter was somehow copied onto a discussion of the administration\u2019s plan to bomb the Houthis.\u00a0 The consequences of this call have been exaggerated, but the question is, who on Trump\u2019s team had the Atlantic reporter on speed dial and how did he get on the call?\u00a0 The fiasco creates even in Trump supporters a feeling of incompetence.<\/p>\n At any rate, the hyenas have now been loosed.<\/p>\n Trump has the opportunity to reform the federal bureaucracy in a significant way.\u00a0 His populist brand of conservatism can be of great help to ordinary Americans.\u00a0 And the vibe shift against all things woke is a much-needed corrective to the cultural dominance of elite progressives.<\/p>\n Right now his support is still strong<\/a>\u00a0and support for the Democrats is at a record low<\/a>.<\/p>\n But he and his administration need to start being careful<\/em>.\u00a0 Otherwise, Clinton\u2019s henchman will be right and voters will put the hyenas back in power.<\/p>\n Pro-abortion arguments usually try to evoke compassion for women in a \u201cproblem pregnancy\u201d or wrap themselves in abstractions with positive connotations like \u201creproductive freedom\u201d or \u201cwomen\u2019s health care.\u201d<\/p>\n In Colorado, supporters of taxpayer-funded abortion are using a crasser argument:\u00a0 aborting the babies of poor people is cheaper to the state than letting them live.<\/p>\n Medicaid<\/a> (not to be confused with Medicare for retirees) is the federal program that funds health care for low-income citizens.\u00a0 The government gives block grants to the states, which contribute a portion of the funding and within certain parameters can set their own eligibility rules.<\/p>\n Thanks to the Hyde Amendment, federal money may not be used for abortions.\u00a0 But some states have chosen to add state money to pay for abortions for women in their Medicaid programs.\u00a0 Right now,\u00a019 states<\/a> are doing that (Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington).<\/p>\n Democrats in Colorado want to join that number.\u00a0 Ryan Mills<\/a> reports:<\/p>\n \u201cA birth is more expensive than an abortion,\u201d Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie said at a\u00a0committee hearing this week<\/a>, touting a\u00a0legislative fiscal analysis<\/a> that claims taxpayer-funded abortions could save the state a half million dollars or more annually. . . .\u201cUltimately, we do achieve a cost savings because of the averted births that will not take place,\u201d McCluskie told the House Health & Human Services Committee on Tuesday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The bill, which has already passed the state senate 22-12, on a party line vote, turns children into a commodity.\u00a0 Mills quotes some pro-lifers who object:<\/p>\n Talking about human life in that manner is \u201chorrible\u201d and \u201cabominable,\u201d say pro-life opponents of the bill. \u201cSeriously, the bill\u2019s sponsors are saying that if more babies die by abortion it will be cheaper for the state,\u201d Dr. Catherine Wheeler, a pro-life OB-GYN and former abortion provider, told the committee, which ultimately advanced the bill. . . .<\/p>\n \u201cChildren cost money. No one disputes that,\u201d [Michael J. New] said. But, he added, \u201clife has intrinsic value and it\u2019s priceless.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The thing is, the claim that funding abortion is cheaper than funding births is simplistic.\u00a0 The state of Colorado would have to pay everything for an abortion, while federal Medicaid dollars would mostly cover the birth of the child.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve blogged about the disuniting of the United Methodist Church<\/a>, mainly over issues of sexuality but also over broader issues of Scriptural fidelity.\u00a0 Conservatives have broken away to become either independent or to join a new denomination, the Global Methodists.<\/p>\n In the United States, church break-ups can get ugly, with lawsuits, harsh words, and broken relationships.\u00a0 American Methodists devised a process that would allow for a more amicable split, by which congregations that decide to leave the denomination could depart with their property.\u00a0 After all, the liberal side, which keeps the denominational infrastructure even though the conservatives outvoted them in convention, are happy to see the conservatives go, giving them free rein<\/a>.<\/p>\n But no such arrangement was made for African Methodists, with some United Methodists resorting to violence against the Global Methodists.\u00a0 Though both sides claim to believe in traditional sexual morality, the United Methodists still want the financial support of the Western mainline liberal denomination.<\/p>\n In Nigeria, as reported by Sarah Stewart<\/a>, when Global Methodists were holding their annual conference at Banyam Theological Seminary, a group of United Methodists wielding guns and machetes disrupted the worship service, broke windows, and assaulted conservative Methodists, sending seven to the hospital.\u00a0 The story quotes the Global Methodist bishop, who poignantly added, \u201cThe GMC people offered no resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n In Liberia, some 100 Methodist congregations out of 500 chose to join the Global Methodists.\u00a0 But the United Methodists are claiming their buildings, locking out conservative pastors and members from their churches.\u00a0 Conflicts between the two factions have sometimes become violent, leading the Liberian government to intervene.\u00a0 Mark Tooley<\/a> reports that Global Methodist pastors and members have been arrested for refusing to relinquish their property.\u00a0 Tooley says that \u201camid tear gas and mayhem,\u201d the leader of the break-away Methodists, Jerry Kulah, was also arrested, though he was released later in the day.<\/p>\n Comments Tooley,<\/p>\n The sometimes-violent United Methodist schism,\u00a0replicated in Nigeria<\/a>, is tragic and unnecessary. Had United Methodism retained its traditional standards, Africa\u2019s churches, where United Methodism is larger than in the U.S., could have remained together. Now they are torn apart not directly by theology but largely about concerns over funding from the U.S. The United Methodist General Conference also could have prevented this chaos by creating a practical exit policy for overseas churches. A further complication is that much if not most African countries do not have clear, much less enforceable, laws about the legal status of United Methodist church properties.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are some 25 million Methodists in Africa<\/a>, as compared to just over 4 million in the United States<\/a>.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t find membership numbers, but the United Methodists in the U.S. lost over 7,900 congregations, about 26% of their total<\/a>.\u00a0 But those who remain can continue their crusade against racism and colonialism.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trump’s honeymoon is over.\u00a0 Abort the poor to save money.\u00a0 And Methodist schism sparks violence and arrests in Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":65538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,26,27,36,41],"tags":[16138,656,12310,16135,4923,8074],"class_list":["post-81586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-government","category-law","category-life-issues","category-politics","category-sex","tag-african-methodists","tag-democratic-party","tag-global-methodist-church","tag-james-carville","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-united-methodist-church"],"yoast_head":"\nAbort the Poor to Save Money<\/h4>\n
Methodist Schism Sparks Violence and Arrests in Africa<\/h4>\n