These past four years have been an exercise in watching every single person and group I grew up being taught to respect bow down and worship Trump. Yes, I know\u2014they were always like that.<\/em> But there\u2019s something about watching the horrible politics I already knew they held meld with fascist worship of an individual that has been particularly horrifying.<\/p>\n Michael and Debi Pearl are far less active on their ministry blog than they once were, but from time to time, they do post new content. In a recent post, they told three stories of individuals stepping up to help in emergency situations\u2014being the person to who takes charge and locates and uses an EpiPen, during an allergic reaction a table over at a restaurant, for instance. They follow their discussion of taking action in emergency situations while everyone else is frozen with this:<\/p>\n As I reflected on these episodes, I realized they could be parables that lend wisdom. Most people don\u2019t prepare for the unthinkable. They trust that someone else will take care of them\u2014family, government, police, medical personnel, banks, etc. Most don\u2019t want to waste money, time, or energy on something that might not happen. \u2026 Most people avoid making a scene even if it is necessary or the right thing to do. Most people would just politely sit and wait for an ambulance that might arrive too late, or stand frozen until someone else does something. \u2026<\/p>\n Many have sat by as Lady Liberty has turned blue in the face. One lone ranger came to our rescue and has fought hard to save our great land. Thank you, President Trump.<\/strong> With the burnings and lootings and government encroachment upon our God-given freedoms \u2026 folks have been forced to see that our very breath is being squeezed out of us. It is time for the timid to react instead of just sitting frozen. VOTE even if your life is threatened. Soon there might be other events that change everything in your life. Have a plan. Prepare well. Don\u2019t wait on others. It is your life and your responsibility.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Debi wrote this post. For those of you following on my review series of\u00a0The Vision,\u00a0<\/em>yes, we\u2019re talking about\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>Debi. The same Debi who made white supremacist skinheads the bad guys in her 2009 apocalyptic novel. The same Debi who once wrote a children\u2019s book about Martin Luther King, Jr.! Yes,\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>Debi.<\/p>\n I know, I know. I\u2019m not\u00a0surprised,\u00a0<\/em>really.<\/p>\n But my god, these are the same people who have spent decades blathering on about the coming antichrist! About how all the world will come to view some man as their savior, and worship him! Can they not see that\u2019s what they\u2019re<\/em> doing? Something just feels different about worshipping not an ideology,\u00a0but a person.\u00a0<\/em>And a person who doesn\u2019t even go to church! A person who has five children with three different wives! A person who is crude, self-obsessed, and vindictive!<\/p>\n There is\u00a0one\u00a0<\/em>positive here\u2014there is no gloss left on any of this. It isn\u2019t any better to push an inhumane, cruel system of beliefs\u00a0with a clean-cut one-marriage\u00a0church-goer\u00a0<\/i>at the head. If anything, having a sneaky-clean messenger offers an opportunity to obscure the horror being pushed, and\u00a0I don\u2019t want this\u00a0either.\u00a0<\/i>So here it is, mask off.<\/p>\n Heh. Heh.\u00a0Mask off.\u00a0<\/em>Get it? Get it? You know, because Trump doesn\u2019t like wearing a face mask \u2026 okay, okay, I\u2019ll stop.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also something that feels off about the way Debi (and others) write about Trump, beyond just the fact that he\u2019s a genuinely bad person. \u201cOne lone ranger came to our rescue and has fought hard to save our great land,\u201d Debi wrote. \u201cThank you, President Trump.\u201d Does that feel weird to anyone else?\u00a0I don\u2019t remember people talking about Obama like this back in 2008. Yes, there was serious excitement, and yes, that excitement included pictures of Obama, and the person of Obama. But I don\u2019t remember anything like this portrayal of Trump as a \u201cone lone ranger\u201d come to save America.<\/p>\n