Government by Insanity and Hate: Repubs Dump Their Speaker.

Republicans in the United States House of Representatives tossed aside their Speaker yesterday. It remains to be seen what new insanity they will dump on this country in the coming days. But if past is prelude, it will be another chapter of hate-driven, destructive chaos that damages America and harms every living one of us.

Yesterday’s Republican “debate” on the question of whether or not to shuck the Speaker they had elected just a few months ago put their hate-filled insanity on full display. Both sides of the argument were ranting and raving. 

Those defending McCarthy based their arguments on hate-filled invective directed at mild-mannered Joe Biden. Evidently, the only rallying point among House Republicans was delusional, factually-distorted ranting, hate and calls to a phony Armageddon. Meanwhile, those attacking McCarthy were frank and open in their desire to burn it all down, including their own caucus. 

These people are rotten with hate, slaves to their own invective. They’ve lived on a steady diet of lies, self-righteousness, hypocrisy and phony sound bites for so long that they actually believe their own propaganda. 

I know because I see it every day that this insanity has not only completely taken over the Republican Party, it has also taken over the biggest, the loudest and the most powerful of our churches. Right wing Christian churches in America today are selling a false “christianity” without Christ, without the Cross, without the Resurrection, and without redemption. 

Their message is the message of the demented, right wing of American politics. Christian clergy are not preaching Christ. They are preaching satanic hatred, division and soul-killing idolatry. 

And that is the real cause of the moral breakdown and headlong rush into self-destruction afflicting our nation. 

When clergy work to put a rapist/grifter/liar in the White House, when clergy take right wing money and sit on right wing boards and openly preach an amoral nothing-a-Republican-does-is-sin false “gospel” that deifies any sin if it is committed by their political masters, they are not preaching Christ.

Your god is the one you follow. Your god is the North Star of right and wrong in your life. Your god is the one you give your life, your loyalty and your obedience to.

By that definition, right wing “conservative” American clergy, including quite a number of Catholic priests and bishops, have chosen and bow down before the “god” of political power, money and greed. They have removed the cross from their heart and from their teaching and replaced it with the Republican elephant. And they have taught their followers to do the same thing. 

Our churches are rotten with hate. It has become so bad that I find it painful to walk into some of them. You can feel the hate, the seething anger, the dangerous willingness to do anything to anyone outside their clan, when you walk in. The Holy Spirit is not there. He has withdrawn because He is no longer welcome. 

Rejecting Christ in the name of a phony political pretend christ who is none other but satan disguised as political power; to sell Jesus for access to right wing billionaire money and government handouts, is obvious, scalding idolatry. 

It is also the root cause of the moral and mental breakdown of our society. 

In this time of upheaval, the faithful need true Christian leadership from their clergy. Instead, our clergy are exploiting us to deliver our votes to one group of power brokers who reward the clergy with bribes disguised as grants, “advisory” positions on right wing boards, junkets, dinners, gifts, government contracts, etc.

I’m sad to say it, but it’s obvious to anyone with political eyes to see that some of the most vocal of our Catholic bishops have been bought by right wing largesse. They’re just as bribed as Clarence Thomas, and just as dishonest in how they wield their power. 

The moral and mental breakdown in the Republican Party mirrors the moral and mental breakdown in the institutions which are supposed to provide a moral compass to our society. 

Following Jesus Christ, the real Jesus Christ, and living by the light of the Holy Spirit always leads to sanity. 

The Peace that Passes all Understanding is real. I have felt it. 

The forgiveness of sins is also real, but it is not free. It costs repentance, and that costs seeing yourself for what you are. It requires giving up the self-righteous nonsense of being your own god and following the real God. And that means, for most adults, a breaking down inside themselves. 

It is not easy or painless to see yourself as the sinful, lost person you truly are. But it is a requirement of repentance. It is the necessary first step to forgiveness and the gifts of love and freedom of living in Christ that follow.

Eternal life is real. It is our future. The question is, will you spend your eternal life in hell, or in heaven? 

I fear that a lot of our clergy, and a lot of our most vocal laity are going to end up spending their eternity in hell because they deny Christ while proclaiming a false christ that is nothing more than a plastic doll, a stand-in, for their own greed, hate, bitterness. 

Self-righteousness is not righteousness. There is no righteousness outside the Cross, and our place at the cross is on our knees in humility and gratitude. 

Yesterday’s political display was one more — as if we needed another — demonstration of the moral, mental and spiritual destitution of today’s Republican Party. Whatever they once were, they have become a seething cauldron of lies, hate and cowardice. 

The religious leaders who should be calling them out for their lies, invective and dishonesty are instead supporting them and requiring that their followers believe that lies are truth, hate is ok, rape is good, and graft and corruption are integrity. Why? I can only surmise that it is because the religious leaders are just as corrupt, dishonest and hate-filled as the politicians they have taken as their yardstick of goodness. 

In all of this, there is only one person I can control, one person I have to answer for when I stand before God, and that person is me. I’ve done a lot of bad things in my life. I trip and fall into doing bad things every day I continue to live. Based on my own goodness, I would never see heaven. 

I have one Savior, one Hope. One. And that is Jesus Christ. Thank God, I don’t have to be perfect. All I have to do is take the nailed-scarred Hand and be lifted up. 

I choose Christ. 

My former pastor used to say say that when we die, someone will be there, waiting for us and they will say “You belong to me.” 

You and I decide now, in this life, who will say that to us.