{"id":10274,"date":"2024-11-20T19:36:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T00:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/?p=10274"},"modified":"2024-11-20T19:36:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T00:36:20","slug":"truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/","title":{"rendered":"Let The Truth Set Us Free: Donald Trump Is A Sexual Predator"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>I do not blame those who voted for this sexual predator. They had their reasons, and many of those reasons were valid. I simply want some truth so we can all be set free.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18073\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18073\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18073\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/667\/2024\/11\/I-voted-for-him-anyway-chatGPT-generated-copy-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Trump is a sexual predator and people voted for him anyway\" width=\"768\" height=\"577\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18073\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image Generated by Open AI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<hr>\n<p>The memories swamped my brain and whacked my generally stable emotions into incoherence. The rape, the handsy gropes, the slam against the wall with a tongue thrust down my throat, the comments, the never-ending reminders of my lesser worth because I was a woman, the insistence that the Bible orders my silence and subjection to whatever male might feel that he had \u201cauthority\u201d over my mind, my soul, my body.<\/p>\n<p>As so, on the morning of Nov. 6, 2024, the nation\u2019s rapist was again elected, with the full support of those who claim to be followers of Jesus, to the more powerful position in the world. And I fell apart.<\/p>\n<p>I do not blame those who voted for this sexual predator. They had their reasons, and many of those reasons were valid. I simply want some truth so we can all be set free.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2>How about some statements that honestly recognize Trump as a sexual predator and his other character flaws?<\/h2>\n<p>Some statements like these would go a long way to setting everyone free with the truth:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know he is a sexual predator, I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI agree he insults women at every turn, and I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know his policies and appointments have resulted in way too many deaths of both pregnant and post-partum women because of their current reality of being unable to access proper gynecological and obstetrical care, and I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI agree his actions on January 6, 2021, amounted to acts of aggression that were worthy of impeachment against a peaceful transfer of power after he lost the 2020 election, but I believe God wants him in power, and I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI understand that he is now in the process of appointing more than one sexual predator to his cabinet, and I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am aware that he welcomes white supremacists into his inner circle and encourages their voices to influence policy decisions, and I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know that the architects of Project 2025 believe that the right to access contraception should be withdrawn from US women, and he is appointing those architects to influential positions, and I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know that my daughters and granddaughters may have their health and even lives put in danger by their inability to access proper medical care and that the removal of patient\/doctor privacy privileges for women of childbearing ages may and likely will impact their lives negatively and I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know that much of our economy, food supply, building trades and housekeeping and landscape depends upon the periodic influx of undocumented immigrants to do the work that US citizens do not want to do and that the round-up of these people and their detainment in tightly concentrated areas with limited regard for human rights is reminiscent of a problematic period in human history, and I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI acknowledge that the elimination of the Department of Education and the subsequent dismantling of US educational standards will result in the far-right religious world establishing millions of schools with taxpayer money and that those unaccountable schools will be teaching that the universe is six thousand years old and was created in this precise form during six 24-hour days. Any educational programs that do not support these presuppositions, especially those suggesting an evolutionary basis to any subject, particularly anything relating to science, will necessarily be banned. I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI acknowledge that the next President of the United States does not operate under any normal sense of decency or morality, and I voted for him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI understand that the things that the Bible clearly states are characteristic of a good nation of people, i.e., the care and nurture of the most vulnerable of our society, the biblical \u2018widows, orphans, and sojourners,\u2019 no longer have relevance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201dI acknowledge that forcing girls and women to carry unwanted pregnancies to the time of birth will result in a large population of unhealthy infants with significantly lowered chances to grow into contributing adults in our society. I admit that the trimming of public assistance will make it significantly more difficult to provide adequate nutritional support to these rapidly growing infant brains, thus further perpetuating generational poverty and a permanent underclass. I voted for him anyway because my individual pocketbook has a higher value to me than the larger societal harm foisted upon these unseen women and children.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<hr>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Now, having written all this, I admit that a Harris\/Waltz victory would have brought its own significant problems<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It would have solved some issues but exacerbated others. There are no perfect solutions to the many human\/political\/personal issues facing all of us every single day.<\/p>\n<p>All I\u2019m asking for is some truth: Mr. Trump is a corrupt, deeply misogynistic man with no moral core or internal integrity, with white supremacy leanings, and with an ego that must be endlessly stroked for him to survive. Whoever strokes that ego the most gets the spoils from his regime.<\/p>\n<p>Most powerful people operate in that mode, but most of them have some guardrails around them. Mr. Trump has few, if any. Any cursory reading of history makes this clear: that kind of unchecked power is extraordinarily dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>And that is why I am traumatized. Like all rapists and other sexual predators, he will take what he wants when he wants it with no regard for the consequences or damage to others.<\/p>\n<p>Let us at least acknowledge that human truth.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I do not blame those who voted for this sexual predator. They had their reasons, and many of those reasons were valid. I simply want some truth so we can all be set free. The memories swamped my brain and whacked my generally stable emotions into incoherence. The rape, the handsy gropes, the slam against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2704,"featured_media":18073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,28,186],"tags":[744,2670,2618],"class_list":["post-10274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-christianity","category-religion","tag-donald-trump","tag-sexual-predator","tag-white-supremacists"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Let The Truth Set Us Free: Donald Trump Is A Sexual Predator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I do not blame those who voted for this sexual predator. They had their reasons. I simply want some truth so we can all be set free.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let The Truth Set Us Free: Donald Trump Is A Sexual Predator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I do not blame those who voted for this sexual predator. They had their reasons. I simply want some truth so we can all be set free.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Thoughtful Pastor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/christy.thomas1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-21T00:36:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/667\/2024\/11\/I-voted-for-him-anyway-chatGPT-generated-copy-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"577\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christy Thomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@christythomas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christy Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/\",\"name\":\"Let The Truth Set Us Free: Donald Trump Is A Sexual Predator\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-21T00:36:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-21T00:36:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3311c36b468db8f554f8fa332325b6\"},\"description\":\"I do not blame those who voted for this sexual predator. They had their reasons. I simply want some truth so we can all be set free.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Let The Truth Set Us Free: Donald Trump Is A Sexual Predator\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/\",\"name\":\"The Thoughtful Pastor\",\"description\":\"A pastor ponders life, death, hope, despair, theology and the nature of God\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3311c36b468db8f554f8fa332325b6\",\"name\":\"Christy Thomas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ac44f40fdd875f2df2ca5f5d7a0411bc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ac44f40fdd875f2df2ca5f5d7a0411bc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Christy Thomas\"},\"description\":\"I am an opinionated Jesus-follower, a retired elder in the United Methodist church, a questioner of everything, and a lover of grace. I am married to a wonderful man and together we claim 11 children and 12 grandchildren. I love to travel, garden, walk and connect ideas together.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.christythomas.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/christy.thomas1\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/christythomas\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/author\/mcthomas\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Let The Truth Set Us Free: Donald Trump Is A Sexual Predator","description":"I do not blame those who voted for this sexual predator. They had their reasons. I simply want some truth so we can all be set free.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Let The Truth Set Us Free: Donald Trump Is A Sexual Predator","og_description":"I do not blame those who voted for this sexual predator. They had their reasons. I simply want some truth so we can all be set free.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/","og_site_name":"The Thoughtful Pastor","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/christy.thomas1","article_published_time":"2024-11-21T00:36:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":577,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/667\/2024\/11\/I-voted-for-him-anyway-chatGPT-generated-copy-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Christy Thomas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@christythomas","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Christy Thomas","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/","name":"Let The Truth Set Us Free: Donald Trump Is A Sexual Predator","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-11-21T00:36:20+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-21T00:36:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3311c36b468db8f554f8fa332325b6"},"description":"I do not blame those who voted for this sexual predator. They had their reasons. I simply want some truth so we can all be set free.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/2024\/11\/20\/truth-set-free-trump-sexual-predator\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Let The Truth Set Us Free: Donald Trump Is A Sexual Predator"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/","name":"The Thoughtful Pastor","description":"A pastor ponders life, death, hope, despair, theology and the nature of God","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3311c36b468db8f554f8fa332325b6","name":"Christy Thomas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ac44f40fdd875f2df2ca5f5d7a0411bc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ac44f40fdd875f2df2ca5f5d7a0411bc?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Christy Thomas"},"description":"I am an opinionated Jesus-follower, a retired elder in the United Methodist church, a questioner of everything, and a lover of grace. I am married to a wonderful man and together we claim 11 children and 12 grandchildren. I love to travel, garden, walk and connect ideas together.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.christythomas.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/christy.thomas1","https:\/\/twitter.com\/christythomas"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/author\/mcthomas\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2704"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtfulpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}