THE JOY OF THINKING WELL OF OTHERS

Saint Therese of Lisieux

Sometime in my life, I resolved to try to put myself in the place of others in my estimation of them. Curbing my natural skepticism and critical nature has proved to be no pic nic, I can assure you, as I have often had to backtrack, review, revise, and then move forward with the current iteration of that plan for kindness and understanding.

"Nothing is sweeter than to think well of others."

Saint Therese of Lisieux

In the current case of Donald Trump, this is particularly difficult, because he is doing and saying evil things. How do I think well of someone who is hurting so many people?

"President Trump's Twitter account has been pure fire lately...
This is the kind of WHITE NATIONALISM we elected him for."
Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin

Firstly, I am unable to put myself in his position. I don't travel in anything like his circle of business or politics, but most pertinent is that I simply can't imagine myself doing and saying any of the horrible things he does.

allthatsinteresting.com

"32 Donald Trump Quotes You Have to Read to Believe"

"It is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than

for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle."

Jesus

The pursuit of power has always baffled me and, although I have had plenty of experience with people who deliberately hurt others in order to benefit financially, I never have understood their larcenous hearts. Most disturbing are those who find delight in hurting others.

Fortunately, these types seem to be in the minority. (I have personal experience with only one individual in my life, who exults in damaging people just for the pleasure of it. There has been no period of time in which I was in touch with that toxic character that they weren't enacting some plot to harm me or some other person in her orbit. Nevertheless, I have no insight. The situation is too far outside my ken.)

Jesus and the money changers

So, what do I do about this contradiction? I wish to think well of others, give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and look upon all with the kind regard demanded of us by our faith. How does one do this when faced with evil? I will not pretend that evil is good. So, what is the answer?

My latest resolution is to pray for people who are doing evil at the same time that I lobby against their hurtful actions, which is difficult, but that's the point, isn't it? Jesus knew what he was doing when He told us to pray for our enemies and do good to them. The spiritual exercise it demands is fearsome.

allthatsinteresting.com

"32 Donald Trump Quotes You Have to Read to Believe"

What occurs to me as the most important aspect of this is that I do not presume to know the inner heart of a person. I do not know what Donald Trump thinks. His words are a clue, but they aren't absolutely definitive. None of us has x-ray vision of the soul and we cannot say with authority exactly what are the motives of another person, even someone who speaks as much as he does.

It is crucial, for me, that I do not label any human being "evil" because I would be eliminating the Lord from the equation thereby. I would be dooming that human being to a life devoid of the possibility of repentance and rehabilitation. Certainly, I myself have benefited from the forgiveness of the Lord in the past. I must give everyone else that same assurance.

allthatsinteresting.com

"32 Donald Trump Quotes You Have to Read to Believe"

During these difficult times, when Trump's government is ripping children away from their parents and throwing them in cages to sleep on cement floors with paper blankets, crammed in with too many other children, none of whom have proper food or hygiene or anything necessary for mental and emotional health - and deporting all the immigrant children who are getting vital medical treatment not available in their country of origin and who will die without it - I want to scream to the heavens. You bet I have wanted to call Trump the most horrible of names. I have wanted to curse him and damn him to hell. It takes great restraint not to do so.

Drew Angerer / Getty Images

allthatsinteresting.com

Currently, there is a large group of people who are supporting government actions that are obviously evil - things that violate every precept we supposedly hold dear in our country - while at the same time confidently believing they are saving the world. Outsiders tend to presume that the people in that group know they are wrong and are deliberately doing wicked things in order to benefit in some way. That is sometimes the case, but not typically.

allthatsinteresting.com

"32 Donald Trump Quotes You Have to Read to Believe"

For whatever reason, whether through some brain washing, exotic fascination, or religious fanaticism, this group will support damnable atrocities of this administration, while at the same time asserting righteousness. I am frequently reminded of the Nazi era in Germany where Hitler rose to power, not through force, but through the support of ordinary Germans who somehow did not realize they were cooperating with evil. What is happening in our country is very similar to that time period. Trump's words are very similar, such as calling the news media "the enemy of the people," and "fake news."  Hitler called the press "lugenpresse," ("lying press') and likewise demonized vulnerable groups of people, i.e., the Jews, the gays, the disabled, the elderly, and the immigrant.




The term "lugenpresse" has started to be heard in Trump rallies, yelled out by the "alt right" supporters of Trump. It isn't surprising, since the Nazi Party and various white supremacist figures have lauded Trump. You can read more about it:

HERE - IN AN ARTICLE IN BUZZ FEE NEWS; and,

HERE - IN BREITBART

It is quite clear to me, and no doubt to all my readers, that this adoption of a Nazi propaganda tool by the American right wing is the antithesis of American democracy, in which respect for and support of journalists is enshrined in the First Amendment to our Constitution. It seems incredible to us that Trump sycophants aren't bothered by it.

Prior to his election, Trump talked about demolishing the First Amendment so that he could sue journalists who write unflattering things about him:

"We're going to open up those libel laws so when the 

New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total 

disgrace, or when the Washington Post, which is 

there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can 

sue them and win money instead of having no 

chance of winning because they're totally protected. 

We're going to open up libel laws and we're going 

to have people sue you like you've never got sued 

before." Donald Trump

The First Amendment protects free speech for a very important reason. It is the bedrock of our democracy. We are a country in which our citizens are free to speak their minds. Any attempt to quash that freedom is a sure sign of a dictatorship or fascist movement attempting to assert itself. I am free to say anything I like about Donald Trump and his cohorts. My spiritual orientation is what makes me want to keep an appropriate "lid" on what I say about his spiritual condition, but if I were to be compelled by law to conform to a rule of only saying flattering things about him and his policies, I would definitely be in the resistance on that score.

Some day, the mist may clear from the psychic eyes of the die-hard Trump supporters in government, and they may recognize their error and thereafter change the way they operate. I need to leave a space open for those folks to have the time to transcend their current condition, while at the same time, I fight to protect vulnerable people who are Trump's targets. It isn't easy!

Every day, I fight this battle. I try very hard not to succumb to the natural human impulse to say that he is evil personified, or the anti-Christ or whatever other slur that comes to mind. I keep thinking about former president Jimmy Carter and how he was always extremely respectful of his colleagues and his competitors alike. In the debates, he always used to say "my esteemed opponent."

Instead of reacting against the personality of Trump, I am trying to focus on the really excellent example of the dignified, respectable, truly Christian Jimmy Carter, who has a gravitas that Trump will likely never have. Once again, it is a matter of where one puts one's attention, right?

Hate the sin. Love the sinner. Repeat.
God save us all, including Donald Trump

 Silver Rose

COSMIC POO POO

My living room shrine table

Silver Parnell

copyright (c) 2018

I am politically schizophrenic. I fall on the "progressive" side when it comes to protecting the rights of the vulnerable, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and being kind to the prisoner, but I fall into the "conservative" camp when it comes to abortion, euthanasia, and the strength of the family as the crucial pin upon which all the cogs of society are attached.

I am not at home on either side of the progressive/conservative divide, except in regard to specific policies. My fractured political leanings are informed by my very cohesive and deliberate religious orientation. I try, to the best of my ability, to adhere to the commandments of Jesus. Whatever Jesus said was a positive good is what I vote for. It can be a challenge, as should be obvious.

My friends and associates are every color of the rainbow, but one thing has made itself obvious. Both conservatives and progressives have developed x-ray vision when it comes to the thoughts and motivations of other people. Isn't that remarkable? (Sarcasm.)

I read a conservative post this morning in which a conservative claimed that "the Left" hates the Constitution and basically wants to destroy America. All lefties are commies. Every progressive cause is funded by George Soros.  I don't know who he is, but will someone tell me his email address so I can get my check? Seriously. I want my check. If you know this topic well enough to be so sure that he is funding all the progressives, you'll have his email address.

A conversation by mostly left leaning people, on the other hand, claimed that the motivation of conservatives is that conservatives want to stop abortions, for instance, because they want to control women! It is all about the subjugation of women. Excuse me, but I know that to be crap. Just crap. Of course, there ARE personalities in the world who like to control others, but that's a different topic. 

In my experience, conservatives want to outlaw abortion because they want to save babies from being killed. They are coming from a position of love, though claiming love as a motive while excusing cruel governmental policies at the same time puzzles progressives. It seems hypocritical. I don't know the answer to that one because this is a complex issue.

At any rate, each side believes the other has evil motives and intentions. This is ridiculous and it has to stop.

I DO know of a few sociopaths who would be delighted to destroy the world, or just enough of it to ensure that only they and their servants are left. That does happen. (I have one in the family, and she scares the crap out of me.) It isn't that these type of people don't exist, it's just that their numbers are small, thanks be to God.

Devotion to the truth, alone, should dissuade us from imputing evil motives to half the population of America. My personal experience, with both the left and the right, have convinced me that nearly everyone wants the best for America. We disagree on method and particular vision.

So, how did this happen? It is probably due to political messaging. Politicians energize their base by stoking animus against their opponents. They claim evil motives. They throw some lies in there to excite our fear or loathing about the other candidate, and we fall for it.

If you only talk to or listen to people who already share the same ideas about the methods of best running the country as you do, you're just sitting in an echo chamber. It might feel good to have your views echoed back to you all the time, but it isn't good for you. 

So, what do we do? Well, I suspect that the first thing is that everyone who is attached at the hip to a particular politician or party needs to attach themselves to Truth instead. Truth has gotten a terrible beating over the last few years, and I'm not just talking about all the gibberish that comes spilling out of Donald Trump's mouth. Truth is not always readily evident, and we have to invest some energy in digging it out from all the social noise. Don't just listen to one radio station or one personality or one group of people.

There is something uniquely peculiar in the case of Fox News, for instance. Donald Trump watches hours of television every day, and he reacts with twitter rants as a direct result of whoever is talking on Fox at the moment. Sometimes, he even announces policies in response! Before the shutdown, he had agreed to sign a funding bill that had already passed the House and the Senate, but when someone criticized him for it on Fox, he reneged on his agreement. That's why we have a shutdown.

Meanwhile, many of his supporters ALSO watch only Fox News and they don't read newspapers - so there is this echo chamber of ideas bouncing around inside that little bubble. Fox is not just "biased." It barely qualifies as news. It is telling the president of the United States what to think. It is telling his supporters what to think. Fox News is running the country.

The odd thing is that what happens on Fox is not reflected on the rest of the news outlets. Some conservatives say that all the journalists in those outlets can't be trusted because they are "biased" and therefore not truthful. Upon examination, it is obvious that this CAN'T be true. You're talking about millions of people having to be "in on" the conspiracy to report something OTHER than the real news. It's just not feasible. And some of the newscasters that Trump says are "liberal" are actually conservative, but they disapprove of his many questionable activities.

I am not saying you should stop watching Fox. I watch it, selectively, but I can't say I get much factual information from it. Most of it seems to be a cheering section for Donald Trump and the Alt Right. Just remember that "news" consists of who, what, when and where. If the outlet is giving you a lot of "why," it is commentary, not news.

I watch many different newscasters, including Fox, and I read quite a few newspapers daily. You may not have the time for quite as much as that, but you can develop your own version of absorbing information across the spectrum.  One day soon, I will write an article about my research techniques. I DO truth-test just about everything I post on Facebook, for instance. 

In the meantime, I suggest that, instead of pretending to be Madam Zelda with the crystal ball who knows the motives and thoughts of millions of people, take the time to talk to someone in the opposing party - not with the idea of converting them, but just in the interest of information gathering.

Now, this will be difficult, because most of us are so angry now that we often fall back onto griping about the other side. I would suggest asking the person what they want for America. What is their vision? Ask people about their motives. Don't assume. Ask.

I will be so glad when this phase has dissipated and I can take some attention off the topic of politics. If the right wing hadn't crowned Trump with the (false) crown of Christianity, I wouldn't be doing this now. It has put a crimp in my peaceful meditation time, and I look forward to eliminating the distraction, but I just can't stand idly by while Jesus is misrepresented so heinously.

I just encourage all of us to devote ourselves to Truth with reverence and discretion, and behave accordingly.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose