PLEASE!

I have a friend Chuck Fluharty who founded the Rural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri.  Among his many insightful observations was the reason for the lack of political support for programs which would support the viability of rural communities.  Simple!  Politicians follow the Willie Sutton rule .  Except, instead of going where the money is, you go where the voters are.  And as rural populations declined, the needs of those left behind received less and less attention.

Chuck also had a solution, a coalition between primarily white rural residents and their mostly minority counterparts in urban centers.  As Tevye would say, “Sounds crazy?  No?”  To sell this concept, Chuck pointed out these two diverse segments of American society had a lot in common.  Residents paid more for goods and services than suburbanites because big box and discount stores preferred to locate in proximity to dense, affluent neighborhoods.  The landscapes in rural and urban America were both littered with abandoned, shuttered and deteriorating residential and commercial structures.  Less health care and higher mortality rates.  Increased drug use.  An exodus of younger residents.

I thought about Chuck this morning on the occasion of the relocation of the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.  Donald Trump has employed Fluharty-like logic to sell today’s transfer of the seat of U.S. diplomacy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  Surely, Trump’s Jewish donors such as gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus believe they made a good investment.  But so have televangelists such as Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.

Want proof?  I guess there were no available rabbis in Israel to give the opening prayer at the dedication of the embassy; so Trump turned to his friend and supporter Pastor Jeffress, who in 2012 declared that the only litmus test for voting was whether the candidate was “a Christian.”  (I do wish Jeffress would spend as much time reading the Constitution as he does the Bible.)  Even if you believe Trump when he says taking the issue of the embassy off the table will help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is hard to imagine Jeffress’ teachings can promote reconciliation.  Take his own words, PLEASE.

Not only do religions like Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism–not only do they lead people away from God, they lead people to an eternity of separation from God in Hell. (2010 lecture series)

Much of what you see in the Catholic Church today doesn’t come from God’s word. It comes from that cult-like, pagan religion. (Rally in Houston, Texas, October 2011)

And here is the deep, dark, dirty secret of Islam: It is a religion that promotes pedophilia – sex with children. (Ask the Pastor, September 2010)

As if that was not enough of a slap in the face, the benediction will be given by Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel.  Yes, the same John Hagee, who suggested in a 1990 sermon, Hitler was only fulfilling the biblical prophecy by facilitating the return of Jews to Israel, a precursor to the Second Coming.

God says in Jeremiah 16: ‘Behold, I will bring them the Jewish people again unto their land that I gave to their fathers. … Behold, I will send for many fishers, and after will I send for many hunters.  And they the hunters shall hunt them.’ That would be the Jews. … Then God sent a hunter. A hunter is someone who comes with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter.

The selection of Jeffress and Hagee sends a clear message.  Relocation of the embassy is less about solidifying Jewish support for his 2020 re-election bid and more about Trump’s willingness to cater to evangelical hopes for the end of times and the rapture.  Remember what I said about politicians being like bank robbers.  In 2016, white evangelical Protestants who make up 20 percent of the voting population supported Trump by a margin of 66-17 percent.  In contrast, Jewish voters favored Hillary Clinton 69-27 and total less than six percent of all voters.  You do the math.

To be fair, Trump and his evangelical followers are not the only ones raising eyebrows.  Is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so weak or so beholden to Trump he could not have said, “You know, maybe we should have a rabbi give the opening prayer at the dedication of a new embassy for the JEWISH state?” Where is the voice of reason?  Maybe, the Mormons are right.  On this day, we turn to Salt Lake City for a truly inspirational moment.

Robert Jeffress says “you can’t be saved by being a Jew,“ and “Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell.” He’s said the same about Islam. Such a religious bigot should not be giving the prayer that opens the United States Embassy in Jerusalem.  (Tweet, @MittRomney, May 14, 2018)

Thanks, Mitt.  Hopefully, you will keep this in mind if and when you become the junior senator from Utah.

POSTSCRIPT:  Just in case you’re wondering exactly when to expect the apocalypse, I’m betting on June 8, 2018, the release date for the sixth entry in the Jurassic Park franchise.  Fore, as it is told in the prophecies, on that date we shall all bear witness to the VelociRapture.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP