Have you ever been to one of those Evangelical MEGA Churches?   They are HUGE.

And I mean in the Donald J. Trump sense of…

…HUGE.

They make the mind of Jerry Jones and The Church of The Dallas Cowboys almost seem meek and mild-mannered.  They have two missions:

1. Save every soul who enters their doors

2. Get more members so they can repeat step one.

Oh, and there is a step three but, well, it would be indelicate to discuss it in mixed company.  I mean you who are reading this may or may not be saved.  And if you are saved, then you will surely understand but if you are NOT SAVED, well….?  You may misinterpret and misunderstand and misrepresent the WORK OF GOD.

You see, people who are ‘washed in the blood of the Lamb,’ saved, understand the absolute need for our pastor to own a private $65 million Gulfstream G650, to live in a 19,000 square foot home on 19 acres with a high fence and a very sturdy iron gate, several luxury cars and some extra money to spend…and give to the poor, of course.   It takes a lot of money to maintain a church and the pastor’s manse and needs for meager transportation and that money comes from one source:  the saved souls.  The more saved souls; the more God’s gifts flow from Heaven.

So, the mission (from God, of course) is to save the most souls.  And you have to follow those three steps in order to do so.  And according to Tim Keller, senior pastor of New York City’s most prominent Mega-Church (5,000 souls a week in attendance and tithing,)  Redeemer Presbyterian Church,

“Jesus’ teaching was not the main point of his mission. He came to save people through his death for sin and his resurrection. So his important ethical teaching only makes sense when you don’t separate it from these historic doctrines.”

You know, I have read The Bible a couple of times.  I read it once from page one all the way to the last page.  But since then I will pick it up or more often than not just grab my copy on my iPad or Google a reference and read.  So, I have no idea how often I have read the whole book.  But when you turn to The Bible for knowledge, comfort or just to read the beauty of the written words, I always come away with a calm, loving and serene sense of compassion.  Every word seems to be filled with God’s unbounding LOVE.

This may be an interruption to this who BLOG, but I think it is vital to understand the difference between the warring factions in this country.  You have the unyielding Tea Party view of no negotiation and only one path to salvation and now listen to what I consider the heart of The Bible:  The Sermon On the Mount:

Wow!

Full disclosure:  That was not the “real Jesus Christ.”  That was an actor.  Jesus didn’t have the nice music behind him (at least, I don’t remember any music when I was there.)  Jesus didn’t speak English.  The original film from the original “Sermon on The Mount” was apparently lost or burned by Tomás de Torquemada during The Spanish Inquisition.

But, if you took time to listen, you only heard one thing:  compassion.

From my junior high years all the way to my second year in college, I wanted to be one thing:  a minister in The Methodist church.  I started reading every bit of religious text and authors from every century.  When I was in college, I was introduced to Søren Aabye Kierkegaard and his works, Either/Or, Upbuilding Discourses (which in the 1960’s were just labeled Discourses) and Fear and Trembling.  Kierkegaard was a philosopher, poet and theologian from the early 1800’s in Denmark and was widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher.  Existentialism was a neat word to throw around in the 1960’s!

But Kierkegaard’s works could be boiled down to one short sentence:

God accepts you; God love you just as you are.

As a matter of showing how much he loves you, he sent his only physical son to Earth to be horribly crucified to atone for any sins that you might have committed.  In other words Jesus has already paid for your sins and you don’t owe anything.  You don’t have to jump through any hoops or give to any MEGA CHURCH.  You are accepted just as you are.  End of story.  Now, go enjoy the life that God gave you instead of trying to make God happy.  He is already HAPPY.

And above all else have compassion for your fellow men and women.  The other side of this Civil War sees compassion or God’s love as much more important than merely winning more soul in an endless game of numbers.

Do you see that this CIVIL WAR has taken on a religious aspect that the Founding Father’s did everything in their power to remove from our government.  These were smart guys and I’ll bet they had damn smart wives who told them what to think at times.  They separated church from state.  And I believe they kept it separate for the very reason that our union is now dissolving right before our very eyes.  Are we a Democracy or a Theocracy?

They had no way of knowing about Trump, a black president, nuclear weapons and the state of Israel.  But they did know about history and how it rhymes.  They also had borne witness to how religion and politics just didn’t mix.

So, how did we end up with Trump?  Remember the movie “The Perfect Storm”  well this was worse.  Everything came together to elect Trump.  EVERYTHING that should not have happened HAPPENED.  Example is a guy from a small town in New Jersey who is 55 years old and in those 55 years had never voted; not once.  He works in a tatoo parlor and causes pain and creates body art day in and day out.  On his off days, he drives a HOG (A Harley Motorbike to my wife and some of my shy friends.)  He didn’t hear about Trump from “THE NEWS” as he has never watched that either in his 55 years.  His buddies told him about this no bullshit guy who hated Mexicans and was going to build a wall around the entire United States.  He registered to vote for the first time.  He showed up to vote on Election Day for the first time.  He wasn’t supposed to by all accounts, but he did.  He voted for Trump.

Then there are the “anybody but Hillary” or more accurately “anybody who will support anti-abortion laws.”  The world is filled with very religious and very faithful Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodist and Muslims who abhor abortion.  It has become their crusades of the 20th and 21st centuries in these religions.  Almost all of them started the election season hating Donald J. Trump.  They were for Rubio, Bush or Cruz.  CRUZ, yes, Cruz, that was our boy.  He was a legal scholar and agreed with every conservative principle.  Even though he looked more like Grampa on The Munsters than a possible 45th President of the United States, we could support a good guy like Cruz.

Well, just like an Agatha Christie novel, each little Indian boy (and one girl) was killed off one by one until “one little Indian boy left all alone;” But instead of “He went and hanged himself and then there were none.”  It ended up “He went and won the race and Tweets on his Phone.”

These same people who were ripped apart with the moral dilemma of voting for a reprobate such as Donald J. Trump and each weekly abhorrent revelation into his vile mouthed portrayal of women and minorities found themselves forced to figure out a rationale for voting for the likes of this person.  These are some of the best people in America and they have a conscience and they didn’t like their choice, but in each one of their minds and souls they found a rationale and they voted for Trump.

And then there is just the shame of the Democratic party.  The great middle class working guy and gal who had just about lost all hope and they needed to believe in a better America.  The only person who was willing to lie to them about this Glory Land of Milk and Honey and who would promise them that which was impossible to provide was Donald J. Trump.  And they were desperate or stupid enough to vote for Trump.

So, now we have Donald J. Trump for a term of four years.  (My prediction is that he will not last four years and we will end up with a President Pence, which is actually much much worse.)  And America is now torn apart even further.  A number of good Americans are chanting “NOT MY PRESIDENT!”   School children were walking out of class in protest of the potential of a Trump Presdiency.  The day after the Inauguration, women from across America are planning either a March on Washington or a march on their own state capitals.

My friend from Oklahoma was right.  This is a Civil War and it has only begun to get worse under a Donald J. Trump Presidency.

But here is a single ray of hope:  Donald J. Trump.

WHAT?  Are you nuts?  How is our only ray of hope the person who has divided our country?

Donald J. Trump has promised much more than any single President has ever promised.  For over a year he has worn that stupid red baseball hat that reads

“Make America Great Again.”

And these people who elected him expect him to come through with a majority of those promises.  One only needs to look at the reluctance of the Republican party to spend much needed money on things such as a crumbling infrastructure and Zika Virus prevention to know that Trump will never fulfill even a tenth of this numerous promises.

Donald J. Trump is bound to fail.  The real question is how much of his own party will his failure take down with him?

And the other ray of hope comes from the rhyme of history:  Even as the Nazis exterminated her entire group of childhood friends and most of the world she had known, a young Anne Frank could write,

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

or as signs began to appear during the election:

“Love Trumps Hate.”

And that’s my View of The Civil War from The Hill.

Contrary to the Liberal News reports that have falsified the truth of the incredible enthusiasm that the musical world has about supporting and participating in the Trump / Pence Inaugural Festivities, dozens of First Class Internationally known Entertainers are begging to be included in the celebration of the new administration.

Of course, the mainline act is being sent from our closest allies in the entire world, the wonderful folks from the Russian Federation.  Appropriately, the Red Army Choir will be performing Donald J. Trump’s Inaugural Theme Song, “Get Lucky.”  You can enjoy just a short taste of their professional and well choreographed rendition:

What Donald J. Trump Inauguration wouldn’t be complete without the incomparable sounds of the The Three Naked Polish Guys and their ‘well placed accordions.’  Vice President Pence is a huge fan of the Three Naked Polish Guys and the other mainline group from Alabama, “Hairy Dick and his Electric Guitar.”

Dick is recuperating from an electrical malfunction at a recent concert for the White Supremacists of Dixie when at the climax of one of his most requested numbers the and electrical short-circuit came into personal contact with Dick and gave him quite a shock.  They are both reported to be healing and should be in full force to perform for Vice President-Elect Pence.

The White Supremacists are also bringing the favorite sound of the Trump Team:  The Trumpets of Triumphant.  This Grammy stealing group has been wowing audiences from Berlin to Bangor since 1933.   They are said to be a HUGE fan of the President-Elect and his policies.   A motorcycle honor guard of over 2,000 loyal fans are currently traveling from Alabama all the way to the Nation’s Capital for the Trump Inauguration with the Trumpets of Triumphant as their honored guests.  They are rumored to be staying the first week at the new Trump Hotel and the night after Donald J. Trump takes office in the Lincoln Bedroom.

The symbolism of their stay is not lost on many of Trump’s followers as he has vowed to revoke a number of the previous President’s Executive Orders.  The Lincoln Bedroom houses the actual Executive Order that President Lincoln signed on September 22, 1862, after the battle at Antietam.   He issued his most famous Executive Order, The Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves would be free in the rebellious states as of January 1, 1863.

Although it is not official but word has surfaced that Mr. Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, may also be performing.  It has been no secret that West has made it widely known that he plans to run for the Presidency in 2020 after Trump finishes his four-year term as the occupant of the White House.

I got an early morning phone call this week from, of all people, the former Speaker of the House, Newton Leroy “Newt” Gingrich.

“Leroy, my man, what’s the good word?”  I asked.

“Rick, it’s bad!” Gingrich replied.

“How bad, Newt?  Billy Bush bad or out of hair spray bad?”  I inquired realizing the seriousness of this call.

“It’s about as bad as it can get, Rick.  Trump just tore me a new one on a Tweet about the Alligator’s and the swamp.”  he answered.

“So, was it the ‘alligator’s’ that got him upset?”

“No, the ‘swamp!’  The ‘swamp’ is out.  We don’t have the ‘swamp.’  We needed the ‘swamp.’  The ‘swamp’ was what we were going to drain and now, all of sudden, Trump doesn’t like the ‘swamp.'”   Gingrich said almost in a panic.  “Rick, I came up with the ‘swamp!’  It was my baby and now, Trump hates the ‘swamp.’  I’m screwed!   I’m just screwed aren’t I?  Aren’t I just screwed, Rick!   I’m just screwed!”

It is sad to see a respected politician break apart and destroy themselves.  Luckily, this was Leroy “Newt” Gingrich and the word ‘respected’ has not been used in the same sentence with his name for over a decade.

But what Gingrich was panicked about isn’t unusual.  Campaigner Trump made a whole lot of promises and assurances to his many supporters.  It seemed that as he was speaking off-the-cuff in each different section of the country he would feed off of the enthusiasm of the crowd and could almost read what was uppermost on their minds.

Here is an abbreviated list of the many promises made by President-Elect Trump:

1. Build a wall along the southern border
2. Make Mexico pay for the wall
3. Get rid of Obamacare
4. Rebuild the country’s aging infrastructure
5. Defund Planned Parenthood
6. I will take care of women
7. Use the term “radical Islamic terrorism”
8. Ban most foreign Muslims from entering the United States
9. Bar Syrian refugees from entering the country and kick out any who are already living here
10. Heavily surveil mosques in the United States
11. Create a database of Syrian refugees
12. Never take a vacation while serving as president
13. Prosecute Hillary Clinton
14. Strengthen the military
15. Be unpredictable
16. Allow Russia to deal with the Islamic State in Syria
17. Bomb the s— out of ISIS
18. Target and kill the relatives of terrorists
19. Shut down parts of the Internet
20. Bring back waterboarding
21. Get rid of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
22. On the first day in office, terminate President Obama’s executive orders related to immigration
23. Deport the almost 11 million immigrants illegally living in the United States
24. Continue to allow lowly paid foreign workers to come to the United States on temporary works visas
25. End birthright citizenship
26. Then on Thursday, December 22, Trump tweets U.S. needs to ‘greatly strengthen and expand’ nukes
27. DRAIN THE SWAMP!

That is 27 of the promises from Donald J. Trump during his pre-inaugural days.  By the way, this is merely one third of all of the promises.  Yes, this list is merely 1/3rd of all of the promises that Donald J. Trump made from the day he announced to three days before Christmas, 2016.

Now, I’m NOT going to tell you how or what YOU should be thinking.  I am simply going to ask you to look over the list one more time.  Now, in all honesty, you cross off the promises that are either impossible or just rhetoric.  (rhetoric
noun rhet·o·ric \ˈre-tə-rik\:  language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content.)

And now, Trump has crossed off “draining the Swamp” himself.  Why?  Well, take a look at the alligators who he has started to populate his own personal swamp.  This is no swamp.  This is a steam bath for Billionaires.  The total amount of all of the wealth of the previously wealthiest cabinet in the entire history of the United States was that of President George W. Bush.  His entire cabinet was worth a whopping $250 million!   That is exactly 1/10th of the wealth of just one of the Trump Cabinet members, Wilbur Ross, nominated for Secretary of Commerce with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion.   (Does anyone not remember the state of the American economy on the last day of George W. Bush’s Presidency?  Do you remember the collapse of General Motors?  I don’t want to scare you but this group isn’t even rich as compared to the billionaires in the Trump Cabinet.)

So, the common man, has voted into power over them the wealthiest individuals in the entire world.  

It reminds me of a story when I was in my first year of being a teacher.  Our best friends were two very wealthy individuals.  One had been born into wealth and the other had married her.  She called to invite us out to go eat and then to a movie.  It was a week before our next paycheck and we were broke.  Broke BROKE!  We told her that we would love to go but we didn’t have any money.  She said well, we’ll go by the bank and you can just write a check.  My wife said we don’t have ANY MONEY.   There was a long pause and then a horrified,  “YOU DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY!!!!  HOW WILL YOU LIVE?  WHAT WILL YOU EAT?”

Lesson to my common men and women friends:

Rich people don’t understand being poor.   Their solution:  just go get some more money.

So, please, remember this little lesson, when you are wondering, in a year or two or four, how you got so screwed.

And that is my View of the SPA / SWAMP from the Hill