Southernization of the Church

I recently read a op-ed essay discussing some of the problems in the Evangelical Church in the US. Now, "evangelical" means a lot of different things, both inside and outside of the church. But in this discussion, they were talking about the Jerry Falwell/Billy Graham part of the church associated with conservative politics.

The southern faction of that part of the church was always associated with white supremacy, having its roots in the states of the Confederacy (whether they want to admit it or not), but what has happened in the last twenty years or so--or at least since we elected a Black man president--is that the more conservative northern churches have become southernized and are all-in on White Christian Nationalism.

My interest in this arises from my past membership in one of those (doctrinally) conservative religious bodies, specifically the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (aka “the WELS”). It is apparent to me that the WELS has become a part of this White Christian Nationalist movement. This is based on people I know who are members as well some official pronouncements I’ve seen from Synod leadership. 

Another (and larger) Lutheran body—Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, or LCMS—has also gone down that rabbit hole. One of their pastors has recently been indicted in the RICO case in Maryland. Another member who had a role in the Synod was exposed as an out-and-out Nazi. In our greater family circle, there are former LCMS pastors and teachers who are clearly in that camp.

The WELS and LCMS used to distance themselves from these other Evangelical bodies because of markedly different doctrines and teachings about core beliefs. Today, however, they seem to have forgiven those differences as long as they are all on the same side in the culture wars (anti-gay marriage, anti-LGBT, anti-abortion, anti-trans rights, anti-CRT, anti-BLM, anti-woke, pro-gun). Not much gospel anymore, but lots of (southern) White Nationalist Culture War.

Foreign Policy Hypocrisy

I am so appalled at the hypocrisy of both the American government and the American media's obsession with creating some sort of cold war with China. China is certainly a rival, particularly economically, but the panic seems crazy to me.

We are supposed to be horrified by China's human rights record. But I can't remember the last time an American public official has said anything other than Susan-Collins-like "concern" about supposed friends and partners like India, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, who have serious human rights issues of their own. We can get in a spitting match about who is "worse" but the fact remains that we should have higher expectations of our supposed allies than of those we claim to be our enemies. But we don't.

This is true of both political parties. Other than the exit from Afghanistan, the Biden foreign policy is the same as Trumps's. Israel is set to illegally annex the West Bank; Saudi Arabia paid exactly no price for murdering a journalist (indeed the PGA just merged with the authoritarian Saudis); India continues its religious cleansing of Muslims. Unchanged from Trump.

The scary part for me is that we have an economic rivalry with China that is too often presented in an aggressive, militaristic vocabulary. This is dangerous, and is being driven by the same neoliberal blob that got us into Iraq and Afghanistan, and before it Vietnam. These are not people who should be trusted to direct our foreign policy.

Quote of the Day

I read Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed back in 2010. Ehrenreich died in 2022, and, in reading Gabriel Winant's piece on her life in the latest issue of n+1 magazine, I was reminded of this passage:

When someone works for less pay than she can live on — when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently — then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life. The “working poor,” as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else.

There are two reactions to this. First, anger at our capitalist system that not only allows it, but actually requires it in order for capitalism to "work". One need only look at today's Federal reserve that is essentially trying to induce higher unemployment to solve a problem that these newly unemployed didn't cause. When we end up with too few poor people, the system openly sets out to create more of them so that the capitalist is somehow made whole again.

But just as importantly, it should cause us to examine our own culpability in this whole mess, not let ourselves off the hook. I know that I am guilty.

First Political Post of 2023

• This piece is another "focus group" in the New York Times selected and and conducted by a Republican. The headline in the online edition is "Skeptical About Trump '24? These 12 Republicans Will Set You Straight." If you actually read this silly piece you can see that the headline should conclude "These 12 Election Deniers Will Set You Straight." Then I wouldn't have had to waste my time reading the article. It's a joke. Just another whiny bitch session.
  

• Offended by pronouns? Get a grip.

• Peeve of the day: Creating a shipping label does not mean that "Your order is on its way"

• Investigating the discovery of classified documents in Biden's possession is entirely warranted. Go for it.

• Just a reminder that the Democrats could have taken care of the debt limit in 2022 in the lame duck session. They didn't do it. Remember that if things fall apart next fall.

2022 Book List

Books I read in 2022:

Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Lyndal Roper, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet
Damon Galgut, The Promise
Rachel Kushner, The Hard Crowd
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (2nd reading)
Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo
Ali Smith, Spring
Ali Smith, Summer
Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
Doug McAdam, Freedom Summer
Spencer Ackerman, Reign of Terror
Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Anuk Arudpragasam, A Passage North
Nathan Harris, The Sweetness of Water
Samuel Moyn, Humane
Marge Piercy, Gone to Soldiers
Charlotte McConaghy, Once There Were Wolves
Jonathan M. Katz, Gangsters of Capitalism
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, The Son of the House
Trezza Azzopardi, The Hiding Place
Marlon James, The Book of Night Women
Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ
Sigrid Nunez, The Friend
Sarah M. Broom, The Yellow House
Penelope Fitzgerald, The Bookshop
Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob (trans. Jennifer Croft)
Patricia Lockwood, No One Is Talking about This
Roman Felli, The Great Adaptation
Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
Imbolo Mbue, Behold the Dreamers
Jonathan Franzen, Crossroads
Jabari Asim, Yonder

Capitalism at Work

The recent circus with Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX is a great illustration of how capitalism flourishes in this country and around the world. After the collapse, we were treated to a fawning piece in the New York Times and a friendly TV interview. As with Enron and Elizabeth Holmes, I am sure SBF was treated as another young genius on CNBC and elsewhere. He seems to have also been a hero of politicians across the political spectrum. I will leave it to the pundits to tell us what lessons are to be learned. The lessons learned in the past are never heeded anyway. But there are some observaions to be made.

• When laws are written to the satisfaction of the capitalists--indeed many times the laws themselves are actually written by the capitalists themselves--there won't be much accountability. The crash of 2007-08 was caused by capitalists and their bankers, but no one of significance was even charged with a crime. Even with a Democratic president, the Recovery was done to the benefit of those who caused the mess in the first place. And that was not by accident...it was exactly the intent.

• The business press is totally unprepared to cover this kind of stuff. As long as they are getting their information from the SBF's of the world and just serve as mouthpieces, we are never going to get accurate reporting on these scams until after the fact. If something is too good to be true, it seems like at least someone in the business press would be reporting with a degree of skepticism.

• Politicians also need to be serving their constituents instead of the donor class on which they depend. When they talk about regulation "stifling innovation" they are really simply doing the bidding of their captilalist cronies. "Innovation" to capitalists is just a euphemism for "illegal and/or unethical shit".

• It ought to finally be clear that the assumption should always be that the crypto is nothing but a fraud and Ponzi scheme. The burden of proof is on the crypto world to prove otherwise. Guilty until proven innocent.

Capitalism relies on the complicity of many players to flourish. And those players provide that support time after time.

Teaching Lies

I just saw Glenn Younkin's social study proposal for Virginia. I don't know how young parents feel about all this crap today, but I must say that if I was early in my career and had kids, I would be very reluctant to take a job in a place like Virginia, Florida, Texas, or some other states. I wouldn't want my kids being taught outright lies in school. 

I say this as a person who went to elementary and high school in the 1950s and '60s, and was taught lies and half truths about American history. Schools were kind of getting to where they were teaching more accurate history, but now the Christian Nationalists want to go back to the same lies that I was taught sixty years ago.

Not good.