When I was young, there was an Australian fellow, Fred Schwarz, who was perpetually appearing all over the US with an informative little seminar on the theme: You can trust the communists (to BE communists). Today we an trust the Demonrats to be Demonrats and the GOP to be the fraudulent GOP as well unless the peasants can succeed at revolting against the powers that be in the party.
You are more experienced than I in analyzing and sensibly responding to the banality of evil at the top of the party. You may remember how vigorously I tried to resist your arguments when I first encountered you here in about 2007-2008. Kneejerk party loyalty was a hard habit to shuck off after 40 years of mostly lying to myself as the party and, as a result, the country degenerated. All I had to show for it was eight mostly wonderful Reagan years but he was a genuine outsider and never a creature of the party.
That close brush with death last fall and the long partial recovery keeps me focused on the words: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. I try to love my neighbor as God wants me to love my neighbor, whether I like my neighbor or not. I am mortal in this world and closer, day by day, to eternity. I am re-reading the Christian classic from the fifteenth century: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, a few pages at a time.
God bless you and yours!
And God bless you and yours too, brother.
I don’t think God is going to give us a hard time for being too charitable or too merciful. If we’re not giving people room to repent, we’re not acting after God’s heart, that’s for sure.
But I don’t think He’s too happy if we’re nothing more than naive, ignorant tools for the devil’s destructive deceptions, either. And once we’ve uncovered the deceptions, I think He requires that we clue in our fellow travelers through this vale of tears.
One last thing: I’m sure thankful to the Lord for keeping you around here for awhile. You’re a blessing to me, personally. Selfish, I know. But there it is.