Two motions are considered to allow Synod to meet in Discussion Groups sometimes.
They clarify the position to ensure that we understand that Synod is still in session when groupwork happens.
15 responses to “The Trump of Judgement for Liberals”
-
I heard someone talking on the radio who had looked at actual voting data (wherever such people get that from). Predictors of whether someone was a Trump voter, though by no means decisive ones, were whether someone earned more than $50000, had never gone to college or had done so but dropped out, was male, and over 44 years old. But there were people in those categories who had voted for Clinton as well. Even the much spoken of Hispanic vote was not as big a predictor of voting preference as thought and there were too many women who hated Hilary Clinton for misogyny to be the overarching factor.
The stand out predictor which went across all categories was colour, whites going for Trump, up to %58.
This vote was an anti-Obama backlash from people who couldn’t quite forgive the fact that an African-American had been running the show for eight years, whether the racism was of the vitriolic nasty sort or the more urbane sort that says that some of the other lot are probably ok, but only as long as we don’t have to actually mix with them and they’re somewhere else, it amounts to the same thing. The analyst speaking referred to a sort of nostalgia for when whites seemed to be in overall charge of everything.
As to our response: as far as I can see the reason American politics is so vitriolic is because Liberals and Conservatives hate each other and also want to remake the other side in their own image.
Love the other: well very gospel, but pretty darned hard when you struggle to even like xenophobic misogynistic lgbt-haters, let alone love them!
Love might be the attitude that those of us who call ourselves Christians have to struggle towards, but I’m less sanguine than Kelvin is on this one and the verse that keeps going through my mind is the bit in Ecclesiastes about there being a time for this a time for that.
Sometimes conflict is inevitable and has to be fought to a finish. You can’t react to the kind of person who shouted out at Trump’s victory speech “jail Obama” on the basis of well, six of one and half a dozen of the other. And such people aren’t exactly amenable to sweet reason.
On the other hand sometimes people have just to be left alone. Forceably trying to remake the other in your own image just antagonises.
I think our response has to be to discern the difference between the two situations. And to redouble our efforts to make sure that a Trump can’t become Prime Minister in the UK.
-
A prophetic and timely warning, Kelvin. What Trump represents is on the way to becoming a global phenomenon. The tone of his rallies, and the chanting of mindless slogans, is all too reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s. The fact that his election has been welcomed by Marine le Pen and other far-right leaders in Europe speaks volumes.
-
Something to think about: when it penetrates the general consciousness that the majority of white conservative evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, what if anything will be the fall out for Christianity as a whole?
Previous Posts
-
Park of Keir
I've been asked to be the spokesperson for the Park of Keir campaign. If this massive incursion into the local green belt land is going to be resisted, it needs local people to work hard and write letters protesting about it.In particular, as well as writing generally to MSPs, letters need to be written to…
-
Cats and Dogs
Tilly and I have guests – a friend and a friend's dog (Dana), staying with us for two nights. Things are not good between canine and feline worlds in this house. There has been much hissing and spitting. Roughly speaking, the house divides into two – cat space upstairs and dog space downstairs. The trouble…
-
Community Council
The Community Council was a little depressing last night. Motivated people who care about the village worn down by being unlistened to. Someone from Stirling Council was trying to get us to form a local community development plan. The claim is that this will improve citizen action and increase involvement in local democracy. We were…
-
Light Led
At the concert on Sunday night, I found myself thinking about the lighting. There was smoke and shafts of light from above. Very holy. There is always a basic idea at play in liturgy – some services are band led, some choir led, some driven by involving the laity, some by the children etc. I…
Leave a Reply