"We have been patient w/ the smear campaign being waged against the school, but it is clear now that there is a concerted effort to damage the school’s reputation and mission. We have a fiduciary duty to defend the school from this attack.”-@JerryFalwellJr (breitbart.com/politics/2019/…)
A PDF of this twitter thread:
Download Reporting on Falwell and Liberty
A summary for those not paying attention: There is a pattern by Trump of odd foreign policy in Syria, Ukraine, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and refugee limits that runs contrary to what experts on the right and left think is sound policy. No one is defending any of these things. Sometimes we suspect strongly that Trump is operating out of self-interest. Those he is helping seem to be funneling money or election assistance to him. Other times, it seems he is operating impulsively. But there is bipartisan opposition to all of it. Yet, he continues. Syria: betraying Kurd allies who fought ISIS to be killed by Turkey's dictator
Ukraine: withholding military assistance for favors
China: not defending Hong Kong for favors, also trade war
Russia: deference to Putin
Saudi Arabia: enabling war in Yemen
Asylum: reducing refugees
Trump's speech is that of a demagogue. It is propaganda, brainwashing. It is lies delivered with enormous relish and amusement.
What is the antidote? At least 1 of these:
– education in history,
– moral sensitivity,
– consuming reputable news sources.
#MinneapolisTrumpRally
See also this thread:
John Fea@JohnFea13.Trump gives lip service to "unity" or the "common good," but his tweets, speeches (tonight in #minneapolis for example), and encounters with the press do not match his weak calls for civility. #MinneapolisTrumpRally
John Fea@JohnFea14. Trump has built an entire approach to politics on discord, appealing to our darkest angels to score political points, and on making appeals to the minority of the population willing to cheer his depravity. #MinneapolisTrumpRally
Ruth Graham✔@publicroad
Wow: 28% of white evangelicals now say Trump should be impeached and removed from office. https://twitter.com/nickgourevitch/status/1182080475113906176 …
Nick Gourevitch@nickgourevitch12% of Trump voters say he should be impeached and removed from office via new FOX News poll. Seems like a kind of a big problem for a guy that won by around ~80,000 votes.
Quotes from rally in Minneapolis in this thread
Video clips thread:
Daniel Dale✔@ddale8
Trump has finished his speech after about one hour and 40 minutes. That was his longest campaign rally.
(mobile.twitter.com/atrupar/status…)
Jack Holmes✔@jackholmes0
Day after day, as they stuck with him, Trump's supporters were forced to give up more and more of themselves to stay on-board. At some point, the sunk cost became insurmountable. There is no going back now. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a29438336/trump-rally-minneapolis-ilhan-omar/ …
Trump's Minneapolis Rally Was a Demonstration of the Moral Suicide Pact He's Made With His Suppor…
They have given too much of themselves to The Leader to go back now. They will support him, no matter what he does, until he is stopped.
esquire.com
Meet the Press✔@MeetThePress
WATCH: The president held a campaign rally last night and attacked Hunter Biden. We cannot in good conscience show it to you @chucktodd: "Politics ain’t beanbag, but it isn’t supposed to be this either. We all need to play a role in not rewarding this kind of politics"
Transcript “I got a call the other night from pastors, the biggest pastors, evangelical Christians. They said, 'we have never seen our religion or any religion so electrified.' They say they’ve never seen anything like it. Churches are joining … hundreds of thousands of people."
Transcript continued:
"And that's largely because of you [the media] and your partners, the Democrats.”
Madison: "In the case of the Executive Magistracy which was to be administered by a single man, loss of capacity or corruption was more within the compass of probable events, and either of them might be fatal to the Republic."
John Dickerson✔@jdickerson
"the best way therefore to provide in the Constitution for the regular punishment of the Executive where his misconduct should deserve it, and for his honorable acquittal when [FN10] he should be unjustly accused." https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_720.asp … https://twitter.com/KWardCummings/status/1182656696293957632 …
K. Ward Cummings@KWardCummingsReplying to @jdickersonSaw ctm. You referenced Franklins contribution to impeachment debate. Where is that from?
"Mr. MADISON thought it indispensable that some provision should be made for defending the Community agst. the incapacity, negligence or perfidy of the chief Magistrate. The limitation of the period of his service, was not a sufficient security."
Madison: "He might lose his capacity after his appointment. He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression. He might betray his trust to foreign powers."
If a professor has tenure and is a white evangelical and are active on Twitter or a podcast, or with popular writing, I think they should speak out—at least occasionally—at least in general terms—when white evangelicals do immoral or ignorant or destructive things. Usually those white evangelical professors who don't speak up are either:
– not involved with popular media,
– or they think of their vocation as in the classroom and in academic writing, and they do not want to endanger or muddy those primary communication vehicles. – or others are involved in other constructive or frivolous activities and hobbies.
But I wish they would use their communication opportunities to at least communicate in principles and generalities. For example, tweet an appropriate phrase of a Scripture verse or a quote. Yes, this is like a "subtweet." You are tweeting something that refers to something in the news but you are not naming the thing explicitly so someone later or not paying attention won't get it. These are baby steps towards evangelicals engaging in politics. Letting the politics for white evangelicals be dominated by the self-promoters and liars and anti-intellectuals and schemers has not worked so well. Beth Moore has done an excellent job of not naming names or incidents but calling out for justice, repentance, purity, and truth, in tweets that sometimes roughly correspond to items in the news. My heroes: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr, and my dad Dale Rowell all died at 39 so I have a little more lack-of-concern-about-the-future-and-death than some others. I have a strong sense of: If you are not standing up for something, what is life for?
Andy Rowell@AndyRowellWhite Evangelical pastors deserve your plaintive question.
White evangelical pastors have traditionally been taught not to speak about "politics" but rather focus on the "spiritual."
Robert Jeffress has decided to kiss expediency.
Graham and Falwell Jr. are not pastors.
Andy Rowell@AndyRowellFor alternatives to Jeffress, follow these evangelicals on politics: @TheAlanNoble @wilsonhartgrove @MichaelRWear @ShaneClaiborne @BethMooreLPM @JohnFea1 @JohnWHawthorne @wthrockmorton
None is a pastor. Pastors are sensitive to their congregation in what they tweet.
Melissa Moore@MelissaMoore77Being scolded for getting too political by people who have sold their souls to the Republican Party is . . . rich. And the whole: “Stop being political. Focus on leading people to Jesus." The act is tired. As a Christian my goal is better & more faithful politics not no politics.
Fred Sanders@FredFredSandersI saw the best minds of my generation join the ranks of "No, Mr. President, how dare YOU" Twitter, consumed by madness, starving hysterical etc.
Andy Rowell@AndyRowellA practical theologian should read Eberhard Bethge's biography of Bonhoeffer and Yale historian @TimothyDSnyder. Systematic
theologians may as Barth said "endeavor to carry on theology, and only theology, as if nothing had happened."
November 2016. (qz.com/846940/a-yale-…)
