Fool's Calvinism Comes Home to Roost
First, a disclaimer----John Calvin would have condemned Trump, the leader of the White House Crime Family. However, the roots of the flaw in United States culture that makes Trump's criminal enterprise possible can be found in a particular brand of Calvinism that goes something like "We are born either damned or blessed, and we can know which we are by weighing God's favor shown upon us in this life." Or, more simply "The rich are better than the rest of us."
What does Trump do every time he is caught lying, criming, conspiring? He boasts "Of course! I did it to make money!" And that makes it alright----if you subscribe to the Christian Coalition's notion that all profitable endeavors are blessed by God, otherwise they would not turn a profit. Call it Fool's Calvinism (for Fool's Gold).
Jarred, the Mob Don's favorite son-in-law did not conspire to commit treason with a foreign power. No, he set up a back channel communication line with Russia to make money.
Trump did not prey upon home owners who lost their life's savings in the mortgage meltdown because he is a "bad dude." He did it because there was profit to be made and only an ungodly man turns away from an opportunity to make money.
Trump accepts bribes for everything from cabinet picks to border wall construction contracts to U.S. foreign policy , because it is a really easy way for a President to make money. And he has placed members of his family in key administration positions, because it is an easy way to make sure that all the bribe money he is making goes into the Trump Crime Family coffers. Because under Fool's Calvinism, money becomes more valuable if it is sitting on top of more money---making it closer to God in Heaven.
Both Citizens United and Bush v. Gore are results of Fool's Calvinism. In Bush v. Gore the court ruled based upon the identity of the parties in the case, because the Bush Family and their Rich (Oil, Energy and Saudi) Backers were obviously right---if not, God would not have made them so damned rich. In Citizens United, the court said that the richest corporations in the world have a god given right to determine the outcome of U.S. elections, because they are rich and the rich have been commanded by their Fool's Calvinist God to make more money.
Fool's Calvinism is the dogma of colonialists. When King Leopold's traders chopped off the hands of Africans in the Belgian Congo so that they could account for every bullet used, when New World settlers gave the natives small pox infected blankets----these atrocities were acts of worship for the devout Fool's Calvinist.
Fool's Calvinism is the dogma of environmental terrorists. The man who dares strip mine a mountain for the riches it contains, the company that dares destroy our world's climate in order to increase its quarterly returns---these are the faithful, the chosen. The earth is transient, but (to the Fool's Calvinist) money is forever. On the great cosmic ledger that God keeps at His side, the more zeros that follow the number beside your name, the closer you will be to the front row of the heavenly choir. And, as the Spanish Inquisition and Crusades taught us, All's Fair in War and Religion.
Under Fool's Calvinism, God will not be satisfied until all the world's wealth is piled up in two or three giant stacks of gold that reach all the way to the moon--and the rest of use bow down in awe and supplication to the beauty and majesty of God's creation. Because humanity, according to the Fool's Calvinist, is a pyramid scheme, and the guy at the top is at the top because God's wants it that way.
Praise God and pass the collection plate.
= new reply since forum marked as read
My rationale is that the Dutch Reformed church is inextricably entangled with Michigan GOP politics.
My best to you.
