Where Did All the Good Go?

We are lost and religion will not be our savior. I used to be convince of the power of religion to change the world. And it does have power to change the world but not necessarily for good. Religion and our society have become materialists. God is dead. God does not affect the day to day lives of even her followers. Certainly there are a few of the practitioners where this is not true but for the vast majority this is true.
We can see this in that we no longer celebrate goodness. Trump is followed because he tells it like it is. Good would not be the adjective people would use about him. He is not pure of heart as evidenced by his licentious ‘locker room talk’ or his having affairs while married. He is not pure of heart as seen by his obvious lust for money, fame, and fortune. He is not a peacemaker as seen by his constant conflicts with anyone at any place.
Yet he spoke at a ‘values conference’ and was allowed the United Nations platform to preach to the world literally. We do not want goodness in charge we want a tough guy. Think about that for a moment. We have developed the thinking of Leo Durocher who once famously said “Nice Guys Finish last”.  ‘We only support winners’ Trump once said. Not good people but people who have won fame and power. He would only hire corporate executives and the rich in his Cabinet because they would be the ones to get things done. Purity of motives and heart are not important. Tough negotiators are what we need. We do not need inspiration from a Gandhi but the head of the Mafia, This is not only Trump but all of us if we are truthful are feeling this way these days. We do not care who runs against Trump as long as they can beat him.
Trump’s followers are willing to contort reality. To somehow match their allegiance to Trump they made bizarre claims at the values summit to explain that Trump is good. The two Corinthians man who irregularly attends church has become a devout Christian. All devout Christians show an ignorance of the Bible. His Christianity is on display by his penchant for name calling anyone with whom he disagrees. All devout Christians do this. This is seen in the fact he thinks the White House is a dump and not good enough for him. All devout Christians would turn their nose up at such accommodations. His Christianity is seen in his inability to curb the tongue. All devout Christians do this.
The more the religious follow Trump the more they prove God is dead. The more they celebrate his provocative manners they more they prove God is dead. The anger that is felt on both sides of our political life proves God is Dead. The more we create surreal realities to defend the crassness and abusive nature of others the more we prove God is dead.
God will not be revived in our culture by prayer or saying Merry Christmas but by the celebration of goodness. The kind where the least of these shall be the greatest. The Goodness where the cheek is turned.  But hey God is dead give us our authoritarian leaders. 
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