Death of 7-Year-Old Girl in U.S. Custody, a Family Funeral, and the Inexplicable Cruelty of Right-Wing U.S. Catholicism: An Advent Conundrum

Sometimes I follow threads in Catholic discussions on Twitter down rabbit holes. I know I shouldn't do this, because the holes inevitably turn out to be dark, claustrophobic, and stifling. 

Two Stories: Snapshot of Who We Have Become in Trump Era — Price-Gouging Diabetes Patients While Hedge Fund Managers Rake in Additional $10,000 Per Week

A hedge fund manager on Wall Street told me he was pleasantly surprised to see his pay go up $10,000 a week. He said that will more than cover the cost of his yacht club membership. 🛥#ThanksPaulRyan

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) February 4, 2018

 

At the very same time, I read the following two reports:

Short (Mostly) and Sweet (Sometimes) Takes on Today's News: "'A Culture Broken by Brutally Powerful Men' Is an Eloquent and Precise Diagnosis of Our Current Context"

The charges against the Bundys, who led an armed standoff at their ranch in 2014, have been dismissed by a federal judge https://t.co/QoiQFDh38F

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 8, 2018

“Siri, define “White Male Privilege”...” https://t.co/phB5hCyqyx

— John Kovalic (@muskrat_john) January 8, 2018

I've culled these tasty tidbits from my reading of the news online today, and am offering them to you as amuses-gueules in the hope that you may be tempted to click and read some of the links:

"Today He's Blowing Up Obamacare. Tomorrow, Maybe, the World" & "Memorize the Faces of the Smiling Scum Surrounding the Filth in Chief": Will Bishop Peter Jugis Address This Scandal?

So the sabotage of health care is in full swing and out in the open. And the motive is the scariest thing 1/ https://t.co/hH0Ehi0BTb

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 13, 2017

Trump Eviscerates Obamacare by Executive Action, "Pro-Life" North Carolina Catholic Virginia Foxx, a Member of Bishop Peter Jugis' Flock, Exults

Charles Pierce on the executive action taken today by the man "pro-life" white Christians placed in the White House, to undermine healthcare coverage of millions of Americans in need of coverage:

Joel Osteen Story and Nashville Statement Raise the Question, What Good Do Churches Do? — #EmptyThePews More Important Than Ever

Victoria & I are praying for everyone affected by Hurricane Harvey. Please join us as we pray for the safety of our Texas friends & family.

— Joel Osteen (@JoelOsteen) August 26, 2017

How about you open the doors to your 16,000 person, $100 million church instead? https://t.co/7Qyuo0rtFJ

— jordan 🌹🌹 (@JordanUhl) August 28, 2017

As hurricane Harvey has devastated southeastern Texas and is now moving to Louisiana, there has been lively discussion, especially on social media, about the initial refusal of prosperity-gospel preacher Joel Osteen to open his Houston megachurch to those displaced by flooding. Osteen eventually responded to the negative publicity he and his church were earning by saying that he will admit people in need of shelter after other shelters are at maximum capacity. 

A Family Story: When "Pro-Life" Catholic Trump Voters Confront Sexual Abuse of Minors by a Priest — In Their Own Family Circle

I have a story to tell you this morning. It's a story with a question embedded in it. The question is one with which I am personally struggling. This story is about a specific family and family situation, but it also seems to me a parabolic story, in that this specific family in some ways mirrors many white Christian (to be specific: white Catholic) "pro-life" families who voted for Donald Trump, claiming that he is "pro-life," and who continue stoutly to defend him even as he wishes to rip healthcare coverage from millions of economically challenged citizens.

Attack on LGBTQ People Coupled with Attack on Healthcare Coverage: Double-Whammy Attack Emanating from "Pro-Life" White Christians

THREAD: 1. People choose to end their lives for all sorts of reasons.

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) July 27, 2017

The Current Spectacle of Astonishing Cruelty in U.S. Cheered by White Christians: Jesus Makes Winners, Not Losers!

This is going to the worst day of a lot of people's lives. And for absolutely no reason. Astonishing cruelty.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) July 26, 2017

Mark Joseph Stern tweeted the tweet above one minute ago.

Trump's Presidency and White Evangelical and Catholic Voters: "Trumpism Is Basically a Religion at This Point"

Things I've read today that I'd like to share with you:

What Twitter Is Saying About the GOP Wealthcare Bill: "Broad Tax Cut to the Affluent, Paid for by Billions of Dollars Sliced from Medicaid"

What folks are saying on Twitter about the wealthcare bill the Republicans have finally released after weeks of secrecy as they seek to ram it through the Senate:

The Senate GOP bill isn't health care, it's #wealthcare. https://t.co/psNDJ3I34a

— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) June 22, 2017

Sunday Morning Soul-Enriching Resources: Ex-Evangelicals, Catholic Sexual Abuse and Fr. Tom Doyle, Rev. William J. Barber and Healthcare

Some Sunday morning soul-enriching resources I'd like to share, dealing with disparate topics:

"Church Should Provide Healthcare Coverage, Not State": Two Statements Confronting This Claim of Many U.S. White Christians with Reality

if you applauded 24 million losing healthcare and you're planning on attending a church this weekend—I'd pray about how you're OK with that.

— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) May 6, 2017

As a way of prefacing the two articles to which I'm pointing you below, with excerpts, I want to remind you of several observations made by Frances FitzGerald in her book The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2017) (for previous discussions of this book, see here and here). First, there's this:

"If There's a Single Worst Actor in This Drama, It Is Ryan": Time for White Catholics to Face Responsibility for Trump

Jamelle Bouie writes, 

The GOP’s passage of Trumpcare is one of the most callous things the party has ever done.

Charles Pierce on the Party in D.C. Today: Celebrating Taking Healthcare from Poor People to Give Trillion-Dollar Tax Cut to Super-Rich

This is the moral bankruptcy of Christian Conservatism:

National day of prayer, praise their god, then kill healthcare for millions

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) May 4, 2017

Charles Pierce hits the nail on the head: 

GOP Votes to Rip Healthcare from Millions of Americans, Beer Bash Ensues: Twitter Documentation of Today

Republicans cheering the fact that they're about to vote for a measure that strips 24 million of coverage (while preserving their own care) pic.twitter.com/mdMiY3WaoO

— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) May 4, 2017

Twitter capturing what's happening in Washington, D.C., today as a bill to strip millions of Americans of healthcare coverage to afford tax credits to the richest people in the country passes the House, and cases of beer are rolled into the Capitol for the celebration:

White Christian Right "Over the Moon" About Trump Presidency: News Worth Noting Today

#Christian pic.twitter.com/3ZA6pRFGJS

— Ani Sangye (@SangyeH) April 26, 2017

Some "in the news" items I've noticed in the last day or so, which have to do with matters we often discuss here, and to which I want to draw your attention:

Easter Tweets For You: Conversations Between Trump's "Pro-Life" Supporters and Their Critics — "Aren't You the Same Guy Who Just Yesterday Was Clamoring to Kill Prisoners?"

Says the "pro-life" politician who spent her Easter weekend fighting to kill prisoners. https://t.co/iHiCxus5qJ

— Sister Helen Prejean (@helenprejean) April 17, 2017

Some Easter tweets for you, capturing important conversations about what Easter (and Jesus and the gospels) mean to different groups of American Christians at this point in time. The tweet above from Sister Helen Prejean is a response to the following tweet by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, an evangelical Christian who was working overtime in Holy Week to see 8 human beings executed by the state in 11 days immediately after Easter:

The Healthcare Debacle and the GOP Culture of Cruelty: "A Display of Incompetence and Cruelty"

Thoughts and prayers with Paul Ryan, whose youthful dream of robbing poor people of their health coverage was dashed today.

— Ned Resnikoff (@resnikoff) March 24, 2017

New York Times, "The TrumpRyanCare Debacle": 

As Day Goes On, William J. Barber's Prophetic Moral Testimony about Trump-Ryan Take Health Care Away Death Bill

Reverend William J. Barber II speaking yesterday at a protest of the Trumpcare legislation — by way of Charles Pierce: