The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    President Trump is sick. How can we pray for him when we hate his policies?

    By rmrd0000 on Tue, 10/06/2020 - 3:57pm |

    An interesting Christian view of praying for Trump's recovery

    After news broke Friday that President Trump had tested positive for the novel coronavirus and would be admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment, I shared that I would be praying. I prayed that the president recovers from this disease — and that he repents of not taking the pandemic seriously as it affected millions of Americans, disproportionately harming poor communities and people of color. But I wasn’t surprised to hear from people who struggled with what I was saying.

    How, they wanted to know, can anyone pray for a president who tries to deport millions of our undocumented neighbors; attempts to get the Affordable Care Act struck down; and ignores the science on both the pandemic and the climate crisis? Isn’t suffering from covid-19, they suggested, what someone deserves after ignoring public health advice even as others suffered?

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/06/rev-william-barber-trump-policies-prayer-recovery/

     

     

    Comments

    Secular reasons for wishing Trump well

    “Any mans death diminishes me,” wrote John Donne, “because I am involved in Mankinde.” With that thought, let us all wish Donald Trump a full and speedy recovery from his bout of Covid-19.

    We wish him well because, even, or especially, in our hyperpolitical age, some things must be beyond politics. When everything is political, nothing is sacred — starting with human life. It’s a point the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century understood well.

    We wish him well because the sudden death of any president is a traumatic national event that will inevitably animate every crackpot in the country. If the term “grassy knoll” still means something in America, just imagine the reaction in the QAnon world if Trump’s condition were to abruptly deteriorate after his stay at Walter Reed.

    We wish him well because of Mike Pence.

    We wish him well because, even as he tweets “Don’t be afraid of Covid,” he could still serve as a living witness to the fact that if you stick a lot of maskless people close together you are likely to spread the virus, as it has to more than a dozen people, and counting, in his circle. Courage, says Aristotle, is the mean between rashness and cowardice. Trump may still be rash, but his followers don’t need to be.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/05/opinion/coronavirus-trump.html

     


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 10/06/2020 - 4:59pm

    “Any mans death diminishes me,”

    Since about 8 thousand Americans die each day it seems we are constantly and significantly daily being diminished. Yet some how how ever much we are individually diminished by the mostly unknown people dying the greater whole of the population keeps increasing. It really seems to me that no one cares or feels diminished by the great mass of nobodies dying daily but some suggest we should feel something when someone famous dies. 

    I don't feel at all diminished that Van Halan died even though I liked his music. I don't feel diminished by the other 7,999 nameless ones that died that same day Van Halen did. I won't feel diminished in the slightest when Trump dies. Whether it happens in a couple of weeks from covid or a decade from now of old age.

     


    by ocean-kat on Tue, 10/06/2020 - 7:08pm

    I think Donne meant that one's own demise was connected to all the others by virtue of being the exact same thing.
    It is not like there are all these other examples of death.


    by moat on Tue, 10/06/2020 - 7:21pm

    Wishing ppl well is largely useless unless they hear it (morale boost) or you're superstitious.


    by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 10/06/2020 - 7:21pm

    I am on board with hating the sin but not the sinner.
    Repenting for sins is the beginning of life as a person with a conscience. The things unfolding around you relate to decisions one has made.
    Praying for something is only something I understand in a personal dimension. I have to read books to imagine how it might involve the world.


    by moat on Tue, 10/06/2020 - 6:51pm

    Michael Harriot at the Root admits that he is rooting for the coronavirus 

    https://www.theroot.com/im-rooting-for-the-coronavirus-1845305333


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 10/08/2020 - 9:20am

    Trump attacks Biden, says he will only debate Biden again if infected "volunteers" from White House staff can sit in the front row of the debate. Trump believes he is immune.


    by NCD on Thu, 10/08/2020 - 11:38am

    Lol

    At least 34 to pick from


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 10/08/2020 - 12:25pm

    watch the immune song by James Corden that Peracles posted here, you'll like it, I promise!


    by artappraiser on Thu, 10/08/2020 - 3:08pm

    It's odd, the humor quotient is starting to go way up, like people are feeling relieved, positive in a way, shedding some of the nervousness, like "this darkness may really be about over". Preparing for a celebration. Let's not fuck this up.


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 10/08/2020 - 3:56pm

    FWIW, I think overall the humor is becoming more subtle and sophisticated, too. As if writers no longer feel that they have to bash with a blunt instrument, that people now "get it", more tragic-comic.


    by artappraiser on Thu, 10/08/2020 - 4:01pm

    That line out of The Recognitions, "The Flemish painters were unsure of their belief, so had to fill every bit of canvas, while the Spaniards were more comfortable in their faith, could leave space..." 3 3/4 years in, we're finally less panicked, can hold back for the right timing, the right gag.


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 10/08/2020 - 4:05pm

    Art riddle Sunday

    https://przekroj.pl/en/culture/a-puzzling-artwork-2-tomasz-wichrowski


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 10/11/2020 - 6:42am

    NICE! And sophisticated is the perfect word here too. Is an example of the kind of art history I still love.


    by artappraiser on Sun, 10/11/2020 - 2:29pm


    by artappraiser on Thu, 10/08/2020 - 5:50pm