Some Hopeful Thoughts in an Hour of Fascist Temptation for Many Christians

I was going to post a followup to Friday’s post today, but I decided to wait till tomorrow given the events of Saturday both in the US and around the world.

I went to the ginormous HANDS OFF!!! Rally at the Seattle Center. There were lots of other all over Washington, the US, and the world. Here’s what I experienced.

Walked up to the Mountlake Terrace Light Rail station (second stop on the line going south and was pleased to see a bunch of people with signs getting on (I stupidly forgot to provide myself with one). Over the next 8 stops going south (including right through the heart of Pramila Jayapal’s University District constituency) that number exploded till the train was absolutely stuffed to the rafters with protesters of every possible variety. And those trains run like, every 15 minutes, so I have no doubt that spectacle was repeated many, many times today.

Got to Westlake and got in another sea of humanity (Dickens would have been in his element) to board the Monorail and zip over to the Center. Exited the Monorail and was swept downriver in a roaring torrent of people with all manner of signs (personal fave: WE SHALL OVERCOMB!) and headed over to the Fountain. Where all of Western Washington appeared to have peacefully gathered.

Good thing about this: if the goal was to let the GOP hear from We the People and this spectacle was repeated in all 50 states, then the wax was well and truly knocked from their ears. If I were those guys I would take my bribe money and head for that Russian dacha for retirement right now.

Bad thing about this: Though Congress might have heard, I couldn’t. The mighty roaring sea of humanity kept me far, far away from hearing, much less seeing, any of the speakers (former Gov. Inslee and Rep. Jayapal were the headliners as far as I know). It was a warm, bright day and I waded in vain through the dense crowd in the attempt to catch even a glimpse of wherever it was the murky speeches in bullhorns or inadequate audio systems were coming from. I was able to make out human speech when the crowd would roar “HANDS OFF!!!” now and then. But mostly I couldn’t make out what was happening.

Eventually, my foot, which has been bothering me for a month, began holding its own protest rally, so I made my way to the Food Court to get off my feet and have lunch. My foot, still sullen and resentful at me, persuaded me that I had done my bit and shown up to be counted and persuasively argued that I should beat the crowd to the Monorail and the Light Rail or it would make me pay dearly for delaying. So I headed home again after about and hour and a half.

It was incredibly encouraging to see that many people standing up for what is right. There were zero counter-protesting MAGA weirdos that I could see. Aside from, like two guys in uniform, there were also surprisingly few cops and zero show of riot-geared goons from the Administration. I don’t do this stuff too often so I had no idea what to expect and I’ve never done this living in a fascist regime before, so I also had no idea how the Tyrant would react.

Interestingly, the same was true in New York and, apparently everywhere. Cops were nowhere to be seen. Maybe there were plainclothes there? I wouldn’t know. But I had the same experience as this woman.

@tduryea

#nychandsoff #handsoff #nyc #goodtrouble #powertothepeople #courageiscontagious #fyp

♬ original sound – TL Duryea🇩🇰🇺🇸

It was warm, joyful, friendly, with lots of kids and geezers like me and everything in between. A day at the (extremely crowded) park, but with a lot of clever signs and speeches–and a nice oyster lunch. Gotta be frustrating for the Cult that was hoping for violence so they could cosplay at Victimized Righteousness and have an excuse for martial law.

Not that the liars in the MAGA Cult aren’t trying, of course. They were immediately offering the dumbest explanation for it all: the only explanation they can ever think of for a mass protest of 5 million people undertaken for free out of empathy for other human beings: Sinister Jewish Money:

Rich coming from the guy who literally tried to buy votes in Wisconsin just last week–ON CAMERA! Cue a beloved cartoon:

I will be using my (((Soros))) money for cocaine and mimosas by my gold-filled pool. I look forward to catching up with my dear, dear friends Jane Fonda, Robert DeNiro, Michael Moore, Chappell Roane and the rest of the Hollywood glitterati. Man! Ever since I learned about the massively lucrative Protest Industry and the Rich Shadow Jewish Elite that funds it, my financial worries have flown out the window! Fortunately, all 25,000 people at the Seattle Center have kept quiet about it and so when I write this I know I can be confident that you lot are too stupid to believe it’s all true.

All of it. Hail (((George Soros))), our (((International Banker))) overlord and his infinite riches!

Anyway, it turned out to be a beautiful, highly encouraging day. And some of my readers show there was a Catholic presence across the country:

Nice to see Catholics showing up at these rallies. I have no doubt that a lot of the folks there were Catholic and various other flavors of Christians. One thing about people who respect Jesus’ warnings about avoiding performative piety is that a lot of Resistance is done by Christians without the rest of us knowing it.

And, as the national media shows, these scenes were repeated everywhere:

Well, all the national media but one:

Also, it is consoling to know that, in the communion of saints, nobody is ever alone. Small protests matter just as much as gigantic ones. The widow who put her one small copper coin in the Temple treasury put in more than all the billionaires who stuffed it with gold. And the Lord hears the cry of the poor widow, the alien, and the orphan.

There will be more of these. Find your voice and speak, if only by your presence. Showing up counts, wherever, whoever, however many of us do it.

I believe this because I think that, broadly speaking, a democracy gives us the government we want and deserve. Trump has been the most effective catalyst for evil in my lifetime. He is a remarkably seductive satanic presence. But the thing about the devil is that he does not and cannot make us sin. My working assumption is that God only allows such episodes in history as we are living through in order to expose a pre-existing cancer to light prior to surgery. Trump didn’t create this sin. He simply gave it permission to manifest itself and a disturbing percentage of us said, “Hell yeah!” while another disturbing percentage could not be bothered to stop it. There remains hope. But we have a lot of contrition, repentance, and firm purpose of amendment to do.

My other working assumption is that this is why God has not yet removed him. He is not the source of the problem: we are. Trump gave us what the worst of us wanted and what a wide swath of us could not be bothered to care about. When we start to attack the real issue–the sin we cling to that Trump catalyzes like an enzyme–then we will be rid of him because we will finally be facing the heart of the problem: ourselves and our sin. Till then, it appears God will be pursuing the “If that’s what you want, then smoke the whole pack right now, kid” method of letting us experience the Joy of Perverted Free Will Liberated from All Responsibility that Trump lives and that we have stupidly envied since the Fall.

It hard to maintain the argument that Trump is not a reflection of the American people. The biggest lie we have told ourselves for the past eight years is, “This is not who we are.” I prefer the words of the Confiteor to such denialist bullshit.

It is not who we have to be and we can repent and change. But if this is “not who we are” then why have we elected this monster twice? I think it’s wiser to start with “We have sinned, like our fathers before us” and “Through my fault, through my fault, through my own most grievous fault.” If you are personally innocent of supporting this bullshit, then offer your innocent sufferings in union with Christ who was absolutely innocent, but who still united himself with those who murdered him. We are Americans. We did this. We have to fix it by the grace of God because, as we keep demonstrating over and over, we sure as hell are terrible at fixing it without the grace of God.

I say the above for two reasons. First, because I reject the “thoughts and prayers” bullshit of the pious conservative who uses such lies as a prophylactic against action. Second, because I also reject the slogan I heard chanted on Saturday, “WHO WILL SAVE US? WE WILL!”.

I get it. Listening to the MAGA antichrist cult’s empty “thoughts and prayers” lies for avoiding responsibility, people rightly demand action and reject passivity. But the reality is that we won’t save us. Not on our own. We are who got us here and, without divine grace, we will only make it worse. The truth is that we are to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13). By all means act. But act in union with Christ out of love for the common good. Putting on the One Ring to defeat Sauron is the great temptation we will face in the coming years. Change for the good happens when we act in union with the grace and love of God. Both blades on the scissors–God’s grace and our active and willed response it–are what do the cutting. Separate them and pit them against one another and we always end up stabbing each other.