“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other” (Galatians 5:22-26).
TRUMP:
Trump says he’s a Christian.
When asked if he ever asks God for forgiveness, he responded, “I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.” (Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, 2015)
When asked at the presidential debate Sept. 10 if he regretted any of his actions on Dec. 6, 2021, he blamed everyone else for what happened and expressed no regret.
When Trump lied to his followers and told them to go to the Capitol and fight, he promised, “I’ll be with you!” but he wasn’t. He was watching the violence on TV.
Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
In contrast, although Vice President Mike Pence served faithfully beside Donald Trump for four years, Trump betrayed him by lying to the crowd and endangering his life. “Hang Mike Pence!” they shouted. “So what?” was his response.
The police officers laid down their lives for their friends and countrymen. How shall we honour them?
Cheating
Cheating workers
Trump likes to come across as a friend of the working class – one who will help them fight against the elite. However, in the run-up to the 2016 election, literally hundreds of people, including lawyers, carpenters and painters, came forward to accuse Trump of not paying them for their work.
Cheating Taxpayers
It has just been revealed by the House Oversight Committee that newly obtained records show then-President Donald Trump overcharged the U.S. Secret Service for rooms at his former hotel in Washington, D.C., during his presidency. For example, the Trump Hotel rooms reserved for Secret Service on Feb. 22, 2018, were more than four times more expensive than a government per diem rate – “an astounding markup of more than 450% of the per diem rate.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-secret-service-dc-hotel-overcharged/
Sexual Assault
Donald Trump sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll in 1996 in a dressing room in Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan and then defamed her in 2022 by claiming that she was crazy and made the whole thing up. To read what the assault entailed makes me want to throw up. If I posted it here, it would be censored.
Trump’s defence was, “I’ve never met this person in my life,” but there is photographic evidence to the contrary, and he was found guilty.
As of 2019, E. Jean Carroll was the 16th woman to accuse Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. The total is now 26.
You can watch the video of him bragging about grabbing a woman’s pussy and saying, “I did try to fuck her. She was married… You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful…I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy…” This was recorded in 2005, when he was married to Melania.
In 1997, Trump told the radio host Howard Stern that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was “my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier.”
Jesus said, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45).
People with Disabilities or Weight Problems
In 2015, Trump mocked the reporter, Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a chronic disability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9reO3QnUA
Donald Trump’s nephew, Fred Trump III, has a son with disabilities. He went to meet with Donald Trump about services for the disabled, and Donald said “Those people, the costs, they should just die.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zufg-Hn1rE0
In 2018, Trump said of Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, “He voted to impeach me — that guy voted to impeach me,” He called him a “slob” with “the biggest stomach I’ve ever seen.” https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2024/08/09/trump-montana-rally-tester-senate-democrat
Fraud
Trump, et. al., committed fraud by making hundreds of false statements that inflated the value of Trump Organization assets.
In 2016, Trump falsified records to cover up payments to a porn star, disguising hush money reimbursement as legal expenses.
Trump-endorsed Bibles
Trump has made $300,000 from branded bibles. The Greenwood Bible. The Bible retails for $59.99 online, excluding shipping and other fees. But the “signature edition” copies with Trump’s signature sell for a hefty markup of $1,000.
The Bibles were printed in China, a country Trump has repeatedly accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices. The cost: $3/bible.
You can buy a version of the Bible with his name stamped on the cover above where it says “Holy Bible”:
DONALD J. TRUMP
45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE DAY GOD INTERVENED
JULY 13, 2024
The Holy Word of God is sandwiched between the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Pledge of Allegiance. And it says “God bless the USA” on the front. I wonder if John 3:16 has been revised to say “For God so loved the USA, that he gave his only begotten son…”
Apparently, the Bible is printed on very very thin pages that are kind of stuck together, and there are instructions about peeling the pages apart one by one. It has been suggested that the Trump Bibles are designed to have and to hold as a symbol of Christian nationalism, but they’re not really designed to be read.
If people actually get the pages apart and read the book Trump has endorsed, especially the New Testament (the current agreement), they may clue into the forehead-smacking irony of the situation.
Trump, who endorsed this Bible they are holding, may not, in his current unrepentant state, be endorsed by the Author of the Bible. Does Trump think that God needs or would benefit from his endorsement of His Book?
I can’t help but think of our table-flippin’ Saviour who, in the very last week of his life, chased the money changers out of the temple (Matthew 21:12-13), “those who would take sacred things and use them as cheap relics to be sold in the marketplace,” as Senator Raphael Warnock, Baptist pastor, put it.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/sen-raphael-warnock-slams-trump-selling-bibles-rcna145767
HARRIS:
Kamala Harris is a Christian and a Baptist. When Joe Biden asked her to be the presidential nominee, she phoned her pastor, Rev. Amos C. Brown. “Pastor, I called because I want you to pray for me, [my husband] Doug, this country and the race I am intending to run for president.” He congratulated her, prayed for her, and quoted his favourite Bible verse, Micah 6:8, reminding her to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your maker. That’s what we need in this nation.”
Brown said he has known Harris and her family for more than two decades. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, was a Hindu from Chennai, India, and worked on breast cancer research. Her father, Donald Harris, is a Black Baptist, an economist, and a professor emeritus at Stanford University.
In her 2019 memoir, Harris wrote that her “earliest memories of the teachings of the Bible were of a loving God, a God who asked us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves and to defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
https://sojo.net/articles/meet-vice-president-kamala-harris-pastor-civil-rights-leader-amos-c-brown
Harris earned a degree in political science and economics in 1986 and her juris doctor degree in 1989. Following graduation, Harris became a prosecutor, serving as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, where she specialized in prosecuting child sexual assault cases, and later as an assistant district attorney in San Francisco.
Her step-daughter and her husband’s ex-wife endorse her. “She’s a great step-mother.”
She has a high respect for the rule of law.
Republicans criticize her for her changes in policies. Kamala Harris is a politician who keeps the same values, and her policies evolve based on what she learns from her mistakes, and based on current information and the need of the country in the present time.
POLICIES
You can see Donald Trump’s policies here on his website:
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/issues
And Kamala Harris’ goals and policies here:
https://kamalaharris.com/issues/
A. HEALTH CARE – Jesus the Healer
Jesus went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and sickness among the people… Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis*, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan River. (Matthew 4:23,25).
* The Decapolis was one of the regions where Jesus travelled in which Gentiles (non Jews) were in the majority.
It seems to me that Jesus, the healer, would be in favour of health care and healing for all, no matter where they come from or how much money they have.
I believe God guides researchers and medical professionals to bring healing, care, and comfort to the sick. My husband and I would both be dead if it weren’t for Alberta Health Care, and so would many of our friends and family, including our precious grandson. Our gratitude for God and his wonderful instruments of healing knows no bounds.
If we vote for a candidate who promotes health care for all, rich or poor, we are showing love and offering healing and health care for the “least of these” and, therefore, we are showing love to Jesus. “I was sick and you visited me…”
The Lie:
In the September 10 presidential debate, Trump claimed that he had done the right thing; he saved Obamacare. JD Vance has also tried to rewrite history by saying in the VP debate, “Donald Trump could’ve destroyed the program. Instead he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.”
The Truth:
As president, Trump fought to destroy the Affordable Care Act through repeal legislation (which failed) that was projected to result in millions losing their coverage, through executive actions to weaken its insurance regulations, and by asking the Supreme Court to wipe out the law entirely in 2020.
In reality, Trump did everything he could to kill the Affordable Care Act. He claims he has “concepts of a plan” to replace it, but gives no details.
Harris vows to protect the Affordable Care Act, so that rich and poor alike can come for healing.
Trump tends to deny science, whether environmental or medical. He said that COVID would just go away and contradicted Fauci, a well-respected, experienced infectious disease specialist. Science is, essentially, the observation of reality. Scientists are accountable to one another and fact checked (peer reviewed). Interpretations may vary; however, I believe fact-checked scientific truth is God’s truth, and I believe we need to vote for a leader who respects that truth, no matter how inconvenient, rather than firing scientists who don’t tell them what they want to hear.
B. ABORTION – Why voting for Trump will not reduce abortions – There is a Higher Law
Trump-supporting Christians want to save the lives of unborn children. I want the same thing. The very thought of abortion breaks my mother heart, and my grandmother heart. I can’t imagine making the decision to terminate a pregnancy, but I have never been in such a difficult situation that I would even want to consider that option.
Abortion is unfathomably complicated. The context for pregnancy can vary from utter joy and shared delight to heinous crimes of incest and rape. It can involve medical issues for the woman and/or the fetus, a marriage issue, a mental health issue… For many families living in poverty, it can be a divisive financial issue based on fear of being unable to provide for the children they already have.
I worked for Social Services for three years, first in Income Security, and then in Child Welfare. I remember a heartbroken young single mother coming in to surrender her little baby for adoption because she had no support from her family and couldn’t provide for herself, let alone her child.
There was a girl, very dear to me from the time I was a child, who told me when she was 38, that she was repeatedly sexually abused by her father and her older brother when growing up. She told me about the extreme things she would do to make sure the fetus would abort. If she had carried on with the pregnancy and reported the crime, she would have been accused of lying and would have probably been beaten to within an inch of her life.
Abortion is not a black-and-white issue. In some cases, it’s a black-and-blue issue.
I knew another woman, here in Peace River, who was diagnosed with cancer when she was pregnant. Cancer treatments would have killed the baby. She chose to have the baby and postpone her treatments. Freedom of choice, trust of the woman and her family and doctor, and support in difficult times, are all vital aspects of care.
Making abortion illegal is the simplistic answer to a tremendously complex and nuanced issue, just as “building a wall and making Mexico pay for it” is a simplistic answer to the problems of immigration. Simplistic solutions don’t always work.
Remembering what I studied in Ethics classes in Bible College, I’m thinking we need to ask: Are Trump’s anti-abortion promises effective? Are Christians justified in voting for him again in light of his election lies and other deceptions and the resulting violence, division, and damage? Does the end justify the means? Does the “what” justify the “how”?
When considering this highly-emotional issue as Christians, it’s vital that we separate the truth from the lies, look at the subject from different perspectives, and look honestly at what the Bible says on the matter.
The Abortion Lies:
Trump has lied, over and over again, about abortion in America, claiming,
“They will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month and even after birth.”
“He’s willing to, as we say, rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby.”
“The mother meets with the doctor. They take care of the baby, they wrap the baby beautifully. And then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby.”
The Abortion Truth:
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
In 2021, the majority (80.8%) of abortions were performed at or before 9 weeks’ gestation, and nearly all (93.5%) were performed at or before 13 weeks’ gestation.
5.7% were performed between 14 and 20 weeks.
0.9% of abortions were performed at or after 21 weeks (4.8 months) of pregnancy.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/ss/ss7209a1.htm
(NOTE: Age of fetal viability varies. If a baby is born prematurely at 24 weeks, they will have about a 68% chance of survival. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/roe-opponents-babies-born-limits-viability-rcna27557)
Third-trimester abortions (28 weeks or 7 months on) are extremely rare, and usually are done when a life-threatening diagnosis is made or in cases where there may be severe deformities; there may be a fetus that is nonviable.
Trump’s claim about taking the life of a child after birth is not abortion. If a fetus is not expected to live, a physician and a family may need to have conversations such as, “Do we do life support after the birth if it’s ultimately futile?” This is not abortion. This is a discussion about how to care for nonviable babies.
Has overturning Roe vs. Wade reduced the number of abortions?
The answer is no, according to a study by the Society of Family Planning. It seems the overturning of Roe vs. Wade (Trump’s big promise to Christians) has just made abortions more difficult to access, resulting in postponement, which is not good.
“Overall, data suggests that the number of legal abortions nationwide has stayed steady or slightly increased since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, despite abortion bans in what are now 14 states. This is probably because of new clinics that opened in states where it is legal, and the emergence of new ways to order abortion pills online…
“The analysis showed that the increased births (in states with abortion bans) were disproportionately among women in their 20s and Black and Hispanic women, which researchers said could be because these groups tend to be poorer, making it harder to travel.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/22/upshot/abortion-births-bans-states.html
As my mother used to say, “The rich get richer, and the poor have children.”
Trump has now said he will leave abortion rulings up to individual States, and he posted on Truth Social that voting for him will be “great for women and their reproductive rights.” He has said that the Florida law banning abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy doesn’t give enough time. (He changed his mind on that after being confronted by an evangelical pro-life leader demanding clarification.)
Trump blamed anti-abortion advocates for the GOP’s 2022 midterm losses and his campaign pushed for language calling for a national abortion ban to be removed from the Republican Party’s official platform.
If voting for Trump in 2024 will not reduce the number of abortions, what will?
1. Better Birth Control
Since the root cause of abortion is unexpected pregnancies, making birth control options more readily known and available is obviously a vital part of the solution. Some methods are far more effective than others. The arm implant works about the same as the pill, except that women don’t have to remember to take it every day.
In areas where women are educated about such things and aided in obtaining what they choose, abortion rates are decreased.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/05/01/almost-half-of-pregnancies-in-the-u-s-are-unplanned-theres-a-surprisingly-easy-way-to-change-that/
2. Financial and moral support for pregnant women and families
A young woman very dear to me said that her fundamentalist Christian mother told her, “If you ever get pregnant out of wedlock, don’t even bother coming home.”
A HIGHER LAW
The Apostle Paul writes in the book of Romans (chapter 8) about “what the law was powerless to do.”
Perhaps this is a case where love is a higher and more effective law. Perhaps the role of the Church – the Body of Christ on Earth – in this matter is to offer support to pregnant women and families with children who struggle financially and otherwise. There are many Christian groups who are doing this, which is deeply pleasing to Jesus, who said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me” (Mark 9:37).
Republican senators, on the other hand, are doing the opposite.
REPUBLICANS BLOCK CHILD TAX CREDIT EXPANSION:
August 2024 – “The Senate Republicans just blocked a bi-partisan child tax credit expansion.” Under the bill, low-income families could have claimed the child tax credit for multiple children; current law only counts it for one child for the lowest-earning families. Nonpartisan estimates say it would have lifted 400,000 children out of poverty.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/08/01/child-tax-credit-expansion-senate-republicans/
When I read this, I thought of Jesus’ words regarding the religious leaders of his day:
“They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them” (Matt. 23:4).
In other words: We’re forcing you, by law, to have this baby, but don’t look to us for help. You got yourself into this. Deal with it.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that increased social support will result in fewer abortions.
“Over 70 percent of women seeking abortions report financial reasons as part of the why, and about a quarter say they’re the primary reason for getting an abortion. Providing a child allowance midway through the pregnancy would support parents who choose not to end that life.
“Cash transfers directly reduce abortions. Three key academic studies have tested this in natural experiments: one using a child allowance program in Spain, one using a baby bonus in the Friuli-Veneto region of Italy, the other using changes in the enforcement of child support in US states. These studies found the same thing: when mothers get more financial support for childbearing (whether via a direct cash benefits, as in Spain or Italy, or through more reliable and steady child support checks, as in the US example), they are far less likely to pursue abortion.” https://www.aei.org/articles/child-allowances-reduce-abortion/
What Does the Bible Say about Abortion?
Exodus 20:13
“You shall not murder” is the sixth commandment.
This is a pretty straightforward law given by God. The desire to protect human life is deeply ingrained in us, especially the little ones.
Jim Wallis, author of God’s Politics, takes the sixth commandment even further than most of us would imagine. He points out that about 30,000 children die every day because of hunger and related causes.
Is this murder by the sin of omission by the “haves” not giving sufficiently or effectively to the “have nots”?
As evangelicals, we need to be sure that our passion for the unborn does not cause neglect of those already born.
Psalm 139:13-16
In regard to abortion, the scripture passage that inspires me most to be PRO-LIFE is a beautiful and moving psalm written by David:
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
Numbers 5:11-31
ON THE OTHER HAND, there’s the scripture passage in the book of Numbers that refers to a husband wondering if his wife’s pregnancy is the result of another man’s doing. He is to take her to the priest, who gives her water with ink and dust in it. If she’s been faithful, the baby will live. If not, well…
“…he is to have the woman drink the water. If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry…”
From this passage, does one conclude that, for an illegitimately-conceived fetus, God ordains the cessation of the pregnancy by giving the woman a substance by mouth. Is this abortion? Did God not value these fetuses as humans created in his image?
This is a hard passage of scripture. Did God actually say these things? Or was this law made up by some Jewish religious leader?
NOTE: Some scholars think the woman is not pregnant, and there is no miscarriage, but rather, she becomes infertile if she was unfaithful. It’s a pretty strange story, either way.
3. Abstinence
One Christian solution for the problem of abortion is to tell people to stop having sex unless they want a baby. Looking at some of the stories in the Bible, one would have to conclude this might not work very well. For example, King David, described as “a man after God’s own heart”, had sex with Bathsheba, even though she was married to another man. “You saw her bathing on the roof…” as Leonard Cohen sang.
David got her pregnant. When his plan failed to get her husband, Uriah the Hittite, to come home from battle to have sex with her, so he would think it was his legitimate baby, David arranged to have Uriah killed in battle so he, David, wouldn’t be found out.
When Nathan the prophet confronted David about his sin (2 Samuel 12), the Lord said to David,
‘I am bringing trouble to you from your own family. While you watch, I will take your wives from you and give them to someone who is very close to you. He will have sexual relations with your wives, and everyone will know it. You had sexual relations with Bathsheba in secret, but I will do this so all the people of Israel can see it.’”
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan answered, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die. But what you did caused the Lord’s enemies to lose all respect for him. For this reason the son who was born to you will die.”
Then Nathan went home. And the Lord caused the son of David and Bathsheba, Uriah’s widow, to be very sick. David prayed to God for the baby. David fasted and went into his house and stayed there, lying on the ground all night…On the seventh day the baby died.”
So… God killed an innocent baby to punish a man for sexual sin?
(TANGENT: There are a lot of disturbing passages in the Old Testament. I’m deeply grateful that Jesus brought the New Testament – the New Covenant – the New Agreement.
“So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian” (Galatians 3:24-25).
In the New Testament, Jesus says, “The Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments…”
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22:36-40 and Luke 10:25-27).
In response to the question that followed, “And who is my neighbour?” Jesus revealed that the neighbour you’ve been commanded to love may be the one you’ve been taught to despise. See the story of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:28-37. Jews and Samaritans could be compared to the Republicans and Democrats of today.
Back to the topic of abortion,
According to a university professor of biblical studies, Melanie A. Howard, abortions were known and practised in biblical times, although the methods differed.
“In the response to the Supreme Court’s decision, Christians on both sides of the partisan divide have appealed to any number of texts to assert that their particular brand of politics is biblically backed. However, if they claim the Bible specifically condemns or approves of abortion, they are skewing the textual evidence to fit their position.”
https://theconversation.com/what-the-bible-actually-says-about-abortion-may-surprise-you-186983
I am personally Pro-Life. Politically, however, I have to wonder…
According to God’s design, the fetus is entrusted to the woman as part of her body. Do we have the absolute Scriptural authority to take that responsibility away from her (and her doctor)? Do we have a clear, God-given mandate to force our beliefs on this matter onto all of society?
Is making abortion illegal the best or the most Christ-like way to reduce abortions?
Maternal Death
One major problem with the abortion laws is that they leave doctors open to being prosecuted because others might disagree with their judgments as to whether the mother’s life is in danger. When and how is it legal to intervene to save a woman’s life?
There are emergency situations where doctors need the freedom to act quickly on behalf of their patients, no matter where they live, without the fear of facing, in some states, a prison sentence. For example, in Texas, if a doctor provides an abortion that’s not considered to be a medical emergency, they could now face life in prison. The Texas attorney general must also seek a $100,000 civil penalty for each unlawful abortion. The doctor could also lose their medical license.
Shortly after Roe vs. Wade was overturned, a young mother, Amber Thurman, died because of pregnancy complications in Georgia, leaving behind a 6-year-old son. She died because she was denied timely abortion care. The state of Georgia review board on maternal mortality has ruled her death preventable. Dara Kass is an emergency medicine physician and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. She said, “…we know that this unnecessary tragedy is a direct result of banning abortion.” https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/09/georgia-abortion-ban-supreme-court-killed-amber-thurman.html
Creating a Way Forward
Although Jesus said nothing directly about our responsibility to the unborn, he said plenty about our responsibility to the born, including the children of the sojourner, the immigrant. Do we vote against these commands, in order to pass abortion laws, which may or may not result in fewer abortions?
I don’t claim to know the answer to those questions. But let’s consider…Jesus did not force His way on people. He was a friend of sinners. He created a way forward and shed light on their path.
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).
He knocks. He doesn’t break windows and smash through doors.
Christianity is not a religion; it’s a relationship of choice. It seems, according to Scripture, that some decisions are destined to be made between a person and God in the context of the present circumstance.
Perhaps we can learn from the Crusades of the 11th to 13th centuries. Are we called to be God’s henchmen? Or has he called us to be sewers of seeds (Matthew 13) and bearers of light (Matthew 5:14-16), and friends of the poor.
One thing is for sure, we DO have the clear scriptural, God-given mandate to offer help and support to those in need so they are in a better position to choose life. As the Body of Christ, we may be able, through voting and actions, to help provide “a way of escape” for people considering abortion.
C. IMMIGRATION
It has long been recognized by both Democrats and Republicans that the Immigration system in the USA is broken. Immigration enforcement, alone, cannot solve illegal immigration. Serious and permanent immigration reform is necessary.
The Lie:
As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump promised to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it, and to deport every immigrant living in the U.S. illegally (then estimated to be 11 million people). He failed to fulfill these promises.
The Truth:
And, of course, Mexico made no contributions whatsoever to the wall. The truth is “A January 2018 Trump administration proposal for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection called for $18 billion (~$21.5 billion in 2023) in funding for the wall over the following ten years” (Wikipedia), which would be paid for by American taxpayers.
DeSantis said Trump “deported less, believe it or not, than Barack Obama did.”
The difference is that Obama prioritized deporting people convicted of serious crimes and recent arrivals who had no criminal records. It is more humane to be removing people who have been here two weeks than it is to be removing people who have been here for 20 years and have families.
Trump, by contrast, rejected the policy of focusing on new arrivals and criminals and instead wanted to deport as many people as possible. “People are in terror,” Cecilia Muñoz said in 2019, “They’re scared of sending their children to school. That is a very, very different dynamic.”
In his 2024 campaign, Trump is again promising mass deportations – 11 million or more people.
“Given a choice, voters overwhelmingly support a pathway to citizenship over mass deportations,” The Immigration Hub Deputy Director Beatriz Lopez said in a statement to Newsweek. “No one in America wants to see families who have been here for many years separated—and that’s what Trump’s plan would do.
“For the last decade, voters have consistently demanded that our leaders deliver on a pathway to citizenship. The cruel policies of the past have no place in America.” https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-mass-deportation-plan-support-1955874
Yes! Some Encouraging Christian Response!
Sept. 30/24: I was encouraged and cheered to read this story about an important letter organized by the evangelical humanitarian aid organization World Relief.
More than 200 evangelical Christian leaders, moderates as well as influential conservatives, have signed an open letter urging the presidential candidates of both parties to reflect “biblical principles on immigration.” While challenging both parties, the letter signals particular discomfort with the approach taken by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, to the issue.
The letter detailed three “core principles” regarding evangelical beliefs and immigration:
- the belief that immigrants are made in the image of God and have innate dignity,
- a desire for secure and orderly borders,
- and opposing immigration policies that separate families.
“We believe our government can and must both maintain a secure, orderly border and protect those fleeing persecution,” the letter reads.
“Dehumanizing language is offensive to evangelicals, especially because many of us are immigrants, are descendants of immigrants or have personal relationships with the immigrants who make up a growing share of our movement…”
“While those convicted of serious violent offences should face deportation,” the letter reads, “any initiative to deport all unauthorized immigrants — the vast majority of whom have lived within the United States for at least a decade and have not been convicted of any serious crime — would result in family separation at an unconscionable scale.”
https://religionnews.com/2024/09/30/in-a-warning-sign-for-trump-evangelicals-sign-letter-asking-candidates-to-embrace-biblical-principles-on-immigration/
Immigration and the Economy – Do we have to give away both our coats?
I often wonder…when Jesus said, “Love your neighbour as yourself,” was he just assuming everyone loves themselves? Or was he giving us a clue that self care is vital to our ability to help others?
Certainly, we need to care for ourselves and our own people – our families and the citizens of our country.
Unfortunately, when Trump makes fear-mongering claims that the immigrants are taking “black jobs,” he creates the false impression that the economy and the job market is a zero-sum game – if one person benefits, another one loses. However, this is not true.
An alternative to playing the zero-sum game would be to follow John’s words – “If you have two coats, give one away” (Luke 3:11), and then work together to manufacture more coats.
Economists have warned that reducing the supply of available workers through deportations or new immigration restrictions will harm U.S. workers and the economy. According to an analysis for the Peterson Institute for International Economics by George Mason University economics professor Michael Clemens, it is likely that for every one million unauthorized immigrant workers removed from the United States, 88,000 U.S.-born workers will be “driven out of employment.” Deporting three million unauthorized immigrant workers per year “would mean 263,000 fewer jobs held by U.S. native workers, compounded each additional year that mass deportations continue.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2024/10/03/trump-immigration-plan-may-end-deportation-safeguards-for-27-million/
Bipartisan Border Security Agreement
Under the Biden administration, Sens. Chris Murphy (Democrat-Conn.), Kyrsten Sinema (Independent-Ariz.) and James Lankford (Republican-Okla.) worked together for months to come up with a bi-partisan agreement to address the immigration problems.
The agreement looks pretty good to me! You can read it below.
However, Trump urged Republicans to vote against the bill, arguing its passage would be a political victory for President Biden in the election.
Trump’s killing of this bill was a colossal waste of taxpayers money, a despicable dissing of the time and effort of elected politicians, a damaging delay of help for the people who work for the Department of Homeland Security, and it shows that Trump values power over problem solving.
Homeland Security Statement that Trump dissed
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2024/05/23/statement-secretary-mayorkas-senate-vote-bipartisan-border-security-agreement
Statement from Secretary Mayorkas on Senate Vote on the
Bipartisan Border Security Agreement
Release Date: May 23, 2024
WASHINGTON – Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas issued the following statement on the Senate vote on the Bipartisan Border Security Agreement:
“The bipartisan border security legislation would deliver the strongest border enforcement tools in thirty years. It would make significant changes to our broken immigration system, greatly accelerating the federal government’s ability to remove more quickly individuals who have illegally entered the United States and do not have a legal right to stay. It would also equip the federal government with the resources to provide humanitarian relief more quickly to those who qualify for it under the law.
“The bipartisan border security legislation would provide resources for more than 1,500 additional U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel, more than 1,200 additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, more than 4,300 additional asylum officers, and 100 additional immigration judges. The broken immigration system would be significantly repaired, cases would move more quickly, and the staggering immigration court backlog would be addressed.
“Importantly, as a result of the strong border enforcement tools that the bipartisan border security legislation would deliver, fewer migrants would attempt the journey to the southern border in the first place. The consequences of illegal entry would be delivered more quickly, and it is proven that the swift delivery of consequences under the law deters irregular migration to our southern border.
“The bipartisan security legislation is the result of months of hard work by both Republican and Democratic Senators and members of the Biden-Harris Administration. Everyone agrees that our immigration system is fundamentally broken and has been for decades. This legislation would significantly fix it and provide the heroic workforce of the Department of Homeland Security the tools and resources they need and deserve to do their jobs and advance the safety and security of the American people.
“Only Congress can fix our broken immigration system. I urge Congress to do so. In the meantime, we will continue to enforce the law with full force with the limited resources we have. Our personnel have done so remarkably. Over the past twelve months alone, we have removed or returned more than 720,000 migrants who did not have a legal basis to stay in the United States, more than in any year since 2011.
“The American people deserve an immigration system that works, that enhances our security and delivers the humanitarian relief that a functioning asylum system is designed to provide. The bipartisan border security legislation does just that.”
Immigration Lies and the Truth
The Lies:
Trump has claimed over and over again that crime is soaring and immigrants are to blame. Here’s what he said at the presidential debate:
“They allowed criminals. Many, many, millions of criminals. They allowed terrorists. They allowed common street criminals. They allowed people to come in, drug dealers, to come into our country, and they’re now in the United States. … And all over the world crime is down. All over the world except here. Crime here is up and through the roof….And we have a new form of crime. It’s called migrant crime. And it’s happening at levels that nobody thought possible.
DAVID MUIR: President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country…
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The FBI — they were defrauding statements.
The Truth:
There is no evidence to support Trump’s narrative. New York City, for example, has absorbed more than 150,000 migrants since the spring of 2022. Violent crime did not increase during that time.
Studies since 1960 have shown that immigrants are less likely than U.S.-born citizens to be incarcerated for committing crimes.
Telling Americans scary stories about dark-skinned immigrants is nothing new. “From Henry Cabot Lodge in the late 19th century to Donald Trump, anti-immigration politicians have repeatedly tried to link immigrants to crime, but our research confirms that this is a myth and not based on fact,” says Ran Abramitzky, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
“Today, immigrants are 30 percent less likely to be incarcerated than are U.S.-born individuals who are white, the study finds. And when the analysis is expanded to include Black Americans — whose prison rates are higher than the general population — the likelihood of an immigrant being incarcerated is 60 percent lower than of people born in the United States.”
The study is detailed in a working paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/mythical-tie-between-immigration-and-crime
The spike in violent crime happened on Trump’s watch, not Biden’s. In 2020, the final year of the Trump presidency, murder rose by nearly 30 percent and assault by more than 10 percent. The chaos of the pandemic was a factor.
EATING THE CATS – new hit song
Trump likes to appeal to his base with base (as in “mean-spirited”) claims that have no basis in reality. During the presidential debate, in an attempt to dehumanize the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, Trump said… “They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
The Kiffness put Trump’s ridiculous racist rhetoric to a rap rhythm that went viral. He even performed it live in Cologne, Germany. Kiffness was interviewed by France 24 and the song was featured on news stations far and wide. And America became the laughing stock of the world, again.
Meanwhile, in Springfield, Ohio, the cats and dogs are doing fine, and employers say the Haitians are good workers who are helping the economy grow. There are many challenges and problems to solve when a city experiences fast growth. As the mayor said, these challenges are best met with help not hate.
“If we’re willing to see children terrorized because of a false rumor about Haitian immigrants, we should ask who abducted our conscience, not someone’s pet.”
– Russell Moore, Editor in Chief of Christianity Today
TRUMP’S WORDS MATTER
Trump’s racist bait grows seeds of fear and hatred and triggers people like Patrick Wood Crusius, who drove 650 miles in one night to El Paso, Texas, to kill Latinos on August 3, 2019. He killed 23 and injured 22 in a Walmart. Before the shooting, he had started a thread online with the words, “ITS TIME” and then posted his anti-hispanic, ani-immigrant manifesto titled “The Inconvenient Truth.” The manifesto states that Democrats would soon control the United States partly due to an increasing Hispanic population. He described the shooting as an “incentive” for Hispanics to leave the country, which would “remove the threat” of a Hispanic voting bloc.
The shooter had a Twitter account from 2017 that showed a photo of Donald Trump in the Oval Office. He also had a pro-Trump poll that included responses such as “#BuildTheWall, #NoSanctuaryCities, #KeepGitmoOpen and #BanSyrianRefugees.”
In a speech from the White House on August 5, Trump said: “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America.”
Critics pointed out that statements in the suspect’s alleged manifesto mirrored comments Trump had made in the past, including references to illegal immigration as an “invasion”. In May of 2019, an audience member at a campaign rally suggested shooting illegal migrants crossing the border, to which Trump responded, “only in the Panhandle you can get away with that”.
Trump’s Lie:
Trump recently said, “We’re like an occupied country. We’ve got people taking over parts of Colorado. We’ve got people taking over other states…It’s no different, really, than if we lost a war.”
The Truth:
Local police in Aurora, Colorado said they have encountered some gang activity tied to a Venezuelan group but they any claims that city buildings have been taken over, much less parts of Aurora, much less parts of Colorado are simply not true.
Regarding the Haitians in Springfield, Trump’s most recent racist bait is, “The children are in danger. They can’t go to school with these people. These people are from a different planet.”
Separating Children from their Parents – Ripping Jesus out of his Mother’s Arms
If you vote for Trump again, you are condoning everything he has done, including separating children from their parents at the border.
https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/03/23/family-separation-timeline
Here are a few of the entries in the timeline:
June 9, 2018 – A man from Honduras who suffered a nervous breakdown after being separated from his wife and child at the border died by suicide in a Texas jail in May.
June 15, 2018 – For the first time, DHS publicly acknowledges that it separated nearly 2,000 children from their parents or legal guardians between April 19 and May 31. The government’s protocol for reunifying families has yet to be made clear.
June 17, 2018 – Journalists and human rights advocates tour an old warehouse in McAllen, Texas, where hundreds of children are being kept in a series of cages made of metal fencing. The Associated Press reports that overhead lighting stays on around the clock, children are sleeping under “large foil sheets,” older children are forced to change the diapers of toddlers, and the children have no books or toys. One toddler is seen crying uncontrollably and pounding her fists on a mat…
June 17, 2018 – Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweets, falsely: “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.”
June 20, 2018 – …Trump falsely blames Congress, the courts and previous administrations for his family separation policy…
July 13, 2018 – The Trump administration says in a court filing that 2,551 children between the ages of five and 17 remain separated from their parents.
…
As a mother and grandmother, I can’t bear to read and post any more of these entries. If you are a Trump supporter, please click on the above link and read it all if you have the courage to face the truth.
Trying to imagine the suffering caused by Trump to these desperate people leaves me somewhere between the depths of despair and the height of fierce anger.
Jesus said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (See (Matt. 25:31-37.)
If we take Christ’s words seriously regarding Jesus’ connection with “the least of these”, we see that Trump and those who vote for him are accountable for ripping Jesus out of his mother’s arms, not just once, but thousands of times. And he’s planning to do it again, on a far greater scale with mass deportations, if his “beautiful Christians” will just vote for him one more time.
LORD, LORD!
Here’s how God feels:
Exodus 22: 21-24: Do not mistreat or oppress a sojourner,* for you were foreigners in Egypt.
Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.
* Biblical definition of sojourner: a person (or group) is residing, either temporarily or permanently, in a community and place that is not primarily their own and is dependent on the “good-will” of that community for their continued existence.
Donald Trump is the antithesis of Jesus.
Jesus: “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28).
Trump: “I am your warrior; I am your justice; and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” And he has expressed a deep thirst for revenge, vowing to go after those who have failed to support him.
If we, as Christians, vote for Trump, are we condoning what he has done? Will we be accountable to God for what he will do as President? If he does what he has promised and rounds up millions of immigrants, will God want to “kill us with the sword”?
We would be wise to remember Jesus’ words:
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them…
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
“Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy in your name
and in your name drive out demons
and in your name perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.
Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matt. 7:15-16, 21-23).
Will this be our list of answers for the entrance exam for heaven?
Lord, Lord,
In your name we drove out illegal immigrants from our land because they are rapists and murderers and they were taking our jobs!
In your name we separated children from their parents at the border and locked them up and many of them were never reunited.
In your name we helped people hate and hurt Haitians who had come here to work.
In your name we attacked police officers who were defending politicians we hated.
In your name we made a deal with a President to save us from perceived persecution and take revenge on our enemies!
In your name we fought and forced America to bow to our will so we could create your kingdom on earth in our own image!
In your name we overturned Roe vs. Wade in exchange for our votes!
In your name, we made life hell again for those LGBTQ freaks in our country.
In your name, we destroyed democracy in America so we don’t have to vote again!
In your name we blocked justice for a lying, riot-inciting former president and made him all powerful and accountable to no one!
In your name, we denied health care and healing to the poorest among us.
Mother Earth was sick and in a prison of greenhouse gasses, and we did not visit her because we didn’t want to hear her inconvenient pleas for help.
Then I will tell them plainly…………………………
D. ECONOMY – The Truth and the Lies
Many are saying they will vote for Trump because of the economy. However, unless you are a rich young or old or middle-aged ruler, according to award-winning economists, Trump is not going to help you much, and may, in fact, insidiously cost you quite a pile of money.
Do you want the bad news or the good news first?
BAD NEWS 🙁
National Debt – Harris vs. Trump
According to the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: “Under our central estimate, Vice President Harris’s plan would increase the debt by $3.50 trillion through 2035.”
“Trump’s plan would increase the debt by $7.50 trillion.”
“Under our low- and high-cost estimates, we estimate Vice President Harris’s plan could have either no significant fiscal impact, or it could increase debt by $8.10 trillion through 2035; while President Trump’s plan could increase debt by between $1.45 and $15.15 trillion.”
Trump vs. Biden debt
For comparison, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the ten-year cost of the legislation and executive actions President Trump signed into law was about $8.4 trillion, with interest.
https://www.crfb.org/blogs/how-much-did-president-trump-add-debt
Ten-year debt approved by Biden is $4.3 trillion.
The national debt – now at 99% of total gross domestic product but projected to rise to 125% by the end of 2035 – would increase under Harris to 133% of GDP by 2035 and to 142% under Trump.
Servicing that debt is becoming an increasing challenge for the government. This year, interest expense on the current debt exceeded both the Pentagon budget and spending on Medicare for the first time.
GOOD NEWS!
October 17, 2024 – The Economist magazine describes the economy of the U.S.A. as “The Envy of the World” in a special report.
The stock market closed today at an all-time high!
Inflation was high in the US, as it was in Canada and many other countries, partly because of supply chain problems stemming from the pandemic; however, inflation in the US has been wrangled down to 2.9% – near historic levels!
The Bible says plenty about money. Money is not the root of evil, but the love of money is. Here’s a jewel from John the Baptist:
“Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same” (Luke 3:11).
When the gap between rich and poor is reduced, everyone benefits.
For example, if parents don’t have to work two jobs to get by, they have more time to spend with their children, not just supervising and disciplining, but helping with school work, taking part in activities together and developing healthy hobbies and relationships in the community. This, in turn, reduces bullying, crime rates, and homelessness, and makes it more likely the children will continue their education, leading to better job and entrepreneurial opportunities and growth in the economy.
Aug. 15. 2011 — Warren Buffett, who is estimated to be worth more than $47 billion, called on Congress to commit to “shared sacrifice” and raise taxes on people earning more than $1 million. Buffett said the rich are “coddled” by Congress “as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species.”
“While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks,” Buffett wrote in a Sunday New York Times Op-ed. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/warren-buffett-raise-taxes-wealthy-friends/story?id=14307993
Most super rich people don’t pay income tax, because they don’t work for a salary or wages. The majority of their income comes from capital gains, which are taxed at a lower rate.
According to the Federal Reserve’s 2022 survey, there are roughly 23.7 million millionaire households across the country.
There’s an interesting article in written by a Christian who doesn’t believe we should force the rich to help the poor through taxes. Giving should be voluntary, and we don’t want to encourage the poor to feel they are entitled to the help whether they work or not. https://thehill.com/opinion/4870606-evangelicals-harris-christianity/
It is an opinion to be considered, for sure, and safeguards need to be put in place to minimize abuse of the system.
I’ve heard Christians quote Paul’s words to the Church in Thessalonica: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat” (Thess. 3:10).
However, most people want to work and support their families. Many people working full-time at minimum wage still can’t earn enough to get by, yet the broader society benefits from their work. Those with addictions and mental health problems also need our help.
Yards Behind the Starting Line
I used to love running races. I chased a lot of chickens on our farm, so I was pretty fast. My heart raced as I heard, “On your mark, get set, GO!!!!”
In regard to people and economic opportunities, it seems to me some people start the race many yards behind the starting line, through no fault of their own.
People don’t become rich in a vacuum. They become rich because of the rest of us, including minimum-wage workers. There are wonderful philanthropists who give generously of their wealth. There are also a lot of super-rich people who don’t give a hoot about the poor, so making the rich pay their fair share seems fair to me.
It makes it more likely that God’s will will be fulfilled: “…they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken” (Micah 4:4).
God wants everyone to have enough for their own security.
I wonder if helping the poor is one of the meanings of the beautiful scriptural image put to music by George F. Handel: “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain” (Isaiah 40:4).
“If you want peace, work for justice” (Pope Paul VI).
“Great imbalances and ambitions lead to war. There is no security apart from common security.”
I recently listened to the book by Bono called Surrender. He is a well-informed follower of Jesus who has worked passionately for justice with great effect.
There are many great Christian organizations that help the poor across the world and in the U.S.A. to cope with disaster and find self sufficiency. If we give to such organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, that do wonderful work, and then we vote for a president who lifts up the rich and oppresses the poor, I wonder how God sees that.
HARRIS:
You can see a list of Kamala Harris’ goals and policies on her website:
https://kamalaharris.com/issues/
Her heading for the economy reads: Build an opportunity economy and lower costs for families. Here are a few points:
- Harris plans to raise taxes on corporations and the highest earners. For example, she plans to raise the capital gains tax rate from 23.6 percent to 28 percent for those earning more than $1 million.
- She backs increasing the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and has promised not to raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 per year.
- She also proposes expanding tax deductions for small businesses and giving grants to new businesses.
- She wants to restore and expand the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, including a $6,000 child tax credit for the first year of a newborn’s life.
23 of the US recipients of the Nobel Prize for economics signed a letter stating, “…we believe that, overall, Harris’ economic agenda will improve our nation’s health, investment, sustainability, resilience, employment opportunities, and fairness and be vastly superior to the counterproductive economic agenda of Donald Trump.” You can see the letter here. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25247867-23-nobel-economists-sign-letter-saying-harris-agenda-vastly-better-for-us-economy
The Truth:
In 2019, Kamala Harris said in an interview with New York Times, “Estate taxes are going to have to go up for the richest Americans.”
Trump’s Deception:
In a highly misleading campaign ad for Trump, the above video was cropped on both ends to show Harris saying, “taxes are going to have to go up” – leaving out “Estate”…and “for the richest Americans.” They went on to claim that the Tax Foundation estimates Kamala’s plan will raise families’ taxes almost $2600/year.” Senior Economist and Research Director, Erica York said, “I don’t know where that number comes from. That’s not our estimate for Harris’ tax proposals.”
This is another of Trump’s deliberate attempts to deceive the public and influence the election with lies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SMPj0UXuFs
TRUMP:
As mentioned under the topic of Abortion, Trump squashed increased help for poor families by blocking the child tax credit expansion in August.
If he’s elected president again, he wants to lower corporate taxes from 21% to as low as 15%. He insists that when he lowered it to 21% starting in 2018, revenues received by the government actually went up due to the economic growth it spurred. Economists say that’s not what happened. (FactCheck.org)
Promise to the not-so-rich: Lowering taxes for corporations will boost the economy and the wealth will trickle down to the other people.
The 2017 Trump tax law lowered the top personal tax rate rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent and the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The result was…
“Trickle Down” Failure
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – regarding Trump
“Administration officials claimed their centerpiece corporate tax rate cut would “very conservatively” lead to a $4,000 boost in household income. New research shows that workers who earned less than about $114,000 on average in 2016 saw “no change in earnings” from this corporate tax rate cut, while top executive salaries increased sharply.
Similarly, rigorous research concluded that the tax law’s 20 percent pass-through deduction, which was skewed in favor of wealthy business owners, has largely failed to trickle down to workers in those companies who aren’t owners. Like the Bush tax cuts before it, the 2017 Trump tax cut was a trickle-down failure.”
https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-2017-trump-tax-law-was-skewed-to-the-rich-expensive-and-failed-to-deliver
The Rich Get Richer, and the Deficit Goes Up
AmericanProgress.org:
“In December 2017, then-President Donald Trump signed into law legislation that disproportionately cut taxes for wealthy individuals and large profitable corporations—colloquially known as the “Trump tax cuts.” While the corporate provisions of that bill were largely made permanent, the portions that affect individuals were mostly temporary and are set to expire at the end of 2025.
According to new estimates released today by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), permanently extending the expiring provisions of the Trump tax cuts would cost $4 trillion over the next 10 years, $400 billion per year.* This includes $3.4 trillion from extending the expiring individual and estate tax provisions as well as $551 billion from extending business provisions.”
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/permanently-extending-the-trump-tax-cuts-would-cost-4-trillion-over-the-next-decade/
Tariffs – TRUMP’S DECEPTION
“To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff’.”
“I call it ‘America First’.”
Trump says he would impose a universal 10% tariff on imports (including allies like Canada) and raise tariffs on goods from China by 60% or more. He claims China will be paying the U.S. billions of dollars.
He plans to use these increased tariffs to pay for all the things he’s promising the American people. He is just leaving out the part about the American people paying the tariffs instead of China.
Trump is deceiving tax payers about tariffs (just as he deceived them about who pays for the border wall ~$21.5 billion).
Here’s an excellent educational video on how tariffs work (or don’t work, or backfire, or create a financial burden for American manufacturers and consumers, or even cause the cost of American-produced products to go up in price).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-eHOSq3oqI
Our Canadian government recently found out how tariffs can backfire. We slapped a hefty tariff on Chinese EVs, and now they don’t want to buy our canola. Oops!
During Trump’s term as president, after a series of tariff increases on Chinese imports, the government of China retaliated against U.S. exporters. Trump then used $28 billion of taxpayers’ money to aid farmers.
Exports, particularly of agricultural goods, dropped significantly. “Losing the world’s most populous country as an export market has been a major blow to the [U.S.] agriculture industry,” reported the New York Times in August 2019. “Total American agricultural exports to China were $24 billion in 2014 and fell to $9.1 billion… according to the American Farm Bureau.” In 2018, U.S. farmers’ soybean exports to China declined by 75%, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2020/01/21/trump-tariff-aid-to-farmers-cost-more-than-us-nuclear-forces/
I wonder if Trump knows that tariffs are paid by the company that imports the goods. The tariff is generally passed on to the customer, including businesses that use imports, such as steel, to make other products. The higher costs cause consumers to pay more for goods and encourage other countries to raise tariffs, making U.S. products less competitive in foreign markets.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns that the type of tariffs planned by former President Donald Trump, if he were to retake the White House would reignite inflation and harm the economy.
According to economists Kimberly Clausing and Mary E. Lovely in a report for the Peterson Institute, “The tariffs would reduce after-tax incomes by 3.5% for those in the bottom half of the income distribution and cost a typical household in the middle of the income distribution about $1,700 in increased taxes each year.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2024/09/08/trump-trade-and-immigration-policies-spell-higher-prices-less-growth/
The Apprentice – “fake news”
Many people voted for Trump because they thought he was a good businessman because they saw him on the reality TV show “The Apprentice”. In order to make the show successful, NBC had to make him out to be a big executive. Former NBC Chief Marketer, John D. Miller says many people say the economy is the number one issue for them in this election, so he felt he had to come forward.
“At NBC, we promoted the show relentlessly. Thousands of 30-second promo spots that spread the fantasy of Trump’s supposed business acumen were beamed over the airwaves to nearly every household in the country. The image of Trump that we promoted was highly exaggerated. In its own way, it was “fake news” that we spread over America like a heavy snowstorm. I never imagined that the picture we painted of Trump as a successful businessman would help catapult him to the White House.”
The truth is, Trump had been bankrupt four times before the show went on the air and two times during the seasons that followed. But “Trump is good at selling himself.”
Trump inherited a good economy from Obama. Economic policies take a long time to take effect. Trump did not handle the pandemic well. Inflation went up under Biden, but is now at an all-time low…(BTW, inflation also went up in Canada and many other countries, largely because of supply chain issues from the pandemic.) https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2024-10-16/we-created-a-tv-illusion-for-the-apprentice-but-the-real-trump-threatens-america
E. CLIMATE CHANGE
As Christians, it is our duty to acknowledge and respond to the truth as it is revealed.
To Frack or not to Frack?
Harris: Frack and Transition to Cleaner Alternatives
Trump: Frack, cater to the Oil Industry, and “Drill, Baby, Drill!”
Kamala Harris recognizes that a transition is necessary and has said that her administration could create a “thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”
The Lie:
Trump has stated repeatedly that Kamala Harris will ban fracking. Once he sinks his teeth into an attack point, he can’t seem to let go of it, even if he’s fact checked.
At the Presidential Debate:
Trump: “She is destroying our country. She has a plan to defund the police. (false) She has a plan to confiscate everybody’s gun. (false) She has a plan to not allow fracking in Pennsylvania or anywhere else…”
Harris: I will not ban fracking. I have not banned fracking as Vice President of the United States. In fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking. My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil. We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot over rely on foreign oil.
At the end of the debate, rather than using his precious last comment to talk about his policies, he wasted it ranting about Harris banning fracking, which she just said she will not do.
Trump: You believe in things like we’re not going to frack. We’re not going to take fossil fuel. We’re not going to do, things that are going to make this country strong, whether you like it or not. Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants.
(Germany refuted this.)
Later, in a Fox News Town Hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where there was no one to fact check what he was saying, Trump repeated his false claim, “If she wins, you’re not gonna have any fracking in Pennsylvania.”
After drumming up fear about the industry, he told the people of Pennsylvania: “You have no choice. You’ve got to vote for me, even if you don’t like me.”
Again, Trump can’t seem to let anything into his mind that isn’t there already – anything that challenges his personally-devised “reality.”
TRUMP – CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL
In November 2012, Trump tweeted, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
In November 2018, President Donald Trump dismissed a study produced by his own administration, involving 13 federal agencies and more than 300 leading climate scientists, warning of the potentially catastrophic impact of climate change.
The report’s authors conclude that the changing climate “is transforming where and how we live and presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy, and the natural systems that support us.” And that, unless we change our practices and policies, there will be “substantial damages to the US economy, environment, and human health and well-being over the coming decades.”
The report goes on to detail the economic impact of climate change (hundreds of billions lost) and the physical toll it could take on our collective health, as factors like air quality, disease transmission by insects, food and water will “increasingly threaten the health and well-being of the American people.”
“I don’t believe it,” Trump told reporters on Monday, adding that he had read “some” of the report.
He dismissed the Climate Change Advisory Panel.
Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, staffed his environmental agencies with fossil fuel lobbyists and claimed — against all scientific evidence — that the Earth’s rising temperatures will “start getting cooler.”
He claims if there’s a cold spell or winter storm, there’s no global warming. “I believe there’s weather. I believe there’s change, and I believe it goes up and it goes down, and it goes up again.”
Trump doesn’t seem to, or want to understand the difference between weather and climate. He doesn’t understand that global warming doesn’t mean there won’t be cold weather. It means there will be more extreme weather, like more extreme hurricanes.
He continues to cast doubt on the science as if it’s not settled (it is). And he tries to make it sound like it’s nothing to worry about.
Trump Lie:
On Aug. 26, 2024, he said “the oceans in 500 years will raise a quarter of an inch.”
The Truth:
Global sea levels, are already rising a bit more than one-eighth of an inch per year, contrary to Trump’s claim, and by 2050 the sea level along the U.S. coastline is projected to be 10 to 12 inches higher than in 2000.
You can read more of Trump’s inaccurate claims here: https://www.factcheck.org/2024/09/trump-clings-to-inaccurate-climate-change-talking-points/
In regard to fossil fuels, Trump says, “Drill, baby, drill!”
Donald Trump offered a deal to Big Oil executives as he sought US$1 billion in campaign donations. This deal could save the industry $110 billion through tax breaks if Trump returns to the White House, an analysis suggests. These oil companies would be telling Trump what they want in terms of decreasing environmental controls and their costs.
Stephen Brown, director of energy consulting firm RBJ Strategies, said oil industry representatives have already prepared some executive orders for Trump to sign if he reaches the White House. The Biden policies they would seek to unravel include a new fee on leaks of the potent greenhouse gas methane from oil and gas equipment on federal land.
The Trump campaign’s Agenda 47 website has promised to cut taxes on oil companies, speed up work for oil and pipeline projects, and reverse Biden’s pause on gas export permits.
In his previous term. Trump appointed former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler and oil industry lawyer Dave Bernhardt to Cabinet-level positions to lead agencies dealing with energy and pollution regulations.
MEANWHILE…
1. The earth is experiencing record high temperatures.
NASA data shows July 22, 2024 was earth’s hottest day on record, going back to the late 19th century. https://www.nasa.gov/earth/nasa-data-shows-july-22-was-earths-hottest-day-on-record/
2. We’re seeing more extreme storms and hurricanes.
Oh, the heartbreaking scenes of devastation from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. So many deaths, so much destruction, so much PTSD and fear. How to rebuild? How to get home insurance? How to recover financially?
3. Our forests are burning and burning… Oh, the heartbreaking scenes from our beautiful Jasper in the Canadian Rockies.
“Multiple studies have found that climate change has already led to an increase in wildfire season length, wildfire frequency, and burned area.”
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-wildfires
4. The Global Water Cycle is off balance. The Global Commission on the Economics of Water, a group of international leaders and experts just published a study showing that human activities are “intensifying both wet and dry extremes, and sending wind and rainfall patterns out of kilter.” Disruptions to the water cycle are already causing suffering. Nearly 3 billion people face water scarcity. Crops are shriveling and cities are sinking as the groundwater beneath them dries out. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/10/16/climate/global-water-cycle-off-balance-food-production
5. And glaciers are melting, and oceans are warming, and water levels are rising, and deserts are expanding…
And, as per usual, it is often the poorest people and those least responsible for the problem who suffer the most – those who can’t afford air conditioning, those whose farms have dried up, those who are swamped with floods and hurricanes…
Yale Climate Connections reported:
Hurricanes as intense as Hurricane Helene are today about 2.5 times more likely in the region…
Hurricane Helene’s wind speeds on the coast of Florida were about 13 miles per hour or 11% more intense due to climate change. A 5% increase in hurricane winds increases a hurricane’s destructive power by about 50% since hurricane damage grows exponentially with intensity. Thus, the 11% increase in Helene’s winds found by the World Weather Attribution group likely made Helene’s winds more than twice as destructive.
Climate change increased Hurricane Helene’s rainfall by about 10%…
The high sea temperatures that fueled Hurricane Helene were made 200 to 500 times more likely by climate change.
WE HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY…
“Yet again, our study has shown that hurricanes will keep getting worse if humans keep burning fossil fuels and subsequently warming the planet,” Friederike Otto, lead of World Weather Attribution and senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London, said in a news release. “Americans shouldn’t have to fear hurricanes more violent than Helene – we have all the knowledge and technology needed to lower demand and replace oil, gas, and coal with renewable energy.”
TRUMP – MORE DISINFORMATION
Using people’s devastation for political gain.
Rather than acknowledging the role of climate change in these disasters and taking appropriate action based on the truth, Trump and others started spreading falsehoods, saying FEMA is running out of money for hurricane relief because they gave it to immigrants.
A major target of false claims is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the government body coordinating recovery efforts from Hurricanes Milton and Helene—the latter of which has killed at least 230 people since the storm made landfall in late September.
FEMA has set up a debunking page because it faces so many harmful and inaccurate rumors. And in a telling example of how far things have gone, Representative Chuck Edwards of North Carolina, a Republican, had to dispel lies in a letter to his constituents this week:
“Hurricane Helene was NOT geoengineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock,” he wrote. FEMA is not seizing anyone’s property. The agency did not prevent evacuations. Its grant programs generally don’t require repayment. FEMA’s disaster relief funds were not diverted to assist migrants at U.S. borders. Chimney Rock doesn’t have any lithium mines. Uncle Sam can’t control storms…”
Former president Donald Trump, tech tycoon Elon Musk and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia all promoted lies or false theories about the hurricanes or disaster responses, making it more difficult to help the people who need help.
US meteorologists face death threats as hurricane conspiracies surge. https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/11/meteorologists-death-threats-hurricane-conspiracies-misinformation
Too Much Insulation!
As a nature photographer, I have a passion for sharing the wonders of God’s creation. I’m deeply fond of “Mother Earth” as his handiwork, and I try to connect with her every day, hiking in the boreal forests with my dog.
I came to a deeper sense of Mother Earth’s distress when visiting the desert.
When it comes to winter, “There’s no such thing as bad weather; only bad clothing.” But heat is a different story.
20 years ago, my husband attended a conference in Phoenix, Arizona in June. I was able to go along for the cost of my plane fare. It was 116℉. The air-conditioned hotel and pools were great. I tried to go out for a walk at 8 a.m. and turned back after 5 minutes because I felt I would melt. I wondered how anyone without air conditioning could survive, let alone work in such heat.
When I hike in the north in January with my snow-loving dog in -40℉ weather, I wear a long, down-filled parka with fur around the hood that I flip forward to keep the wind out of my face, and a balaclava to filter the air coming into my lungs and keep my nose from freezing. And I wear merino wool leggings and insulated snow pants and wool socks and thick felt-lined Sorel boots. And mitts made of sheepskin shearling, with another pair of wool mitts inside.
Imagine that someone had come along when I was heading out for that walk in Phoenix and forced me to put on all my winter gear. I would be panicking and sweating and screaming for help, and hurling hurricanes and storms to get attention!
That’s how Mother Earth feels right now. We’re forcing her to wear a thick coat of Greenhouse gasses, and it’s just getting thicker and warmer.
Shared Responsibility – Producers, Consumers & Government
Reducing the environmental insulation causing Mother Earth to sweat and panic and is a shared responsibility.
I do not consider fossil fuel companies to inherently evil and totally to blame. My husband worked for Shell for 30 years and Canadian Natural Resources for 7. Some oil companies act responsibly and do what they can to reduce environmental impact.
For sure, we need good laws, regulations and incentives that address the needs of the planet.
We also need to recognize that 80% of the greenhouse gasses are produced from the burning/consumption of the fossil fuels produced. Here in northern Alberta, we would freeze to death in winter without natural gas. There are fossil fuel uses we can’t just stop immediately. However, there are amazing technologies being developed, and plenty of jobs to be created as we transition to “green” (rather than greenhouse) ways of living.
We’re thinking of getting solar panels installed on our roof, taking advantage of a government incentive interest-free loan. And maybe when our old Chevy Traverse dies, we’ll look into getting an EV so the sun can power our trip to visit our children.
In reality – in truth – God has given us the intelligence to measure temperature and compare over time and read the signs that Mother Earth is ailing and needs our immediate response.
When we acknowledge the truth, we can unite in dreaming and planning and working together, from the ground up (individuals, families, communities) and from the top down (government, industry) and everywhere in between, to respond to Mother Earth’s cries for help.
God’s Work of Art
I love reading the creation story in the first few two chapters of Genesis. I wish I could have watched as God (the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit) spoke creation into being.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…Let there be light…Let there be a firmament…Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear…Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree…
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also…And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth…And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth…And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…So God created man in his own image…And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth…And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Here are some of my favourite verses in Genesis 2.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul…
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it…
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them…
And then, of course, God created woman, and that’s where the story gets impossibly beautifully complicated.
DOMINION IS NOT LICENSE
As responsible and grateful children of God, we must recognize that Dominion is not licence to destroy; it’s stewardship of this overwhelmingly beautiful gift of God that is shared by all the living things He has created. All of God’s precious beings depend on homo sapiens to care for the earth so she can continue to be a nurturing mother.
God cares about the sparrows (Matthew 10:29-31), and the children (Mark 9:36-37).
John James Audubon reminds us that the world is not given by our fathers but borrowed from our children.
If we truly care about our children and grandchildren and our neighbours around the world, we will vote for the party that takes seriously our stewardship of God’s beautiful but suffering creation that will become less and less habitable for humans and other precious lifeforms if we don’t change course.
God, please forgive our sins against your earth. May we work toward reconciliation. May you “heal our land.”
Click on the heading to go to the next chapter.
