The Peregrinating Parson

Sorry for the bad pun, but that’s what this feels like it should be. I doubt that it will be, sadly; I don’t think anyone in the Trump administration has a milligram of moral courage to say that “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” and we already know that both Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell donated their spines to alligators at Mar-A-Lago several months ago. For this administration to fire an FBI director who has been an equal opportunity offender and investigator should come as no surprise. That they manufactured reasons to do so should also be no surprise. They can’t very well admit the real reason: Comey’s investigation into the ties between agents of the Russian government and members of the administration and (almost certainly, given that Eric bragged about it to a golf analyst!) the Trump family was getting too close to the smoking guns/blue dress/tapes missing 18 minutes for the comfort of those whose power is at risk. This reminds me very much of the Biblical story of David and Bathsheb

I’ve seen a lot of tweets in the last two or three days from people who simply explain the coldheartedness of the politicians—all, at this point, Republicans—who are working to rescind the Affordable Care Act as “part of their theology” because “sick people are sinners”; those who comment might also mention Calvinism and someone will tack on a counterargument from John 9 or mention that this particular theology comes from Deuteronomy and the school of scribes that penned it. True, as far as it goes, but this operative theology has deep roots in American culture that we ignore at our peril. To get ourselves out of danger, we need to expose the roots and eliminate them…or at the very least, get rid of enough of them that those roots stop choking us. (This is nowhere near as mythical as kudzu ’s invasiveness!)  Let’s start with Deuteronomy and the books from the same theological tradition: Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Jeremiah, and Lamentations. This is the strain o