"Tis a puzzlement"

 "Tis a puzzlement"

A man who succeeds in business by breaking the law, not paying his debts, paying bribes, cheating his clients, lying on applications about his net worth or the value of his assets, and otherwise hurting anyone who gets in his way, is not the same as someone who works hard within the law, pays his debts, and succeeds by bringing to market a viable product. For those who believe in Christian values, that first person is not operating within the concepts of that faith. That first person who lied and cheated his way to turning a profit is not a clever businessman so much as he is a clever thief.

I have listened far too long to those who espouse the tenets of Christianity and at the same time worship the business crook described above. These people have justified their love of this man because he once held a Bible in his hand in front of a Church and proclaimed himself to be a man of God. That he didn’t get struck by lightning at that very moment is a testament to God’s sense of humor and irony. I needn’t list those deeds of sexual depravity attributed to the man in question as we have all seen those charges published ad nauseum. Even if you can ignore some fraction of these departures from societal norms, there is enough left to paint a picture of a man unworthy of the acceptance of those who call themselves Christians, or anyone else for that matter, who consider themselves to be decent human beings.

As in the business analogy above, placing your arms around an American flag does not make you a patriot. True patriots love this country, honor its traditions and respect its Constitution and laws. They don’t dodge their civic duty by getting a note from a doctor who regularly pays rent to their father. If entrusted with the privilege of this nation’s highest office, they certainly don’t trade its treasures to a foreign country in exchange for a cryptocurrency deal that makes them rich. They don’t consider that they are exempt from the “conflict of interest” provisions of all other government employees just because they can’t be questioned for any actions they take as the top government official. No, true patriots don’t ask the Gold Star father of a deceased soldier killed in the war in Afghanistan, “I don’t get it. What’s in it for them?” They don’t call the soldiers buried at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France “losers” and “suckers.”

I leave you with this, I haven’t used his name once in this article, but anyone who reads this knows who it is about. The pieces of the puzzle are all there and the picture is clear.