Politics: America, 2018

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The excuse I hear, and have heard ever since Donald Trump came on the scene, is that "all politicians lie," and/or "politicians always lie."

Like all generalizations, there's a bit of truth in those statements.

Even the best politicians stretch the truth a bit, or bend it slightly (or greatly) to their advantage.  They always have.

But the attitude of those generalizations, that politics today is the same as it's always been, is hugely false.  Maybe Donald Trump's continual blatant falsehoods are the traditional New York real-estate developer standard, and all the denizens of that sub-culture know everyone's lying, and expects everyone to lie, and thinks lying is no big deal.  That is not the traditional standard of American politics.

Nobody has to think back very far to realize that.  Republicans lambasted Bill Clinton for lying about his relations with Monica Lewinsky: it served their political purposes.  Democrats lambasted George Bush for lying about "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq: it served their political purposes.

Before Donald Trump, both parties recognized the standard of truth, and believed that truth mattered to voters.  Both parties believed they could fatally harm their opponents with voters by catching their opponents in a lie...if they could avoid being caught in their own.

Richard Nixon was tripped up by his lies.  Even Ronald Reagan had to publically crawfish that he was kept in the dark by underlings like Oliver North, and didn't intentionally lie to Americans about his administration's dirty tricks.

So it's absolute self-deception to believe our politics are the same as they've always been, and Trump is just another lying politician of the kind we're used to.

He's not.  Trump recognizes no standard of truth.  His own counter-factual pronouncements are all he believes: and he himself doesn't really believe them.  He admitted (or bragged) that he "made up" trade-figures when he was arguing with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, so he clearly understands there's a difference between his own bullshit and truth.

But most of all, it's not the same old politics because many Americans voters no longer care that they are being lied to.  Very many are willing to obstinately argue that Trump's manifest, hourly lies aren't really untrue...and even if they are, so what ?  By them, Trump is "making America great again."

Where in our newly-amoral politics are Christians...followers of The One Who said "I AM...The Truth"... ?  Very often, Christians are among those most obstinately arguing for, and making excuses for, Trump's lies.

There are consequences: God judges those who lie, and those who love lies.  He harshly judges those who love lies while claiming they love Jesus.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Being Misunderstood

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Nothing infuriates me more than being misunderstood.

I know that "understanding" is the other person's job.  If I say what I mean as clearly as I can, that's all that I can do, or be expected to do.  I can't "understand" for someone else.  

My problem (and it is my problem) is thinking that if I explain things again, in a slightly different way, the person I'm talking to will be able to "get it."  And if they don't, maybe another try, from a different angle, will get across to them what I'm saying.  In library-school terms, I tend to "re-package" information to make it "accessible" to the "consumer."

But I know that amounts to trying to make another person understand, which isn't in my control.  And it always has something of manipulation to it, when you try to make another person's cognitive processes work the way you want them to.

That kind of "manipulation" isn't always a bad thing.  Anyone who teaches (formally or informally) is manipulating another person's cognitive processes, to a desired end.  It's the process we call "learning," and human society could not exist without it.

And anyone who has ever tried to teach another person something, formally or informally, knows that there are people who simply don't will to, or even consciously will NOT to, learn.  Many times the frustration of talking to people who "don't get it" is that they clearly don't want to understand, or want to "understand" only in their own terms.

Yesterday in Sunday School we were talking (after watching a rather "pious," in the not-best sense, Max Lucado film about the resurrection) about forgiveness.  That isn't it wonderful God forgives us; and doesn't He command us to forgive each other; and how many times did Jesus say we should forgive others ?

My thought was that forgiving people who do wrong is one thing: but that there are people who are wrong.  That forgiveness is redemptive toward those who recognize right and wrong, and can see that they've done wrong; but wasted toward those who vest their identity in wrong character.

In John 8 Jesus confronted some of "...those...who had believed Him," telling them they were children of the devil, because they wanted to lie and murder, just like their father.  In II Thessalonians 2 God says He eventually writes off those who persist in refusing to "...receive the love of the truth so as to be saved:" and at that point Himself sends them a "deluding influence" ("strong delusion," KJV) so they will believe a lie.  

Obviously none of us manifest Jesus' "seamless" Character (Lucado talked at great length about how Jesus' seamless garment was like His Character)...but people unmistakably show what they are by whether they love truth, or love lies.

One gal in the class disagreed, as she has before, by saying people had certainly fooled her before.  Which is true, for any of us.  People have certainly fooled me before.

But it seemed to miss my point, which was that everyone is unmistakably of one character or the other.  The way God sees it is that human beings are either of the spirit of truth, or that of lies.  We have to say God sees it rightly...and we have to see it the way He does.  That simple.

It also seems simple to do.  We have the Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus called "the Spirit of Truth:" we only need to listen to Him to see it as God sees it.  And to hear what He says, we only need to ask Him.

What I replied to my sister was something like "The Holy Spirit doesn't get fooled."  I didn't mean it that way, but thought later she may have taken that as a put-down: that she wasn't spiritual enough.  She may have even taken it as "I'm spiritual, and you're not," and been offended.  I don't know.

I doubt she's one of those people who choose to misunderstand, because they don't want to hear what you're saying: but I think she misunderstood.  She was talking about person-to-person perception, and I wasn't.  There can only be understanding when two people are talking about the same thing.

Nonetheless, it was frustrating to be misunderstood.  Quite apart from the fact I felt like I was saying something important about how God sees things, and how we must see things, it was frustrating on a person-to-person level.

Frustrating that I said what I meant as clearly as I could, and it evidently didn't get across to people.  Frustrating that people will "understand" my words the way they choose to, and I can't do anything about it.

Frustrating that my sister may have been offended because of the way she "understood" my words, and if so, there's nothing I can do about that either.  If offended, I hope she'll remember that our context was God's command we forgive each other.