1. Don’t hide who you are from people who will only love those who are part of their circle. Their circle isn’t worth it, you will eventually be outed anyway, but you might lose a piece of yourself in the process.
2. No matter how tempting it is, don’t lick a cat. You will both regret it.
3. If you only listen to those who think, vote, believe, pray and act like you do, you will be impoverished and closed up in yourself.
4. A very wise man once defined sin as being closed up within yourself. Plato called it a cave.
5. When a father is contemptuous and full of rage for those who are not like him, he teaches his sons and daughters to hide who they are, rather than face his anger and contempt. Eventually they will either hide who they are, or be rejected anyway.
6. Listen to the outcasts. They have seen things.
7. It is easier to pour contempt on those who you don’t understand than it is to seek to understand them. This is the whole of right wing MAGA politics.
8. It is natural to be afraid of a bear separated from her cub. It is natural to be afraid of a drunken man behind the wheel. It is natural to be fearful and anxious about the unknown. But when you are afraid of your neighbor because someone on TV said they might eat your cat, you have fallen into a very ugly world. It is this kind of fear that separates us from the love of God. (Rev. 21:8)
9. If you decide to lick your cat, I won’t throw you out. I might ask you why. I will listen to your answer. I might learn something about you that I might find endearing and enriching. But I won’t lick my cat.
Make a one-time donation
Make a monthly donation
Make a yearly donation
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly
My Only Comfort 
Good post. Sadly, I know #2 to be true.
😂
I may or may not have licked my cat. I can’t be sure if I was a child or in the last 10 years…….
Sam,
You write many things I disagree with but I still read what you have to say to broaden my understanding of how different people think.
I thought what you said about a father expressing his rage at people he disagrees with could have application to my life.
I think in my case it may have contributed to my kids being unwilling to discuss things with me for fear of displeasing me, so they avoid me and any possible controversial discussion with me. They are mostly in their 30s now.
I did not know that was the effect I was having on them.
It makes me sad.
I think you encourage people to listen to sources outside of their normal to not stay in our own little silo of thinking. Which is why I still get your emails.
I do get the impression that you need to take your own advice.
Immigrants from Haiti are indeed eating cats and dogs as part of their religious (Voodoo) practices. You seem to be trying to marginalize people who believe that. (Don’t lick your cat.)
You might need to dig a little deeper than ABC for your news on that topic.
Here is another one of your quotes I take issue with.
It seems to me like it is not just right wingers who do this!
I have had a few interactions with people on the left who say they are for tolerance and kindness and yet they have been extremely unkind to me.
How many right wing people do you even know?
They are not all full of contempt for people they don’t understand. And it seems that many on the left are exactly that way.
Some of the most vicious comments I have gotten on Facebook are from those on the left. And some are Christians!
What are your thoughts?
Sent from Daniel Johnson’s iPhone 11 Pro Max
>
Thank you for reading.
I was a Reagan republican. I was a member of the young republicans in the 80s and actually in the Hotel where Reagan was for his acceptance of the 1984 election results and Mondale’s concession speech.
When right wing radio became a thing, I started listening to Rush Limbaugh – late 80s, early 90s. Pretty soon though I didn’t like how it made me think about other people. His contempt disguised at humor troubled me. I quit listening to the news altogether for the same reason. I shut Fox off long about 2002, and limited myself to various headlines and articles from a wide range of respected journalists from both the right and the left.
I defended conservatism; everyone I knew was conservative. Everyone I knew was a republican, except for a few outcasts who wouldn’t talk politics.
Around 1995, I heard a woman openly criticize Reagan and I was shocked. I had never heard anyone criticize Reagan.
But I could stomach the ridicule and contempt that the entertainment wing of the conservatives railed on Clinton, Reno, Albright…and so on.
When social media became a thing, my father took his contempt of all things democrat out with force. My cousins, my brother, many of my friends, blocked me on Facebook because he would use that connection to hurl contempt and rage at them. It was only after he died that our relationships were restored.
I thought that contempt and rage were the fringe. I thought that they were the outliers. I thought that conservatives were reasoning, tolerant, and I HATED the accusation that conservatism was steeped with racism and misogyny.
And then 2016 happened. When T opened his mouth, every statement, every word, every nuance was dripping with his rage and contempt. He mocked women, minorities, democrats and republicans alike. I won’t debate it. I will just say this:
I was extremely concerned that after the 2016 election, the “fringe” angry ones in the party would gain the permission that they needed to attack anyone they wanted. I was very concerned about my own livelihood, being a pastor in a congregation that sported MAGA hats.
This congregation would gather after worship and talk loudly about the f8gs and the wetb**cks taking over the country. They would laugh mockingly at women using welfare to feed their families.
Many would come to church, run into them, and leave, never to return.
Eventually, when COVID struck, they tore the church apart. They mocked, raged and cast out anyone who wore masks. They ridiculed vaccines. They believed everything that qanon told them. And if anyone tried to be reasonable, they would mock them and say, “probably should get your news somewhere other than ABC….heh heh heh heh.,”
I haven’t watched ABC for decades. Or any news. All I know is when the presidential candidate says something ridiculous about Haitian immigrants puts REAL lives in danger, because his followers believe every single word he says.
If Haitians are breaking laws in Ohio, then prosecute. But don’t start nationwide riots against a group of people. That statement, in itself, is racist, calling on all non-Haitian people to protect themselves against Haitians. I can’t stand it. I hate the bloodshed that T is calling for.
I withdrew from the Republican party in 2016, and became independent because I can’t stand the hatred and contempt anymore. I hate that conspiracies, insider knowledge, fear, anger and rage have become the norm among those that I used to call colleagues and friends. I hate that David French and his wife get death threats for speaking out.
I hate what the church has turned into.
And I won’t be quiet about it anymore.
How many right wing people do I know? Almost everyone I ever met for the first 58 years of my life. Those that refused to worship at the altar of Trump were finally cast out, like I was – like French, Russell Moore, so so many others.
I was run out of California because of it. I lost my friends and much of my family members because of it.
If you can introduce me to ONE MAGA republican who speaks with kindness, understanding tolerance, I would be happy to make their acquaintance. In the many many thousands I have met, I only know of one, and he is still a dear friend.
I know a man who was a deacon who will not speak to his son or grandchildren because they voted for Biden.
I know a man who left his church and took other families with him because people in the church wore masks.
I’ve been slandered, attacked, mocked, and threatened OPENLY.
The last ten years of my life I was surrounded by people who thought that calling Barack Obama “O-vomit” was clever. At that point, I was still conservative and strongly opposed everything the president did – especially healthcare. But I still hated the contempt from my colleagues.
Anyway, you can respond if you want. I’ve had my fill for many years, so I might not read it. The only reason I am responding now is because you asked me kindly to.
And one other thought – I am absolutely certain that there are unkind sinners on the left as well. I’ve met many of them as well.
One of my greatest concerns is that “The left does it too” seems to be a moral argument. That is new in the history of Christianity. In fact, Paul advised that we take care of our own house and Jesus said something about a beam in the eye.
In other words, my church was not destroyed by the left. My life was not threatened by the left. I was not exiled by the left. I was not mocked and ridiculed by the left. This was MAGA, who cause more persecution, violence and hatred towards me and my family than anyone else I have ever come across.
And I am truly sorry for those who were unkind to you. That shouldn’t have happened. But it doesn’t excuse what has happened to the church.
Thanks for writing.
Sam,I had no idea my ema