Letter to the Editor: The Gospel of America — ‘Get What You Can Get and Git!’

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Sharing and “Love Thy Neighbor” and forgiveness? Socialist nonsense.

Mathew Mark, Luke and John? No, the real gospel of America according to the great comedian W.C. Fields is “Get what you can get and git!”

No one has ever suggested that Donald Trump was a sharing person or that he loved his neighbor, at least not without a non-disclosure agreement. 

Forgiveness? Ask Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch or Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified in good conscience at Trump’s impeachment hearings before the House of Representatives. Worried for the country, they told what they heard and saw and were then slandered and smeared by Trump and his henchmen. Trump’s other cheek is his vindictive one. 

The Lord works in mysterious ways and one of the truly baffling ones is the affection many Christians have for Trump. He may be serving their political interests, but he swings and misses badly at every pitch Jesus made. 

Christians’ affinity for Trump is like the 1930s British Conservative Party’s affection for and appeasement of Adolph Hitler, who promised to defend their aristocratic positions and economic interests against the Bolsheviks. To call Trump or Hitler an imperfect ally would be a laughable understatement. 

Many Cold-War-era American political and religious leaders railed against “Godless communism.” Staunchly agnostic British Prime Minister Winston Churchill held a very different view of the Soviet Union’s rigidly mandated ideology of sharing the wealth, or as Churchill put it, sharing the poverty. It was Churchill’s opinion that “communism is Christianity with a tomahawk.”

If the morbidly politically correct object to the word, it should be known that Churchill was proudly part Native American and perfectly entitled to use the word tomahawk. 



Ironically, it was Churchill’s tour of Britain early in his career leaving him appalled at the horrible overall health of poor and working class Britons that later gave impetus to the country’s now most revered socialist institution, the National Health Service. Quaint, hobbit-size English cottages still testify to many malnourished generations of those classes. It was only after the UK adopted some socialist policies that nutrition improved for lower-class Britons. 

Socialism is nothing new in America. Ben Franklin held many “socialist” views. George Washington favored government funding of roads and canals, subsidies for the advancement of agricultural science and a government funded national university. Paid tuition anyone? Abraham Lincoln also advocated for infrastructure and was well-received when he spoke to the immigrant German socialists of the upper Midwest in 1859 favoring labor’s right to organize. 

America’s early 20th century Christian Socialist Party was famous for determining their position on any policy by first asking, “What would Jesus do?”

It seems only reasonable that Trump’s banana Republicans who presume that they speak and act on God’s behalf should be required to ask the same question. 

 

Marty Ansley

Cinebar