Tag Archives: Congressman Louie Gohmert

The Courage to Hope When Hopelessness Seems Easier

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Again, the “liar” accusation from the Trumpian-inspired Republican base is sounding forth, especially in Fox News which is “the” Voice of the GOP.  I cannot help but chuckle at them for their brazen dishonesty and lack of self-reflection; but this moment is too grievous for any chuckling.; but yet I chuckle.  I guess I’m having trouble with the wisdom of, “There go I but by the grace of God.” This GOP dishonesty was optically demonstrated two days ago when Trump held a White House meeting with 20 Congressmen and other executives to address this crisis, all of them defiantly not wearing masks.  They cannot, and will not, wear a mask in deference to their chieftain who has taken a brazen stance on mask-wearing by his refusal to wear one.  Witness the sycophantic display of Vice-President Pence sans mask last week in a meeting in Iowa with food-processing executives. Five of these men arrived wearing a mask but were asked to remove them…and lamely did so.

Trump is the president of one political entity…himself…and his political base has fallen supine to “its” dark power.  He refuses to wear a mask and gloves, though he is probably safe given the availability of medical intervention available to him that is not available to the rest of us.  But, a person with some degree of spiritual maturity would recognize and appreciate the optics of being a leader who will not demonstrate proper protocol for our nation in this crisis. The full gamut of “social distancing” is now necessary, for our own sake and that of others. Following this protocol is a necessary reminder to others that I am “on board,” that I recognize the gravity of this historical moment and that “appearance” makes a statement. Texas Republican Congressman, Louie Gohmert offered again a dollop of his unwise “wisdom”, explaining why the group of Republicans and other executives meeting with Trump recently did not wear a mask:

I do want to advise our media friends before they write stories about how we didn’t wear masks and we didn’t possibly socially distance adequately, that you saw to it that we had tests, and that nobody in here had the coronavirus unless it’s somebody in the media. So the only reason we would wear masks is if we were trying to protect ourselves from you in the media. And we’re not scared of you. So that’s why we can be here like this.

The issue in this falderal that I again have put on the table is important; BUT, it is not what is “really” going on.  Only “beneath the surface” can we fathom the “tale being told by an idiot” that often has us in its grasp.  That Shakespearean wisdom applies to the ever-underway human toil found in day-to-day life.  Always we stand in the need of prayer, even in the form of ritualized prayer that can often be banal; “prayer” in human history is an institution.  But one dimension of prayer is best described as “prayerfulness” in which we don’t necessarily put it into words directed to a “god” out there.  This “prayerfulness” is an attitude in which we recognize the dignity of life underway through us…and even “them” who seem to be so gravely lacking it. The most meaningful prayer I can offer is found in the humdrum of day to day life.  I will shortly crank it into gear, getting up from my bed to pee, start the coffee pot, and feed by beloved little four-legged son, Petey.  Yes, even “peeing” is important here, recognizing that our body and its needs are present and even deserve respect. When the sun is up and beginning its daily chore of warming up the morning, I will venture outside to give attention to my gardening efforts.  I will take delight in the young seedlings taking  root and the dissatisfaction when they are not.  I will pull some weeds, fertilize some plants and trees, feel the sun’s warmth and the gentle breeze flowing through the morning air.  I will at times paw through the soil in the garden bed to comfort some of the new plants that are taking root. I will note the beauty of Taos Mountain from my backyard, still snow-capped and majestic.  I will give respect to the wisdom of the New Mexican high-desert lore, that this mountain is holy, that it draws some people here to find roots they could not find elsewhere.  Relevant to local lore is the belief that this Mountain welcomes some people who are captivated by its majesty and decide to stay.  Some do not find it and the culture it has granted to be hospitable and will move on, “driving their ducks to another market” as my mother used to say. This local lore explains that the Mountain has rejected them and will “spit them out” and they will return home.

At this point in my morning musing, I have come a “fur piece” from where I started with the socio-political, spiritual ugliness that besets us.  Here I am closing with a “prayerful attitude” towards the beauty and Grace that is present in this world.  I dare to “hope” once again. This “hoping” effort often does seem so paltry, but it is a “choice” that we need to brazenly exercise.
NOTEs: “Fur piece” is Arkansas red-neck parlance, meaning “a ‘far’ piece.”  Gawd do I love my roots! And another note re “prayerfulness” vs. prayer by a 20th century Catholic voice,  “Jesus said, ‘go into all the world and preach the gospel. If necessary, use words.”

It’s a “Come to Jesus” Moment

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A “come to Jesus moment” in popular culture has come to mean to face a day of reckoning about circumstances that have been ignored to the point where they can no longer be disregarded.  The image draws from fundamentalist Christianity where “Come to Jesus” meant, and still does mean a moment of reckoning with God and an acknowledgement of one’s short comings.

Though no longer a fundamentalist Christian, I still think that the bromide, “Come to Jesus” still has value if one can approach the matter with a critical view, not only of the bromide itself but of the one who is using the bromide.  In other words, if one can overcome an innate, ego-driven aversion to “self” awareness, especially when it comes to matters of faith.  For most of my life the concept of “come to Jesus” has meant “come to viewing the world as I do” and now I see clearly the narcissism and tyranny of this mind set.  And, it has nothing to do with Jesus.  It has to do with an ego which exercises so much control over an individual, or group of individuals, that the narcissism inherent in the desire is not apparent.  At some point this dishonesty, this “bad faith” is likely to give rise to a powerful voice who will articulate the repressed anguish and rage of millions who are in the grip of this daimonic energy and promise to “Make America Great Again.”  Oh, my….Hmm.  What could I have reference to there?

The issues before us as a species are, and always have been spiritual and that is where “Jesus” comes in.  But by “spiritual” I do not mean the superficial sense with which I was indoctrinated.  By “spiritual” I refer to a dimension of the human heart that lies beneath the surface, down in the guts where words like “spiritual” fall short of actually apprehending the matter.  It is too convenient to keep “spiritual” on a superficial level of conscious, rational intent where we can have a false certainty of what we are doing and then, often, lamely announce, “God is leading” or “God has raised this man up.”

By “spiritual” I mean coming to a place where we recognize, and feel, that ultimately, we are implicated in a cosmic mystery which we can never totally understand with our rational mind and those “certainties” which consume us just might not be any more valid than those who have other contradictory “certainties.”  To put this in terms of my country’s interminable Congressional grid-lock, it would mean that Republicans and Democr ats would each recognize they see only “through a glass darkly” and resolve to put aside their petty differences and focus on monumental challenges that our country faces.  But when certainty grips any one party and/or their constituency, there is no solution because that would require the humility of recognizing, “Uh oh, I was not as much right as I thought I was.”  That would mean acknowledging from time to time, “I was wrong” which is something that Donald Trump, and many of his followers, are characterologically incapable of doing.  This would require spirituality that was something other than self-serving dogma.  This would require something other than the “prayer meeting” hosted by Congressman Louie Gohmert in his office last week where the evil forces they were trying to cast out of Congress were the one’s who were inspiring their self-indulgent display of hypocritical piety.  “With devotions visage and pious action we sugar o’er the devil himself.”  (Shakespeare)  Oh my, how wonderful it was to know that I was pious and to give others an opportunity to see it on display!