Might as well put on "Jesus shoes," right?

My generation had "tennis shoes" for when we wanted to engage in rigorous physical activity, by the standards of that era.
I seem to recall "Pro Keds." I don't even recall hearing about "running shoes." Distance running erupted as a fad after Frank Shorter's success in the Olympics. We watched transfixed as the guy ran, ran and ran. A bestseller simply had to appear at our bookstores, because paper "books" were still quite the standard. So we got the runaway bestseller with the red cover, remember? By James Fixx?
Today you can get political with your running shoes. You can spend $1,425 for customized Nike sneakers called "Jesus Shoes." Making a statement about Jesus of course means you're a Republican, probably a "far right Republican" or at least self-fashioned that way, and a supporter of Donald Trump.
What would Jesus Christ say about a charge of $1500 for a pair of sneakers purportedly anointed by Him? These are "Nike Air Max 97s" injected with holy water from the Jordan River in the Middle East. We of course have to take their word for it. Remember the barber in the movie "The Shootist," John Wayne's last movie, who planned on selling locks of hair from the terminally-ill famous gunfighter? He really swept up random locks of hair from the floor, remember?
I suppose there is nothing more Christian than to make a quick buck on something, right? That's the tide.
It is questionable whether the growing avalanche of negative news about Trump will really take him down. That is because the foul-mouthed commander in chief has so much support from the Christian community, whether they wear $1500 sneakers or not.
I just heard a few days ago about another local person who left an ELCA church for the more conservative Good Shepherd, on the rural edge of the community. You can hear the barking days from the nearby dog kennels. Somehow Trump reminded me of a barking dog Thursday night at his Nuremberg-style rally right here in our state, in Minneapolis.
The crowd wore red shirts. These people gravitate to the churches that are inclined toward right wing politics. Jesus Christ himself seemed far more disposed to humanistic and tolerant ideas, ideas where monetary incentives were not the be-all and end-all.
Such a huge portion of Christianity now appears to twist itself into a pretzel reasoning that Trump actually represents God and Jesus. The real underpinning of these feelings is nativism. Another element is homophobia. A simple non-discrimination policy re. gays ended up as a flashpoint causing many ELCAers to "defect." In our Morris MN that means a defensive stance by our ELCA churches who after all need people and money to stay healthy.
Good Shepherd is reportedly doing very well. Am I happy for that? Maybe the solution is to discourage organized religion completely. If the meme prevails of Trump and Christianity being bonded, then I'd be one of those retreating from religion.
Ralph Reed is the founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. He's an evangelical with the skill of using the mass media just like Trump. Reed has a book coming out (of course) in which he argues that evangelicals "have a duty to defend" the president. Why? Could Reed really envision our Savior standing with Trump, truly endorsing this vulgar man who fired up his crowd of red-shirted lemmings on Thursday in Minneapolis?
Reed says evangelicals "have a moral obligation to enthusiastically back" Trump.
The most ardent Christians want to see a dismantling of federal protections for abortion. Are you all really prepared for a new norm in the U.S. where abortion is effectively prohibited? Meanwhile the rock-ribbed Republicans, the flag-wavers for the likes of Trump, will be sure to have their own discreet channels to get an abortion for their mistress. The rich get what they want? Is this what Jesus Christ stood for?
Reed's upcoming book originally had the title "Render to God and Trump." So we are now speaking of Trump and God in the same breath. Might new versions of the Bible incorporate Trump?
The Reed book's publisher now says the title of the book will be "For God and Country: the Christian Case for Trump." Perhaps this will be gobbled up by Good Shepherd members, not to mention the more obvious fundamentalist churches in the Morris area.
I sense the ELCA churches are fading. A good friend of mine became an ELCA skeptic and he refers to the synod as "ELC-Gay." Why so excited about the issue of gay rights? Why does this stick in your craw so much? You might have a gay member of your own family. Do you want that person circulating in a world where he gets the message that he's not entitled to basic things? The basic opportunities that the rest of us take for granted?
Gay rights is merely a policy and it's not something to get particularly excited about. To change one's church because of this is ridiculous. For sure many southerners wanted to cling to Jim Crow laws. But the rest of the world moved on and the southerners could either get on the bus (of progress) or get off.
Are the Ralph Reed types, the wearers of the red shirts Thursday in Minneapolis, willing to get off the bus? Without misgivings about being left behind? Because that's what will happen to them.
Nevertheless the pro-Trump wave comes at us, underscored in the Nuremberg-type rally Thursday. Trump was his usual foul-mouthed and insulting self. Again, can you imagine Jesus Christ standing in league with this man? Countenancing him?
Can't you see that the Ralph Reed types are just exploitative? They see a big audience of paranoid people who simply fear change and progress. The evangelical crowd cites a parallel they see between Trump and the Biblical Esther, a heroine of the Old Testament. So, it has come to that.
This is a man who lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. He gets strident support from people who try to cite actual scripture to rationalize some of the more shocking policies. I apply the "shocking" description merely on the basis of common sense. A danger with any rabid religious crowd is that they truly suspend common sense.
Reed more or less shrugged about the "Access Hollywood" tape. The circle of zealous religious Trump supporters has Reed along with Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., Robert Jeffress and Paula White. They feel Trump's entry into the political sphere is divinely inspired.
Such zealots equate "religious freedom" with the freedom to discriminate on religious grounds like against gay people. But it doesn't end there. Be careful what you wish for, all you Morris area "hardcore Christians." If you people can proclaim that God is truly on your side - and your crowd definitely speaks that way - I will concurrently proclaim with no inhibitions that God is on the side of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Don't try to subtly deride us by saying "of" instead of "in." It's "In America."
Jesus Christ does not take political sides per se. But surely his words seem more consistent with what the ELCA and America's progressives are asserting these days. I have a right to that opinion, just like the Trump-ites can cheer and holler as our president cloaks himself charlatan-like in Christianity. All while he talks about Joe Biden "kissing Obama's ass." And the evangelicals cheer.
Hey, take your "trade war" and shove it. There, I can talk just like the Trump-ites.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com