Republican Party continues to pervert Jesus' message to mankindCrooked carnival tent barker and greed-obsessed power-monger Ralph Reed, who somehow managed to avoid prison for his role in the Abramoff bribery scandal, has a new book coming out before the 2020 election with two working titles, Render to God and Trump and For God and Country: The Christian case for Trump. Best short bio of Reed I ever saw was by award-winning documentary film producer, Alex Gibney, who made the 2010 movie Casino Jack And The United States Of Money.Gibney also wrote a piece that year for The Atlantic, The Deceptions of Ralph Reed, that captures the essence of the man: "Let's say it plain: Ralph Reed is a fraud."
On a recent radio show-- highlighted by a blog from People for the American Way-- Ralph Reed was chatting about his halcyon days as part of Jack Abramoff's lobbying machine. He recalled that his work with "Casino Jack," the once and famous king of K Street, "was outstanding, I'm proud of it, and it advanced sound public policy."God Bless. What would that policy be? The legalized bribery of government officials?To recap, Ralph Reed worked for team Abramoff by mobilizing Christians opposed to gambling to shutter casinos. The only hitch: Reed was usually paid by other casinos who had a financial interest in eliminating their competitors. Therefore, Abramoff needed to find a way to make Reed comfortable, and to protect him against critics and the likely fury of his own Christian followers-- who might have been upset if they had discovered that Reed was being paid by gamblers to do their bidding. The solution: Abramoff laundered the Indian casino payoffs to Reed by routing them through other organizations, including Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform and a phony "think tank" in Rehoboth Beach, MD, run by a life guard and a yoga instructor who were friends of Abramoff's pal, Mike Scanlon. Details of this can be found in my film, Casino Jack and the United States of Money....Reed correctly notes that he has never been charged with a crime and implies that he had been fully investigated by John McCain's Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. But the implication is deceptive. According to one very famous, disgraced former lobbyist, Reed was supposed to have been called before McCain's committee but Karl Rove intervened and pressured McCain not to call Reed. (Reed was an enormously powerful fund-raiser for the Republican Party.)If true (McCain and Democratic Committee head Byron Dorgan refused to respond to my inquiries) it would be amazing. After all, McCain hated Reed for Reed's scurrilous personal attack campaign (funded by Abramoff) on McCain during the 2000 South Carolina Primary. And no one was more fundamental to Abramoff's Indian casino business than Reed. Yet Reed was never called. Why?This leads to another intriguing part of the radio interview. Reed tries to downplay a famous statement of his: "I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag." He says it was just youthful hyperbole.Really, the language is key to the militarized "take-no-prisoners" mindset of many movement conservatives. To them, politics is never about religion--or what's right or wrong--it's only about getting caught. By "painting his face and traveling at night," Reed avoided being called by the McCain Committee. To Reed, Abramoff committed the unpardonable sin of getting caught, and that's why Reed prays for him. Well, Abramoff did his time and now seems to be willing to speak the truth. Reed should pray for himself.
According to Gabby Orr's report in Politico yesterday, Reed intends to argue persuasively in his book that "evangelicals have a duty to defend the incumbent Republican leader against 'the stridently anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and pro-abortion agenda of the progressive left' [and] will also rebut claims by religious and nonreligious critics that white evangelical Protestants 'revealed themselves to be political prostitutes and hypocrites' by overwhelmingly backing Trump, a twice-divorced, admitted philanderer, in 2016."Frank Schaefer, an apostate who once sat at the pinnacle of the Religious Right, is one of those critics. He noted that "As Politico notes, "The book’s author, Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed, wants us to back a man that even fellow far right fundamentalist Trumpite, Pat Robertson, is now 'appalled' by Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria: 'The President of the United States is in great danger of losing the mandate of Heaven if he permits this to happen.' ... 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' Pat said, 'I want to say right now, I am absolutely appalled that the United States is going to betray those democratic forces in northern Syria that we are possibly going to allow the Turks to come in against the Kurds. The president, who allowed [Washington Post journalist Jamal] Khashoggi to be cut in pieces without any repercussions whatsoever, is now allowing the Christians and the Kurds to be massacred by the Turks,' he added. 'And I believe-- and I want to say this with great solemnity-- the president of the United States is in danger of losing the mandate of heaven if he permits this to happen.' Just a reminder: Love what Trump is doing by betraying the Kurds who have died by thousands frighting by America's side? Love that Trump is backing an Islamist militant leader in Turkey who murders opponents including Christians?-- Then thank a white evangelical American voter and evangelical leaders including Ralph Reed. Wait for the pictures of dead Kurdish children. Turkey's airstrikes against Kurdish villagers will inflame tensions between Trump and senior GOP figures including McConnell, Nikki Haley and Lindsey Graham already breaking with Trump with Mitt Romney calling it a 'betrayal.' And that’s the context even before we get to impeachment issues in which Trump-enabler Reed makes his pitch to support this anti-Christ and friend of men of blood to the bitter end."Orr continued that "Reed, who once said Trump’s comments about women in the leaked Access Hollywood tape were low on his 'hierarchy of concerns,' belongs to an informal group of evangelical leaders-- including Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., Robert Jeffress and Paula White-- who have become some of the president’s most devoted fans and vocal defenders since he took office. They have cast his foray into politics as divinely inspired; equated him to biblical figures such as Esther, an Old Testament heroine; and frequently cited Scripture to rationalize his most controversial policies-- actions that other religious scholars and leaders have found particularly cringeworthy.
“I think evangelical efforts would be far better spent critiquing their own shortcomings than sanctifying a president,” said Matthew Rowley, a research associate with the Cambridge Institute on Religion and International Studies at Clare College.For his part, Trump has inspired loyalty among his white evangelical base by positioning himself as a warrior against the secular culture they fear. He’s frequently appeared at conferences hosted by conservative Christian groups, including the “Road to Majority” summit put on by Reed’s organization each summer; strengthened conscience protections for religious Americans in the labor force; nominated dozens of socially conservative judges for lifetime federal appointments; and fervently supported Israel.“Part of the reason why many religious leaders support Trump is because he is great on life, religious freedom, judges, Israel, taxes, conscience protections, fetal issue and also because Hillary Clinton and his would-be opponents next year are so awful on all of the above,” a senior administration official said.But the same official said there‘s a difference between the president’s alliance with influential evangelical leaders and his private reaction to those who publicly fawn over his administration. Asked about Reed’s book, in particular, this person responded, “Oh, for crying out loud.”“It shows how little they understand Donald Trump. He actually abhors obsequiousness,” the official said.Indeed, the president has been known to mock right-wing television personalities and former aides who have showered him with praise on their shows and in books. After an on-air interview with Sean Hannity in which the pro-Trump Fox News host admitted to warning Trump on Election Day that he was likely to lose, the president reportedly complained to aides about Hannity’s “dumb” softball questions. Trump also teased former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who now serves as one of his personal attorneys, after he unabashedly defended him in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape scandal, the Wall Street Journal reported last week....Reed’s book is expected to be released next April, seven months before voters will decide whether to reelect Trump. He has written seven books, including three political novels.
Samir Selmanović, a brilliant writer and seminarian and co-chair of Vote Common Good, thought about Reed's efforts and told us that "The saddest story behind Reed's campaign is monumental falling apart of Evangelical theology. What kind of a God do they believe in? It is a kind of god who cannot get shit done without Trump. No kidding. Trapped god. God the Hostage. The number of putdowns, destruction, and hostility that this god had to hoist on human beings by choosing Trump as his new man of the hours is staggering. Evolution, for example, would be quite a divine way to get things done. At least everyone participates in giving their lives for the advancement of others. In Trump's world, zero-sum game and looking for oneself is the ideal and only truth. More of a hunger-games approach to work, relationships, and self. Trump's words are unequivocal in supporting everything they used to want to be delivered from. But the fear of not being in charge is too much to bear for them. Anything less than being in charge renders them as victims. And as victims, they need a villain, which is the role they give to liberals. They also need a hero to save them. Down the escalator, arrives Trump!"With Ralph Reeds as the whisperers of the official story about what is really going on, most Evangelicals are not paying attention to what's happening outside of their circle of wagons. And what is happening outside this large encampment is not hatred for Evangelicals, but the love of humans for each other, love for the earth, and love for the mystery we all are living with. Outside of their circle of certainty and fear, there is truth, grace, and compassion. They are losing touch with what love looks like and that is the greatest tragedy here. What used to be a great American religion, championing grace above all, is now known for its self-serving self-centredness, using up most of its energy in devising new ways to judge others and hate this world that, as the Jesus says, 'God so loved.' We have lost a wonderful religion."