Q Toon: The Temptation of Graham

As you probably know by now, Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Rev. Billy, has been busy bad-mouthing Mayor Pete Buttigieg while psalms of praise to Prince of Lies ("Over 10,000 told!") Donald Joffrey Trump.

"Mayor Buttigieg says he’s a gay Christian. As a Christian I believe the Bible which defines homosexuality as sin, something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized. The Bible says marriage is between a man & a woman—not two men, not two women." 

With Bill Clinton out of the White House and Donald Trump in it, Parson Graham has come to accept the traditional Old Testament model of marriage as being between one husband, one wife at a time, and any number of concubines. Abraham never did the nasty with Hagar in the Oval Office, after all, and probably apologized to Sarah any number of times.

Trump may not know Two Corinthians from Two Chronicles, but Graham says he's a defender of Christianity, and that's good enough for him.

Nor is Graham alone in his adoration of Trump. Virtually every well-known televangelist from Jerry Falwell Jr. to Pat Robertson professes their faith in the avaricious, prideful, gluttonous, cheating, false-witness-bearing, corrupt prophet of Mammon in the White House; and their faithful flock follows suit. He is, after all, a Republican, and not a heathen Democrat like that supposed paragon of moral turpitude, Barack Obama.

Or, of course, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang, et al. You can bet your bottom dollar that the leaders of the Church of Evangelical Republican Partisanship have already written their screeds against whomever the Democratic nominee turns out to be next year, regardless of how extensive his or her Judeo-Christian résumé is.

One can only hope there are enough truly faithful voters out there able to see beyond the -R after Mr. Trump's name and see the real and present damage he has done to the nation's soul. Consider this account of a Bible study from writer Paul Prather:

[I]f Christians today, using the Bible as their model, believe God ordained Donald Trump to be our president, then they must by definition agree God also appointed Barack Obama as president for the previous eight years.
And before him, George W. Bush. And before him, Bill Clinton. And so on, right back to George Washington.
To disrespect any leader — including incompetent James Buchanan or racist Andrew Johnson or crooked Richard Nixon or modern conservatives’ banes, Clinton and Obama — is to stick your finger in the Lord’s eye.
Some months ago, we discussed Paul’s views about submitting to the governing authorities in my congregation’s midweek Bible study.
“Wait,” one friend said uneasily. “If he’s right, then our founding fathers sinned when they revolted against King George III. That can’t be, can it?”

As the Bible says, "The reign falls on the just and the just awful alike."

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/living/religion/paul-prather/article226453595.html#storylink=cpAsAy

EnviroStewardship Extra!

Dean Romano of Outdoor Wild interviewed my Dad during a recent EcoFest event at Gateway Technical College in Kenosha, posting at his YouTube channel here:

They discussed renewable energy, carbon-free cars, reusing and redesigning plastic containers, and a whole host of other environmental issues.

This Week's Sneak Peek

For this week's sneak peek, here's a snippet from my sketchbook in preparation for the cartoon.

How 'bout last night's Game of Thrones, fans? I never would have guessed that Lady Mormont was Jaqen H'ghar in disguise all along.

At least I think that's what happened.

It was kind of dark and foggy.

The Rusty Curtain

Over the past two Saturdays, I've rehashed some of my thirty-year-old cartoons about the Exxon Valdez oil spill, abortion, and gun control. What 1989 will chiefly be remembered for, however, are the stunning changes in world politics.

UW-Milwaukee Post, March 28, 1989

Scarcely three months into George H.W. Bush's presidency, George Will used his back-page column in Newsweek to complain that "Bush seems to be a bystander watching to see who Bush turns out to be." Compared to his predecessor, who came in vowing to slash government down to size, stand up to the Soviets — and, oh, by the way, getting to announce minutes after his inauguration that the American hostages in Iran were coming home — Bush settled into the White House with no grand plan other than to avoid any new taxes.

But behind the Iron Curtain, great changes were brewing.

UW-Parkside Ranger, April 20, 1989

After nearly a decade trying to suppress the Solidarity movement led by Lech Wałęsa, Poland's communist government agreed on April 4, 1989 to allow Solidarność candidates to run in June 4 elections for the Sejm and a newly recreated Senate. 299 of the 460 seats in the Sejm were reserved for the Communist Party and its affiliates; Solidarność ended up winning all but one of the remaining Sejm and Senate seats.

UW-Milwaukee Post, May 2, 1989

Perhaps inspired by the Polish model, and taking advantage of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, citizens of the USSR's constituent republics began demanding independence. 150 people launched a hunger strike in Tblisi, Georgia; protesters forced the resignation of Uzbekistan's official Muslim leader; Lithuania's Sąjūdis movement declared the nation's independence in May; the Estonian Supreme Soviet had proclaimed the supremacy of Estonian laws over Moscow's the previous November. Border fighting broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Protesters in what is now Moldova pushed to get Moldavian recognized as their official language.

Sparked by the sudden death of retired Chinese General Secretary Hu Yaobang on April 15, students occupied Tienanmen Square in Beijing to demand democratic reforms, freedom of the press, and a crackdown on corruption. Some one million protesters occupied the square for weeks on end, staging a hunger strike and erecting their own statue of liberty. In one famous photograph, a lone protester stood against a line of Chinese army tanks. Protests spread to 400 cities around the country.

We know how well that worked for the Chinese protesters, however.

UW-Milwaukee Post, June 27, 1989

Q Toon: Getting to Know You

A scientific study that found its way into the news last week found that there are more bacteria in men's beards than there are in the fur of dogs' necks.

This further bolsters the age-old discovery that dog slobber is cleaner than a human kiss.

Now, I don't know what conditions were present in the beard/fur study. Had the human subjects been eating corn on the cob recently? Had the dogs been kept in the house? Had the humans?

I do know that dogs don't cover their mouths when they sneeze. That would probably trap more germs and bacteria on their faces instead of releasing thousands of airborne snotlets into the wild in search of the next human beard to happen along.

Personally, I've had a beard on my face since 1994, which is older than any dog I know. I do shampoo it regularly, and I'm not wearing it down to my waist like some guys you've seen; but the fact remains that it has had more opportunity to meet bacteria than a dog born in 2007 has.

Even though I don't greet passers-by in quite so intimate a fashion as dogs are fond of.

EnviroStewardship: Talking Trash

Dad has decided to keep writing his "Environmental Stewardship" column for his church's newsletter, so here's his offering for May.

Some years back, I was in San Francisco when they were starting a program to reach zero waste with Recycle Bins on almost every block. Since then, a number of larger cities and other municipalities have adopted resolutions that called for reaching zero waste by some arbitrary date. The City of Racine has not done so as yet, although they have named a committee to reduce waste.

This is goal-setting by governments, but there is nothing saying that churches and individuals can’t cooperate, and even lead, in these efforts. We have been doing this on education and social services for centuries.

A first step as an individual (environmental steward) might be a comparison of the contents of your trash can and recycle bin. The recycle bin should almost always contain more than the trash bin … at least twice as much since it is emptied only every other week in Racine.

Next is the decision whether you are producing too much trash or not recycling enough. Are there items in the trash that should be recycled? Are you bringing home too much that cannot be recycled and that you don’t need?

For some, the excess trash will consist of excessive packaging. If it is from a fast food chain, possibly changing chains will help. In other cases, it may mean changing your diet to a more healthy, home-cooked, fruit and vegetable one. With others it may be the clam shells from the second meal brought home from the fancy restaurant which always serves much more than you can eat. If so, bring your own washable, reusable bag or tub.

When going grocery shopping, I am assuming that you are bringing reusable tote bags that last for ages and avoid the choice between paper or plastic. Whenever there is the choice, choose food and other products with the least or most recyclable packaging. A friend was recently part of a survey in which they went into grocery stores and photographed everything with excessive plastic packaging. I believe the results were sent to management, but we are still waiting to see the results.

If your trash is mostly facial tissues which obviously can’t be recycled under current conditions, you might consider going back to the old-fashioned handkerchief. The amount of additional water and detergent used will be negligible in the ordinary wash and less trash will be going into the landfill.

A final and possibly facetious suggestion: Don’t set fire to your house! A dear friend and neighbor unfortunately did so a year ago and the repair crews have filled five or six large dumpsters since then. Obviously, that is a great bump in the road to a zero-waste community.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Tune in later this week for trenchant political commentary and health and grooming tips.