Why This Old White Christian Abandoned the Republican Party

This is not an educational video like most videos on this
channel, this is a testimonial video on why I left the
Republican Party,

Which will be submitted to the Republicans Against
Trump website, as they are asking for more people to tell
their story:

Before I released this video, I pondered whether I should tone down
the rhetoric, but then I realized that although Christians should
ordinarily be reluctant to object stridently and forcefully, that when
Christians are confronting pure evil, they must be strident and forceful
to hopefully snap their Christian friends from their moral slumber.
During our jingle, we will display some of our civil rights history
thumbnails.
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this video.
Please, we welcome interesting questions in the comments. Let us
learn and reflect together!

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Why This Old White Christian Left the Republican Party
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Originally, I was a Democrat, in part because in the mid
Seventies the Democratic Party was still the majority party by
far in Florida, though after the election of Ronald Reagan as
President in 1980 the Republican Party would slowly gain in
strength, taking over the former Confederate states. The
Monica Lewinsky scandal, and the libertine attitude of the
Democratic Party, along with its support for gay rights and
apparent disregard for Christian values, compelled me to
switch to the party of morals at the time, the Republican Party.

My ultimate reconversion to the Democratic Party was
preceded by an increased awareness of our country’s ugly Jim
Crow racial history as I read the American history that I was not
taught in school, and I can point to the exact passage that
provided the drastic jolt to my moral complacency, which is
included in my video on how the Nazi lawyers used the Jim
Crow legal precedents when drafting the Nazi Nuremburg
Jewish Race Laws after Hitler was elected as chancellor of
Germany:

KRISTALLNACHT AND THE ANTI-LYNCHING BILL
The Nazis on the night of the Kristallnacht, or night of broken glass, greatly
increased their persecution of the Jews by burning, looting, and vandalizing
Jewish businesses, synagogues, and residences, and soon after sent most Jews
to their deaths in the concentration death and work camps. This same type of
violence had been practiced in the Deep South by the KKK and other racist
terrorists, likely tens of thousands of Negroes had been lynched in the years
since the end of the Civil War in the Deep South and mid-West.
Mine eyes were opened when I first read about the history of the defeat of the
anti-lynching bill in 1938. Eleanor Roosevelt and the black leaders were pushing
FDR and Congress to pass the anti-lynching bill when the entire world was
witnessing the horrors of the Nazi persecutions of the Jews.

K
Kristallnacht, Night of Broken Glass, the night when across
Germany the SS Storm Troopers vandalized, burned, and
looted Jewish stores, synagogues, and homes.

FDR was sympathetic, he explained to a
colleague that “the southerners by reason
of the seniority rule in Congress are
chairmen of the key Congressional
committees. If I come out for the anti-
lynching bill, they will block every bill I ask
Congress to pass to keep America from
collapsing. I just can’t take that risk.” So,
FDR had a choice, he could fight the
Nazis, or he could fight lynching, but he
could not do both. And, defeating the
Nazis was an attainable goal.
FDR signing the declaration of war
against Germany, 1941

Eleanor persisted in public
speeches and her newspaper
column in support of the anti-
lynching campaign, constantly
badgering her husband. Once she
asked FDR, “Do you mind if I say
what I think?” FDR replied, “You
can say anything you like. I can
always say, ‘Well, that is my wife;
I can’t do anything about her.’”
This supposed conflict was a
good political way to push for
civil rights without unduly
antagonizing the powerful Deep
South Senators and
Congressmen.

What is distressing about this history was that the bill was not
against lynching itself, but it put legal pressure on Southern
judges and policemen to enforce the law and punish those
who were guilty of lynching, instead of just ignoring the crime.

WHY I AM NOW A BLOOD-RED, BLEEDING HEART, LIBERAL DEMOCRAT
Although I did not vote for John McCain for President in 2008, as I
thought that Alan Greenspan and the Republican Administration’s
criminally libertarian hands-off approach to regulators over many years
led to the subprime mortgage crisis and near collapse of the world
economy, I could not vote for Obama because of the gay rights position
of the Democratic Party, a stance with which I am still uncomfortable, but
then the Democratic Party is not a religion, I can be a card carrying
Democrat without adopting all of its planks.

Gaslighting is the order of the
day for the Republican Party and
Fox News, and the prophet Isaiah
condemns gaslighting:
“Woe to those
who call evil good,
and who call good evil;
Who put darkness for light,
and light for darkness.”
Isaiah 5:20
Fresco of Isaiah
Michelangelo
Sistine Chapel

It is so disheartening to go to church and hear the preacher comment on how the
election was stolen from Joe Biden, and how Democrats are bound for perdition for
their sinful ways. It is so disheartening that so many of my Christian friends listen to
Fox News and Newsmax and OANN and Alex Jones babble about the fake news
media, saying that CNN and MSNBC and the Wall Street Journal and the New York
Times and the Atlantic and practically every newspaper in the country are fake,
when in reality it is the right wing-nut news media who are the fake gaslighting
news media. My Christian friends disdain the main stream media, but yet many
accept the Qanon slanders as biblical prophecies. And if you listen to Fox News, you
will not hear the truth that it was the fascist white-supremacist domestic terrorist
Proud Boys and their ilk who invaded the Capitol on January 6th that led to death of
numerous Capitol policemen, or any other truths about how Trump and the
Republican Party are trying to destroy democracy and bring back Jim Crow racism
and white supremacy.

The message I would like to shout to my fellow Christian friends is you
have a choice in today’s politics, you either Love God and love your
neighbor as yourself, and loving your neighbor means that black lives do
matter, OR you can listen to FoxNews and Newsmax and OANN and Alex
Jones, BUT you cannot do both, because the right wing-nut news media
opinionators and entertainers will rot your soul from your heart
outwards.
Donald Trump is the antithesis of a true Christian, if you want to Love
God and love your neighbor, you can ask three simple questions: What
would Trump think? And think the opposite. What would Trump say? And
say the opposite. What would Trump do? And do the opposite.

If you are a Christian and want to join the Democratic Party, then yes, you should
come to terms with the moral implications of abortion, which I have pondered over
extensively, I have a video on the Christian and Catholic teachings on abortion.
Simply put, my position is that you should be pro-life, but that for a true Christian,
pro-life policies should not end at birth, and that a guns-everywhere policy is not
pro-life. The opposite of pro-life is pro-death, not pro-choice, and contrary to what
many Republicans believe, Democrats are NOT in favor of killing babies. My personal
position is that a true Christian should instead be pro-compassion, you should
always be compassionate to women who are considering abortion due to either
medical complications, or rape or incest, or because they are hovering over the
abyss of poverty, and that it is Jesus’ job, not your job, to be judgmental.

https://youtu.be/i8WXS7l4OzE
https://youtu.be/C4rH6qhhw70

One of the main projects of my YouTube channel, Reflections of
Morality, Philosophy, and History, is to show with deeply
researched and pondered videos that not only is it possible to
be both a Democrat and a Christian, but that the Democratic
Party positions echo the Gospel message, especially as stated
in the blessings and woes in the Sermon on the Plain in Luke,
the blessings and woes that compel us to show compassion to
those who are less fortunate than we are:

Luke’s Sermon on the Plain
"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude
you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great
in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their
ancestors did to the false prophets.”
Luke 6:20-26

It is comforting to know that we are not alone, there are many Facebook
groups of fellow Christians who are dismayed by how their white Christian
friends, clergy, and churches that they have faithfully attended for
decades have been turned to the dark side by Trump, Fox News, and the
Republican Party.
Currently I am looking for a new church home, for now I am looking for a
church where about thirty percent of the people sitting in the pews are
black, that is the sort of church that Fox-watching white Christians would
avoid.
The Bible story that encourages me is the story of Elijah, who opposed the
rule of King Ahab and the wicked Queen Jezebel, who had turned Israel
away from the worship of Yahweh to the foreign god Baal.

Sacrifice of Elijah, Pablo Pernicharo, painted 1743

REPEAT:
Elijah proposed this contest to the prophets of Baal:
“I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number
four hundred fifty. Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull
for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to
it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it.
Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the
Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.”

Sacrifice of Elijah, Pablo Pernicharo, painted 1743
Elijah proclaimed, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s
prophets number four hundred fifty. Let two bulls be given to us; let them
choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put
no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to
it. Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord;
the god who answers by fire is indeed God.” 1 Kings 18

Note that in this story no other prophets and none of the
temple priests joined Elijah at the altar. We know that
from morning to mid-day the 450 prophets of Baal in
vain prayed to their god Baal to consume their offering,
and when they gave up, Elijah poured water on his
offering and called on Yahweh, and immediately fire
from heaven consumed his offering. With superhuman
strength granted by Yahweh, Elijah then slew all 450 of
the prophets of Baal.

The foreign Queen Jezebel was not impressed, the
Scriptures exhort us, “Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had
done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the
sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying,
‘So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not
make your life like the life of one of them by this time
tomorrow.’ Elijah was afraid; he got up and fled for his
life,” he flees to hide in a cave, where he is comforted and
fed by an angel, then a raven.
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are
you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very
zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites
have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars,
and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left,
and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”
Saying by the Rabbi Hillel:
“If you are in a place where there are no men, be a man!”
Elijah Fed by the Raven, by Giovanni
Girolamo Savoldo, painted 1510

And this painting captures the loneliness that Elijah no doubt is feeling, hiding in a cave fearing for
his life against the relentlessly evil Queen Jezebel.
Yahweh then appears to Elijah, but the voice of Yahweh was not in the great wind or breaking
rocks or earthquake or fire that thundered outside his cave, but Yahweh was instead in the “sound
of sheer silence,” and Elijah was informed that he was not alone, there were seven thousand in
Israel who would bow their knees to Baal.
Now I am not comparing myself to Elijah, but we are living in bizarre times not unlike the times
when Reconstruction ended and the Jim Crow Redemptionist era began, so I also take comfort in
this saying by the Rabbi Hillel: “If you are in a place where there are no men, be a man!”
We are living in dysfunctional times, and right is right, and wrong is wrong, virtue is virtue, and evil
is corrupt, and if most of my white church friends are tolerating or condoning an evil path, then I
need to make new friends.
We challenge our white Christian friends to view our videos on the history of slavery, the Civil War,
abolition, the Reconstruction era, the Redemption and Jim Crow era, and civil rights history, to
discover whether these increase their Love of God and their love for their black neighbors.

We also have a series of videos on how Christians survived
under the various fascist regimes before, during, and after
World War II in Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Vichy
France, Franco’s Spain, and Nelson Mandela in South
Africa. These videos demonstrate that fascism develops
differently in these various countries, and that Nazism is an
extremist form of fascism.

The South African and American strain of fascism
manifests itself in the opposition to civil rights and support
for white supremacy. We also have a video on the history
of how white Christians reacted to the civil rights struggles
in America.

We recently released a pair of videos examining the academic and a
practical definition of Critical Race Theory, and also reviewing the
recently released book on The 1619 Project, and also Beloved. This is a
paraphrase of one comment posted about these videos:
“There is a paranoid conspiracy theory that an entire race has
organized and coordinated the systematic oppression of blacks. This
(black lives matter) race-based organization has completely taken over
all the public historical records to rewrite history for their own ends. Is
this more Nazi propaganda? Why, no, this is the propaganda arm of the
American Civil Rights Movement.”

This was my answer:
“If you are black, and your
grandparents or parents or their
acquaintances had their burnt black
bodies swinging from a noose hung
from a tree, then you would definitely
be paranoid about history repeating
itself.
And the story of Jim Crow is that a
large portion of the entire white race
‘has organized and coordinated the
systematic oppression of blacks.’”

“And it was the Daughters of the
Confederacy who recast our ugly Civil
War racial history as the “Lost Cause.”
And this is not Nazi propaganda, but
on the contrary, the Nazi lawyers
used the Jim Crow legal system as
precedent when drafting the
Nuremburg Jewish Race Laws.
We need to educate those around us
about our own ugly racial history, just
like the Jews do not want us to forget
the history of the Holocaust, so these
gas chambers and lynchings and
horrors never, never happen again.”

SOURCES: Doris Kearns has written many Presidential biographies, she writes
history so vividly it is as if you were reliving it, and her biography of FDR and Eleanor
during the war years is the best of the best.
Our other videos have summaries of many other books we consulted.

And we have as our thumbnail the wonderful painting of the
Emancipation Proclamation by AA Lamb, with the rejoicing freed
slaves in the background at left, and the marching Union soldiers in
the background at right. The US Capitol building was a symbol during
the Civil War. The dome was under construction when Lincoln was
inaugurated, Lincoln insisted the construction continue during the
Civil War to project continuity and confidence in the Union cause.
Unfortunately, today’s Republican Party is not the Union Party, and is
not the party of Lincoln.

.”
Emancipation Proclamation, AA Lamb, painted 1864

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quotes in this blog, please type in
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my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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