"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Pandering Squared

OK. This one stopped me cold:

An imprint for HarperCollins will publish The Faith of Donald J. Trump: A Spiritual Biography in 2018.

The book will “[draw] on unparalleled access to the White House to explore the rarely discussed, but deeply important, religious beliefs and worldview of Trump and his advisors,” the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) announced. The CBN’s Chief Political Correspondent David Brody will co-author the book with conservative columnist Scott Lamb.

The announcement follows two solid weeks of Donald Trump’s pandering to the evangelical community amidst increasing scrutiny of his administration’s ties to Russia, beginning with his decision to cost taxpayers at least $400,000 to headline the Celebrate Freedom Concert in Washington D.C. with anti-gay pastor Robert Jeffress.

If that's not enough for you, this is what CBN had to say:

“President Trump won over evangelicals not by pandering to them,” CBN wrote in their book announcement, ignoring that he’d pandered to their community since the campaign trail, “but by supporting them and all their most important issues without pretending to be something he’s not.”

The network continued by claiming that “President Trump has surrounded himself with believers who think he is the one guiding figure who can return us to traditional values—hard work, discipline, duty, respect, and faith—that have long been the foundation of American life and truly make America great again in all ways.”

The cynicism on both sides of this is off the scale.

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