God's gift to America

Governments want the legitimacy offered by Heaven. Religions like the protection of government. One hand washes the other.

But there is no state religion in the USA. It was a practical necessity from the beginning. There were Quakers in Pennsylvania; Roman Catholics in Maryland; Anglicans in South Carolina; Dutch Reformed in New York City. Moreover, the Puritan Calvinists in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island all disagreed with each other.

Church attendance has been in decline in the USA. The Heritage Foundation reports a sharp increase in people who never attend church, and a decline down to 22 percent of people who attend weekly.

Trends sometimes create counter-trends. We are seeing one. Pew reports:

Christian Nationalism is a Trump/Fox associated phenomenon. Nonpartisan pollster PRRI reports that 56 percent of Republicans qualify as Christian Nationalists. Only 25 percent of political independents and 17 percent of Democrats identify as such. There is a close association with media choices. PRRI reports that two-thirds of Americans who trust far-right news qualify as Christian Nationalists. Fifty-five percent of those who most trust Fox News say they are Christian Nationalists.

President Trump is marking his territory as leader of this countertrend. He is voicing a muscular warrior ethic. He made an audacious Easter post:

Some commentary describes this as an incautious act of frustration. I see craftsmanship. He is expressing Christian triumph, and his supporters value that. Jesus' turn-the-other-cheek piety is for losers. Trump represents pre-Christian values. He represents the tribe under siege by secularism. 

In the Iliad, Achilles and Hector fought to win glory. Trump seeks glory. Trump ends his post with a taunt -- poor, helpless Allah. There is a warning in the Iliad, if Trump is open to learning from it. After killing Hector, Achilles dragged his body around behind a chariot in front of Greek and Trojan soldiers. The gods were disgusted with Achilles, even the ones who favored the Greeks. Misfortune followed. Best not anger the gods.

The Iran war is a solidifying event for Christian Nationalism. We are allied with Israel against a Muslim country. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is establishing that the old values are for losers.

Speech, March 9, 2026: 

America regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history. . . . No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars.

Public prayer, March 25, 2026:  

Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.

Pope Leo offers a different version of Christianity. He said that God does not hear and answer prayers like this. 

Newsweek reported a meeting at the Pentagon between Trump officials and a papal envoy in January where the administration urged the Vatican to get on board Trump's foreign policy goals and methods. The meeting allegedly included a reference to the Avignon Papacy. Hey, Pope Leo, don't cross Trump. 

JD Vance is in Hungary to support Viktor Orban, an advocate of Christian Nationalism ideology and "democratic illiberalism," where Christianity is the cornerstone of national identity. Trump posted his unequivocal support for Orban.

Trump gets the majority vote of people who identify as Christian. Trump represents a borderland between rendering unto God and unto Caesar. It is common to see religious symbols on the iconography associated with Trump. He represents something that a significant number of American Christians seem to want: a fighting spokesperson for the faith, even if not of the faith. 

The long-term trend is toward cosmopolitan secularism. Christian Nationalism is backlash to that trend. Democrats are associated with the trend. Trump is riding and amplifying backlash to it.

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We have already lost the war with Iran.

Win the battle, lose the war.

Iran is better off than before.

The USA is worse off than before.

Trump's political situation deteriorated.

The purported goal of this war was to eliminate Iran's ability to threaten Israel and the world. Trump is under political pressure from Bibi Netanyahu and foreign policy hawks within the U.S. who assert that nothing but the elimination of Iran is sufficient. Iran could not be treated like North Korea, Russia, or China as rivals-with-militaries. Trump's orientation and brand identity is to oppose anything with the stamp of Barack Obama, including his Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Netanyahu's anti-Iran animus fit Trump's needs perfectly. The GOP became the yes-whatever-Israel-wants party. Democrats became the somewhat-Israel party. The battle lines were drawn. Against advice of caution within his administration, Trump followed Israel into this war.

Iran is stronger because of it.

--  Prior to the war, the U.S. had enforceable sanctions on Iran. As a result of the war, we have lifted the sanctions.

--  Prior to the war, Iran sold oil to the world at a price in the $60s per barrel. Now they sell oil at a far higher price -- and so does Russia.

--  Prior to the war, the world consensus position was that Iran must not get nuclear weapons. The ceasefire agreement gives Iran permission to enrich uranium.

--  Prior to the war, the Strait of Hormuz, in both law and practice, was an international waterway. It was uncertain whether Iran could block it. Now Iran has enforceable control of the strait, with the ability to block passage by disfavored countries and to charge a toll to ships that pass. Iran acquired a powerful weapon. 

--  Prior to the war, Iran was a very minor power. Now it shows its military is capable of defending Iran's ruling regime and can impose its will on faraway countries by shutting down the world's oil supply.

 --  Prior to the war, the U.S. was thought to be able to withstand an enemy's counterpunch. Now it is understood that the U.S. is so fragile that even a 25 percent rise in gasoline prices creates an untenable situation for its leader. America has a glass jaw.

--  Prior to the war, the U.S. was understood to have alliances and support from NATO countries. Now the world understands that the U.S. squandered that support.

--  Prior to the war Trump's led a nearly-unanimous GOP/MAGA coalition.  Now Trump is experiencing public opposition from some in that coalitipion. Usually reliable senators like Ron Johnson (R-WI) are speaking out. 

-- Prior to the war, the there was a lingering notion in the political zeitgeist that Israel's interests and U.S. interests were parallel. It was voiced aggressively by the GOP. It was done with reservations by President Joe Biden, for which he got a mixture of support and opposition. That notion has deteriorated in both parties. The antisemitic/anti-Israel undercurrent within the GOP is getting traction among mainstream voices.

Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted and heckled Senator Ron Wyden's (D-OR) town hall in Medford last week. Wyden criticized Netanyahu and assured the audience that he had just introduced legislation that was strongly opposed by AIPAC, the pro-Israel advocacy organization. 

--  Prior to the war the United States was strengthening its relationships with Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf oil states, which created a potential basis for a balance-of-power Muslim coalition to contain Iran. The relationship was premised on the U.S.'s ability to provide security to those countries. Now we see that Iran can and will bomb Gulf states' oil infrastructure, residential buildings, tourist hotels, and airlines, and the U.S. cannot protect them. Having a U.S. military base does not mean safety; it means added peril.

Democrats should not presume that Trump's GOP political base understands the war to have been lost. Trump has visuals of explosions, and Fox News is relentless in presenting this as a military success. It is indeed a military success. 

But military success is not victory. It may take a while for the country to realize this, but this reality will emerge. In the meantime, this is a political loser for Trump. Americans don't like long, expensive, losing wars.

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Whew.

So apparently all Hell did not rain down on Iran last night.

Hegseth: "Iran suffered a devastating military defeat."

It is déjà vu for me. Another "body count" victory, like the one in Vietnam. We killed more of the Vietcong than they killed of us, as if that meant we were on the path to victory. 

(Let me explain "body count" to young readers: In the 1968-1970 era the U.S. attempted to measure our progress in the Vietnam War by reporting the number of Vietnamese soldiers we killed compared the the smaller number of U.S. soldiers killed. Body counts were reported on the nightly news, perhaps 500 Vietnamese killed, only 50 of us, typically a ten-to-one ratio. Any Asian body counted as an enemy soldier.

 

The macabre information was presented as interim success toward ultimate victory. In 1970 junior officers began complaining that the numbers were inflated and that measuring bodycounts distorted our military operations toward a goal without military or strategic purpose. Eventually the top generals stopped announcing bodycounts; the public didn't like them and it wasn't leading to victory. The irony is that we didn't achieve our strategic aims until we lost the war and left. 

At a personal level, sitting safely in my dorm room, reading history and writing papers and thankful for a student deferment from the draft, I thought that the idea that my purpose as a soldier was to be traded as a pawn for 10 Vietnamese pawns, was a very, very bad deal.)

Iran was getting pummelled, but it isn't helpless. It had quickly set up a triage-and-toll system for the Strait of Hormuz. Its friends got through; others did not. The system enriched and empowered Iran, rewarded Russia and China and other countries allied with Iran, and punished the U.S., Middle East, and European countries that supported us. Meanwhile Russia, China, and North Korea were tightening bonds with Iran, supplying Iran with intelligence and weapons. Ukraine was being disadvantaged. The countries of the Middle East were discovering that the U.S. could not protect them. Our long-established allies were being hurt by the oil price disruption and pulling away from the U.S., angry that we had let Israel push us into a war of choice. I had to pay $6.50 a gallon for diesel for my tractor, and gasoline prices in California were above $7.50.

Moreover, as a requirement of getting a ship past the Strait, Iran insisted that oil shipments be settled in a currency other than the U.S. dollar, which is speeding up the erosion of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. The fact that the world needs to hold U.S. Treasuries to buy and sell oil is what allows us to carry a huge budget deficit at a lower-than-market interest rate. 

So much winning.

A viewer of Fox News will hear repeatedly that worthy war aims have been achieved and that Trump is a courageous, visionary hero who achieved a total and complete victory. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters our credible threats worked:

President Trump had the power to cripple Iran's entire economy in minutes. But he chose mercy. He spared those targets because Iran accepted the ceasefire under overwhelming pressure.

Possibly my Vietnam bodycount analogy is misplaced. Maybe Iran is different, and the tool we are willing to use -- destroying things from the air -- will turn Iran into an oil-rich Switzerland, with no hostile intent to anyone, or failing that, into a whimpering loser of a country, unable to hurt others. Or perhaps, more likely, it creates the basis for a durable new status quo, a deal.

Netanyahu wants the extinction of Iran as a threat. Trump wants something else. He wants personal glory, admiration as a peacemaker, distraction from the Epstein mess, and plunder. Why go to war if there isn't plunder?

Iran has a powerful card to play: passage through the Strait secure enough that ships can get insurance to make the passage. Trump wants free oil, and maybe a share of the income from passage. A $200 million supertanker carries $200 million in oil on each trip. Surely such a ship can bear a $4 million toll, just two percent of the cargo's value, and surely the U.S. deserves some of that.

Trump may prefer a deal with a distressed partner and desperate ship owners to crowing over having created more rubble. Something might work out.

But the early news isn't promising.



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Baby, its cold outside.

Day off.

Today's post isn't about politics, Trump, Iran, Israel, ICE, or how a Democrat could possibly win a congressional election in a bright-red district.

Today's post is about frosts in my vineyard on an April morning.

The buds on my Pinot Noir and Malbec grapes began swelling about a week ago. On Friday, April 3, the temperature at the vineyard got down to 29.6 degrees. It might have been even lower if the fans I had installed last year had not come on automatically at 4 a.m. when the sensors on the fans registered 35 degrees. The fans stir up the air to mix the cold air that slides down off the Table Rocks, making its way to the lowest spot, which is my vineyard near the Rogue River.

The fans are illuminated by the spotlight at the fan's base. They look dramatic. They are loud. It is like being outside at an airport on a dark morning, surrounded by airplanes warming their propellers.

Most of the plants look like this, a four-year-old-plant, pruned and tied to cane wire 31 inches off the ground. The white stuff on the ground is exactly what it looks like: frost, at 7:07 a.m.  That black line about a foot off the ground is the irrigation drip line, currently drained and disabled. I will turn it on in a month or so.

The frost is visible on the main stem of the vine:

My farm has a frost problem because its location is a low spot where the very coldest air sinks. My melons are killed by frost, but they don't get planted until about May 10, when frosts are unlikely, so I was able to do well with melons. But two of the three grape varieties I planted present a problem. Pinot Noirs and Malbecs bud early in frost season. The problem is exacerbated by the warm weather. Wait!  Warm weather? What is it: cold or hot? The answer is both. On Saturday, the day after the frost, the high temperature in the shade was 91.7 degrees and it got to that temperature again yesterday. The early heat is accelerating the season, pushing tender buds into danger amid the big diurnal swings in temperature of early April.

 I have a fancy electronic termometer that reports and records the temperature:

Each fan uses about 15 gallons of propane per hour. Propane costs about $2.80 a gallon. On Friday the two fans each ran for five hours. Total cost: about $400. 

The early morning frosts create an eerie beauty. There is the roar of the fans combined with the dawn sunlight trying to break through the morning fog. It looks like this at 7:09 a.m.:

There are a lot of steps between this frosty morning and the wine to be made from grapes from this field. The wine would have an unusual backstory. The grapes are grown on 100-percent pumice soil, a rare terroir found here and in vineyards on the side of Mt. Vesuvius in Italy and the Aegean Sea island of Santorini. The pumice blew here from the explosion of Mt. Mazama about 7,500 years ago, when Crater Lake was formed.

But the real backstory is in my history with this land, so I enjoy a morning like this by turning my mind off the noise of the political world. I experience the eerie cold morning, the frost, the roar of the fans, and the sun trying to emerge. I get a strong sense of the present and past at once.

Dad, about 1970

My father and I grew Christmas trees and melons on this land 70 years ago, and his father and grandfather farmed it the 60 years before that, going back to 1883. This summer my sister's grandson will work with me to earn money for college at Oregon State, doing the hard work that is getting harder for me to do. That's six generations. 

At 9 a.m. the sun broke through the clouds, it warmed up, and the fans shut down. Events were playing out as they should. The buds and the emerging light-green leaves seemed to have made it through the night.

It would be a shame not to savor this.

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Collective punishment: Iran's citizens deserve to die.

President Trump proudly announced a war crime:

"Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day." 

Americans in the Democratic anti-Trump coalition of people who watch MSNOW and read The Atlantic and Heather Cox Richardson and attend town meetings for Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden feel disapproval, but not surprise at Trump's post. 

That's him, not us. God knows we didn't vote for him. 

But we Americans did. We pledge allegiance to the flag, one nation indivisible, and we pay our taxes. We are citizens. We have immeasurably more influence on American leadership and policy than do citizens in Iran whose electricity may be shut off. 

For seven decades of the post-WWII world American has had a preferred weapon of choice: air attacks on military and civilian targets. We had boots on the ground in Vietnam, but that was a lesson in what not to do. The preference is to bomb countries until they crawl to the negotiating table. We made hostages of their citizens. They weren't bystanders or collateral damage. We treated them as combatants who sympathize with, enable, or at the very least tolerate their government.

The notion that Palestinians living in Gaza tolerated Hamas is the justification for mass destruction of civilian targets. They had to know about the tunnels and maybe helped build them. 

Hospital in Gaza

Residence in Lebanon

University in Iran

Israel, and by extension the U.S., accepted that idea of collective guilt. The U.S. tolerates and enables Israel's bombing of Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

Accountability goes in both directions. Israeli citizens who were enjoying a quiet evening on October 7, 2023 weren't innocent civilians, not under that rule of collective guilt. They tolerated the brutalization of people in the West Bank. They voted for Benjamin Netanyahu or the far-right policies in his coalition, or at the very least they paid taxes and acted as citizens in a country carrying out Netanyahu's policies. 

There is a lot of hypocritical argumentation regarding responsibility and collective guilt. People who consider the Israelis killed on October 7, 2023 to have been innocent  and the raid to be an outrage accept the necessity of bombing and civilians.  

Tomorrow, at 8 p.m. EDT, unless Trump changes his mind, he will initiate the bombing of civilian infrastructure in Iran. This isn't Israel doing it. It is the USA. This probably will cause tens of thousands of Iranians to die, perhaps invisibly to Americans, one at a time as hospital ventilators turn off and food spoils and water doesn't get pumped or it gets contaminated, but just as dead as if they had been covered in rubble or lined up in front of firing squads. 

The U.S. has signed treaties that declare targeting electrical generation stations to be forbidden, a war crime, a moral wrong.

Do we care? Isn't it just one more thing we have gotten accustomed to and tolerate, like bombing boats in waters off Venezuela? Or ignoring the War Powers Act? Or letting Trump ignore Congress on tariffs and program cuts? Or letting ICE ignore the 4th Amendment requirement that it have a judicial warrants? Some Americans sympathize with Trump; others enable him, All of us are tolerating him. Trump is still in office, our leader, and we are citizens.

Americans elected a Senate that approved Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. We have watched him fire top military people who showed signs of independent resistance to illegal warfighting. We didn't revolt, impeach, or call a general strike, and we still say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Americans cannot have it both ways. If civilians in Vietnam, Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran can be killed because we oppose the policies of their leaders, then we need to look in the mirror and accept the reality that President Trump is not acting alone. Do not be outraged or surprised when terror attacks happen here or Americans are held hostage. Don't presume we are free of moral guilt. Trump isn't committing a war crime. Americans are.

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Easter message

     "For over 2,000 years the story of Jesus’ resurrection has been recognized as the central event in human history."
          John Coster 

Once again, on this Easter weekend I am letting someone else speak for me.

I see that the Christian religion I learned in my childhood has been warped and stolen by people who have replaced it with something far easier to sell than "love your neighbor." The golden calf won.

"They worshiped the golden calf." Scene from Cecil B. DeMille "The Ten Commandments."

We are descendents of a succession of winners in the competition for survival. Jesus, the supposed central figure in Christianity, preached against the survival instincts of human nature. Radical generosity? Love enemies? Help people who cannot reciprocate? That's a strategy for losers. The American mood chooses to be proud winners, and we are moving toward a state-approved version of Christianity that validates this spirit of triumph. We're number one. Plows into swords. Impoverish your neighbor. Hate your enemy. Dog eat dog.

I am too disappointed and cynical to write an Easter message, so I asked John Coster to do one. He studied theology at Regent College while continuing his career managing multimillion-dollar development projects for high-volume users of electricity. He recently retired. Coster is an unusual combination. He operated at the highest levels in the Seattle technology world while also doing hands-on missionary work in Africa and Asia and, most recently, among the homeless population on the sidewalks of Seattle.

Coster

Guest Post by John Coster

Much is being written about Christian Holy Week and what it all means (or doesn’t). Here is how and why I embrace Easter.   

Religion is often rightly blamed for some of the most horrific acts in human history. But what exactly is “religion”? If you look up the etymology of “religion” you will find almost as much controversy in the details of its meaning as you will about differences in religions themselves. I’ll use the definition that religion is any belief system that provides its adherents (creedal or not)  with a sense of identity, purpose, meaning, and moral reasoning – what is good and fair and just. But most importantly, religion is wherever humans place their ultimate hope or confidence. Some secular examples of “religion” are the U.S. Constitution, financial markets, political systems like democracy, technology (seriously), or even agreed-upon principles of decency. They are where many people have found identity (e.g., MAGA, LGBTQ+ etc…) and in which they have placed their hope and sense of worth. Wars of aggression in the name of religion are rarely theologically based regardless of the claims.   

Back to Easter. For over 2,000 years, in every culture that has embraced it, the story of Jesus’ resurrection has been recognized as the central event in human history, offering ultimate hope in an otherwise despairing world. It’s why Christianity is growing so quickly in the Global South; they have so few other avenues of hope. St. Paul the Apostle wrote that if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then our faith is in vain and we (Jesus followers) are to be most pitied.

My parents were old-school fundamentalist Christians who discouraged all the cultural Easter festivities because they believed it trivialized the single-most sacred event of their faith -- one that that made eternal life with God possible. I used to be a little embarrassed by their hard lined stances on things like that, but I have come to appreciate what they held as sacred.

My wife and I went to a Good Friday service at our church that revisited the Passion story in music, scripture reading, sacraments and prayer. Sunday will be a celebration. Next week I’ll go to a friend’s Greek Orthodox Church to celebrate their Pascha. I’ve celebrated communion with Christians in different cultures in dozens of countries and I’m always delighted to see how different cultures express the same story in powerful ways.

It ain’t about bunnies and chocolate eggs.  

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An Easter weekend reflection on human dignity

"When they stop seeing others as human beings and reduce them to pieces in a geopolitical game, they lose the moral compass required to prevent future conflicts."

          Cardinal Blase Cupich

I will let college classmate Larry DiCara speak for me during this Easter weekend. Larry grew up in the working-class Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. He was a standout at Boston Latin School, then at Harvard. At age 22 he became the youngest person ever elected to the Boston City Council, which then led to a long career as a lawyer helping shape the extraordinary turnaround of Boston over the past five decades. He is the author of Turmoil and Transition in Boston: A Political Memoir from the Busing Era.

Larry Dicara, with his three daughters

Guest Post by Larry DiCara

Dred Scott and Cardinal Cupich Human dignity has been a frequent topic of discussion throughout our 250 year history. In 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the Dred Scott Decision. While Taney was drafting his decision, U.S. Senator Charles Sumner was arguing that the rights of the people emanated not only from the Constitution but also from the Declaration of Independence which preceded it.    Andrew Jackson appointed Taney. Supreme Court appointments were quite routine in those days. With the exception of the Brandeis nomination early in the 20th Century, no major battles ensued until Nixon nominated Clement Carswell and Harold Haynsworth as part of his obeisance to U. S. Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC).    The Dred Scott Decision said that Black Americans have been “regarded as beings of an inferior order, all together unfit to associate with the white race…and so inferior, that they have no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” Most religious leaders remained silent.    More than 150 years later, we are in a similar place in American history. Service members and families who have lost loved ones say the Trump team’s memes and jokes trivialize combat and sacrifice. Many of our religious leaders have remained silent. Others have not. The Pope made a very strong statement on Palm Sunday stating that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: Your hands are full of blood.’” Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago wrote in The Washington Post:  When people treat war as entertainment, they surrender their humanity. When they allow their consciences to be dulled by the allure of easy profit, they step away from what God desires for his children. When they stop seeing others as human beings and reduce them to pieces in a geopolitical game, they lose the moral compass required to prevent future conflicts.  In 2026, we are dealing with questions of human rights, and we need to hear the voices of other religious leaders! Thousands of children, the majority of whom are of Latin heritage, are in ICE custody. They live in subhuman conditions. They do not go to school. They live in a large cage and are treated the same way Roger Taney wanted Black people to be treated.    Congressman Andy Ogles (R-Tenn) recently called for all Muslims to be denaturalized and deported: “Muslims don’t belong in American society…pluralism is a lie….” Ogles posted on X. To me this sounds mighty familiar to the thinking of Hitler and his lackeys who called for Germany to be “Judenrein” - free of Jews. Jeff Jacoby, writing in The Boston Globe, reminded us that “demonizing religious minorities is a tradition as old as the Republic and politicians were exploiting it to win followers long before social media existed.” Our “call of duty” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth invited Doug Wilson, his pastor, to conduct a prayer service at the Defense Department. Wilson has stated plainly that in his vision of a Christian nation, anything Protestants consider “public displays of idolatry” would be prohibited. Catholic parades and processions fall squarely within that definition. Are we going backwards as a country? Hegseth, in addition to treating war like a video game, now also facilitates attacks on organized religion. Our national leaders have created two lists: one of the accepted and one of the rejected. Are his policies why so many no longer feel invited to serve our country, as confirmed by essays quoting retired generals? Does he want our military to be all tall white “Christian” men with good hair?    Do some of our religious leaders only selectively read scripture? Do they not understand the very clear messages in the Bible and other sacred texts as to the dignity of human beings and each person’s being identified as a child of God? I recall the words of Pope Francis, who always reminded us that we are all brothers and sisters – “fratelli tutti.” Our national leaders have created two lists: one of the accepted and one of the rejected. Perhaps there was not enough political courage among religious leaders 150 years ago. Perhaps there is not enough political courage today, given that some of those who wave the Bible do not open it very often, preferring Project 2025 to Matthew: 25! [Note: To get daily delivery of this blog by email go to Https://petersage.substack.com. Subscribe. The blog is free and always will be.]