Whoever heard that a gift of the Lord was evil?  Take the recent New York billionaire who used his wealth to abuse children and seduce young ladies.  Was his gift of wealth evil?  Does God lead us into temptation?

Temptation is part of life, but God’s gifts are not evil.  What we do with them can be evil.  I suspect the billionaire’s wealth was gained by taking advantage of others, either illegally or unfairly.  There was no concern for others—cheat, steal, oppress.  Do this and the oyster is yours.

There is a decided bias against wealth in the New Testament.  The New York Trader explains that by his life history.

I come from the same heritage as the Swiss Guard. Fidelity should be inbred in me from the days when Switzerland was one of the poorest nations in Europe; the young men of that Alpine nation hired out their skill with weapons and their loyalty. I am no longer for hire, but my wife knows I am loyal.

It is part of Western Civilization now. A young woman who worked in the Peace Corps in Senegal observed how in that nation, women who were married to one man sold their sexual favors for a few cents in order to have money for shopping. Senegal definitely does not have a Judeo-Christian tradition, and a man in that Muslim country can have several wives.

We are not that good at keeping up our own tradition, but we try. We work at it, and in the end, the Word is still there.

“If you’re not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart; if you’re not a conservative at forty, you have no brain.” Winston Churchill. The husband of Joan O’Shaughnessy sent me that one, and it sums up some of the other people I know. Life has its challenges, right?

Conservatives must be able to see beyond a man’s background, otherwise Trump would be intolerable. But he’s got the heart of America, America which can ignore some faults. Hey, I’ve prospered, right?

Yea, Sir Winston, I’m past forty, and like my brothers, conservative, at least mostly, and that mostly means I still have room for the heart. Yes, send me your wretched from your teeming Salvadoran shores, and I’ll try to make room for at least one more.

I heard Sharpton accuse Trump of racism.  The old racism card.  I listen to Trump, but I heard no racism.  Child-like reaction to being attacked, but no racism.  AOC and Ilhan are not black (Ilhan is decidedly more Muslim than black) and in my book, being told to go back where you came from is not racism, it’s just plain insult.  Sharpton needs to learn rationality, not fake news. Trump needs to learn courtesy.

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