This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

There is something going on in this country called the “Re-Awaken America Tour.”

Don’t take the neutral, positive sounding term at face value.

What it is, according to the Washington Post, is a series of events around the country to rally folks to the side of Donald Trump, as he continues to pollute politics with his drivel.

Trouble is what is occurring is beyond scary.

Trump, to the applause of many, is mixing his version of polluted politics with his version of polluted Christianity. 

Not applause from me.  My disdain.

Here is the headline on the Post story:  “Right-wing roadshow promotes Christian nationalism before mid-terms.”

Trump and his ilk continue to play God.  He and his minions call people to support Trump as if he is a god and, to put a major point on it, even baptize people into their Trump status. 

Talk about perverting the Gospel, that’s it.

Here is the start of the Post story:

“MANHEIM, Pennsylvania. — At the end, after former president Donald Trump called in to energize the troops, more than 100 people lined up to be baptized.

“Some had driven hours for the two-day Re-Awaken America Tour in the leafy Pennsylvania countryside.  Some had paid up to $500 for VIP tickets. They were 5,000 strong, celebratory but angry about where the country is headed.  They said they believed the 2020 election was stolen, that vaccines kill people, and that America — both its moral and civic foundation — is headed for complete collapse.

“Now they were waiting to be baptized in a black plastic animal trough, leaving the water soaked and shivering — newly cleansed soldiers in their war for America.

“Since April of last year, the Re-Awaken America Tour has brought hardline-election deniers, anti-vaccine doctors, self-proclaimed prophets, and conspiracy theorists to enthusiastic crowds across the country.  The central message is that America’s white, evangelical Christian way of life is under threat from the globalist cabal on the ‘woke’ left.

“The traveling carnival of misinformation merges entertainment, politics and theology and makes the existential argument to those attending:  The debate is no longer about Republican vs. Democrat, they say, it’s about good vs. evil.  And it’s time to pick a side.

“In this world, as one adherent put it, elections are now ‘selections,’ fact-checkers are now ‘fake checkers,’ coronavirus is still the ‘China virus,’ and Trump is still the rightful president.”

Say what?

What Trump and his minions are propounding is not the real “gospel.”

It is in a word — perversion.

Baptism should be reserved for real Christianity as an outward show that a person has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior.  It’s not an entitlement with any bearing on politics.

So, what’s the real gospel?  This:

• God loves you.  He created you.  His love is boundless and unconditional.
• But sin separates you from God, so He made a way for you to become a child of God.  Accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation.
• Then, show your true character as a child of God by loving others, including those less fortunate than you, including immigrants, refugees, and persons who don’t share the color of your skin.

Just try to convey these truths to Trump and his minions.  They won’t listen as they try to build up “White America.”  But, so what.

They are wrong.  God is right.