Donald Trump has gone out of his way to castigate the Chinese commercial presence in the United States. His latest condemnation of China’s business initiatives took place at the Detroit Economic Club.
He talked about China building car manufacturing plants in Mexico and how he would imposed tariffs as high as 1000 percent to prevent those cars from entering the American market. The hypocritical irony of his words is that, at the same time, he is selling the Word of God, the Bible, that he had manufactured and imported from China, for $59.99.
One of the major interests the former President has indulged in, whether in business or politics, is finding as many ways as possible to make money. This includes selling $3 Bibles to his followers for 20 times as much.
He apparently also has found institutional buyers such as the educational system of Oklahoma that is mandating such narrow requirements for Bible purchase that only the Trump edition will do. This grifting activity is tapping into the majority support he is receiving from faith groups.
Trump’s backing from the large faith groups is 51 percent to Harris 41 percent. It is the Evangelicals however, that are overwhelmingly in with the former President at 78 percent support to 15 percent for Harris.
The curious political relationship between Trump and Evangelicals seems to come from seeing women somewhat as he does. We know former President’s history of using, abusing and devaluing his gender opposites.
It appears that somehow Donald Trump’s pejorative view of women resonates with the group. The 2005 foundation document of the Gospel Coalition, a network of Evangelical and reform churches states in a kinder yet as damaging that, “In God’s wise purpose, men and women are not interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in maritally enriching ways. God orders that that they assume distinctive roles which reflects the loving relationship between Christ and the Church, the husband exercising headship in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to her husband in a way that models the love of the Church for her lord.”
This is consistent with a philosophy called complementarianism shared by denominations of several different religions that hold “that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family, and religious life… Within a Judaeo-Christian marital relationship, complementarianism prescribes headship and servant leading roles to the man, and support roles to women, being based upon the interpretation of certain biblical passages.”
Not withstanding the fancy language describing a complementary relationship, the outcome of the expressed belief system makes the woman a distant second to her male counterpart. Donald Trump exploits and diminishes women in a gross manner while the Christian right finds convenient ways to make her subservient.
The philosophic gender relationship has created a political scenario where men support Trump 52 percent to Harris 40 percent and women support Harris 58 percent to Trump 37 percent. So, in addition to a majority-minority divide we also have a gender divide of greater impact and seriousness.
The Masculine and Feminine Principles are powerful forces that cut across racial and ethnic lines. Majority-minority relationships are dwarfed by the gender issue in the greater scheme of things.
In the cosmogonic round, the circle that describes the evolution of male-female interaction is a thousand times greater than civilization and cultural cycles. Also, something that is not generally recognized is that, of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, only the Holy Spirit remained with us. And that is a woman.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of laVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to news@lavozcolorado.com.
