The Axis of Evil and Trump's Alabama
The title of this blog is from a sermon I heard by the grand Fleming Rutledge in one of the wealthier Episcopalian congregations in Birmingham during the Bush 41 administration. It was published in a collection by Will Willimon in the Best of the Duke Chapel as she also preached it there.
She says in France as Hitler infiltrated the country neighbor turned on neighbor and many switched sides weekly, much like DeKalb County Alabama after the Battle of Chicamauga during the Civil War where Rebecca Brindley Clayton lost a Great Grandfather and three of his brothers and the Home Guard came into play at the expense of a distant relative among others up on Lookout Mountain. See previous blog.
So we are in a similar moment in Alabama now in Trump era buttressed by Scott Beason of FBC Gardendale, Alabama and Rick Burgess on the radio.
FBC Gardendale's recent pastor was Steve Gaines who just stepped down as the President of the Southern Baptist Conventions after two raucous annual gatherings. Some say there is a Sea Change with this NC preacher JD Grear. When people at FBC Gardendale and FBC Spartanburg SC stop voting in lockstep with Beason and Trey Gowdy, maybe I will believe them.
Marie Griffith of Chattanooga Tn gets it right, the political tsunami effect of the Fundamentalist takeover.
http://religionandpolitics.org/2018/07/10/southern-baptists-gender-hierarchy-and-the-road-to-trump/
But let's get local, not to provoke anybody unnecessarily, but Harpers Magazine says this is a serious moment in Bama. I think they are on to something as I saw it coming in 2006 when I got voted out of the local Baptist church, and before that.
In October 2012, the 9th to be exact, Long time Regional Judge David Rains was the guest of honor at a reception as his longtime bench was being challenged by a good natured fundamentalist, but a fundamentalist nevertheless Jo Nathan Bell. I talked to Judge Bell a couple weeks ago in a fast food restaurant and before I knew it was in a snake pit of Baptist preachers who called me a liberal and said I didn't believe the Bible. Regrettable incident but I told them they didn't understand it, that the politics of their view of abortion was chocked full of Mendacity--not a Christian virtue whether you read the KJV or whatever-- and my sister taught a better Sunday School class than their wives did, a more literate and informed "Christian " world view than their experience and reading equipped them for, not to mention Rick Burgess.
Cause when their Sunday School lesson has them voting for Trump who called a Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry a son of a bitch, and they utter Roll Tide every other breath, something is arry; not to mention they didn't understand their new Republican School Supe Jason Barnett very well.
Well back to the meet and greet for Rains 6 years ago. Official hosts where advertised as former School Supe Sammy Clanton and his wife, Democratic power Broker in NE Bama John Baker and Wife, The Myers brothers Jackie and Donnie and their Wives, Jeff Chandler and wife Claire and Jeff Patton and wife Terah. Also Clyde Killian and wife Sandra (parents in law of a fundamentalist Baptist preacher in Nearby Cedar Bluff who shares a birthday with me and near Kin to Mary Katherine Reed, chair of the UB ama home ec department in the 60s, a HS Classmate of my Mother, Reed whose Mother was a Killian) and Johnny Mack Edwards and wife. JMack a credit to the community who taught History for a long time at the high school as the legend goes states rights the primary cause of the Civil War.
Also present were Donzella Bobo longtime chair of the Plainview HS Home Ec Dept in Rainsville, Alabama whose product Jeremy Pruett is now head coach of the U Tenn Vols; Donzella a force in the local Baptist church and her husband J. R.; and Teresa Solomon Bowen and husband, he like Jeff Chandler also on the City Council.
And a fellow name David Ryan, long time deacon and former City Council member whose name was brought to the attention of Sojourner's magazine editor at a packed house at Furman University the winter of 2006 after a three alarm drill in Downtown Collinsville.
Jeff Bailey says it was three alarms. I was just trying to make it to the water board.
And in this group supporting a Democrat just six years ago in a county that went 80 percent Trump in 16, Judge Rains now on the board of the Alabama Humanities Foundation well something is in flux for sure. Also in that group was another City Councilman married to the Coker Sisters the other brother in law who ran for School Supe. The Coker Sisters are part of the wealthiest Methodist and influential families in town in a family owned Nursing home that hires a lot of Hispanics.
So point being you can imagine how it had a lot in common with what Abraham Lincoln was trying to figure out in Illinois in 1856
Lincoln facing party realignment in 1854. Each group asserted itself as the core of a new political coalition. Some prohibitionists were nativists, some nativists were antislavery, and many abolitionists were prohibitionists. Some Whigs were all or none of the above, just as some Democrats. German immigrants, the largest growing swing group in Illinois, were overwhelmingly anti slavery and diassfected with the Democrats, but feared the nativists and hated the prohibitionists. Even as old partisan lines dissolved, old partisan rancor heightened. Old Dems mistrusted old Whigs while third party Free Soilers still mistrusted men from both of the regular parties, Within the Abolitionist ranks, the Free Dems acted as an internal body hostile to pro Nebraska Dems but also to anti slavery Whigs. Anti-Douglas Dems despised Pro- Douglas Democrats while still loathing Whigs. Necessity would seem to have brought all those opposed to Douglas together, but the talk of fusion made them warily circle each other with mutual suspicion.
That Quote from Sidney Blumenthal second in his quartet on Lincoln, Wrestling with his Angels. Great Reading. We may talk about Douglas and Manifest Destiny and the Illinois Central this fall but right now lets focus on NE Bama political dispositions.
The kicker was in that election these 8 couples and Ryan had a strong inclination to stay status quo with an honorable democrat. These school teachers and politicians in a town of 1700--recent HS graduating classes have averaged in low 70s--were okay with a bluedog democrat. But the local preacher's fourth son who shoulda known better given his brothers were Duke and UVA grads was an operative for Jonathan Bell and that year's wonder pol state Senate Candidate Phil Williams, an ordained Baptist minister himself--big on abortion light on immigration justice in a sliced and diced gerrymandered state district--and the fourth preacher's son helped unseat the clear choice of his Daddy's congregation where my Momma was baptized in 1936.
And at the time Jason Barnett was still toward the tail end of his 16 years as a teacher and assistant principal at Collinsville school. Two years ago he was elected as a Republican to be School Supe for Dekalb County Schools. He is on record saying giving his 16 years experience in Collinsville, he is open to a conversation that would give the kind of undocumented Hispanics he has come to know citizenship upon graduation from HS after six years discipline and scholarship in the school system in communities where they have been well vetted!
So about five miles east of us now Mallory Kagan is vying to unseat 6 term or more US Congressman Mike Rogers who wants to get us out of the United Nations. And Bear Bryant's standout Danny Ford first cousin Craig Ford is running to be my next state Senator.
Most know Danny became head coach of Clemson and won it all in 81 with Gaffney's Tim Childers, nephew of Libby Mitchell, Furman grad and former LT gov of Maine. I think she may read this now that her name is in it. Steven Wash Too!!!!!
So read the Harper's Piece on Bama . Read Jon Meacham who was raised on Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga about fifty miles NW of here. Read Meacham's Soul of America and Lets stay in touch now through the midterms. I'm just getting started long as I'm welcome at Don Chico's on Thursday nights
She says in France as Hitler infiltrated the country neighbor turned on neighbor and many switched sides weekly, much like DeKalb County Alabama after the Battle of Chicamauga during the Civil War where Rebecca Brindley Clayton lost a Great Grandfather and three of his brothers and the Home Guard came into play at the expense of a distant relative among others up on Lookout Mountain. See previous blog.
So we are in a similar moment in Alabama now in Trump era buttressed by Scott Beason of FBC Gardendale, Alabama and Rick Burgess on the radio.
FBC Gardendale's recent pastor was Steve Gaines who just stepped down as the President of the Southern Baptist Conventions after two raucous annual gatherings. Some say there is a Sea Change with this NC preacher JD Grear. When people at FBC Gardendale and FBC Spartanburg SC stop voting in lockstep with Beason and Trey Gowdy, maybe I will believe them.
Marie Griffith of Chattanooga Tn gets it right, the political tsunami effect of the Fundamentalist takeover.
http://religionandpolitics.org/2018/07/10/southern-baptists-gender-hierarchy-and-the-road-to-trump/
But let's get local, not to provoke anybody unnecessarily, but Harpers Magazine says this is a serious moment in Bama. I think they are on to something as I saw it coming in 2006 when I got voted out of the local Baptist church, and before that.
In October 2012, the 9th to be exact, Long time Regional Judge David Rains was the guest of honor at a reception as his longtime bench was being challenged by a good natured fundamentalist, but a fundamentalist nevertheless Jo Nathan Bell. I talked to Judge Bell a couple weeks ago in a fast food restaurant and before I knew it was in a snake pit of Baptist preachers who called me a liberal and said I didn't believe the Bible. Regrettable incident but I told them they didn't understand it, that the politics of their view of abortion was chocked full of Mendacity--not a Christian virtue whether you read the KJV or whatever-- and my sister taught a better Sunday School class than their wives did, a more literate and informed "Christian " world view than their experience and reading equipped them for, not to mention Rick Burgess.
Cause when their Sunday School lesson has them voting for Trump who called a Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry a son of a bitch, and they utter Roll Tide every other breath, something is arry; not to mention they didn't understand their new Republican School Supe Jason Barnett very well.
Well back to the meet and greet for Rains 6 years ago. Official hosts where advertised as former School Supe Sammy Clanton and his wife, Democratic power Broker in NE Bama John Baker and Wife, The Myers brothers Jackie and Donnie and their Wives, Jeff Chandler and wife Claire and Jeff Patton and wife Terah. Also Clyde Killian and wife Sandra (parents in law of a fundamentalist Baptist preacher in Nearby Cedar Bluff who shares a birthday with me and near Kin to Mary Katherine Reed, chair of the UB ama home ec department in the 60s, a HS Classmate of my Mother, Reed whose Mother was a Killian) and Johnny Mack Edwards and wife. JMack a credit to the community who taught History for a long time at the high school as the legend goes states rights the primary cause of the Civil War.
Also present were Donzella Bobo longtime chair of the Plainview HS Home Ec Dept in Rainsville, Alabama whose product Jeremy Pruett is now head coach of the U Tenn Vols; Donzella a force in the local Baptist church and her husband J. R.; and Teresa Solomon Bowen and husband, he like Jeff Chandler also on the City Council.
And a fellow name David Ryan, long time deacon and former City Council member whose name was brought to the attention of Sojourner's magazine editor at a packed house at Furman University the winter of 2006 after a three alarm drill in Downtown Collinsville.
Jeff Bailey says it was three alarms. I was just trying to make it to the water board.
And in this group supporting a Democrat just six years ago in a county that went 80 percent Trump in 16, Judge Rains now on the board of the Alabama Humanities Foundation well something is in flux for sure. Also in that group was another City Councilman married to the Coker Sisters the other brother in law who ran for School Supe. The Coker Sisters are part of the wealthiest Methodist and influential families in town in a family owned Nursing home that hires a lot of Hispanics.
So point being you can imagine how it had a lot in common with what Abraham Lincoln was trying to figure out in Illinois in 1856
Lincoln facing party realignment in 1854. Each group asserted itself as the core of a new political coalition. Some prohibitionists were nativists, some nativists were antislavery, and many abolitionists were prohibitionists. Some Whigs were all or none of the above, just as some Democrats. German immigrants, the largest growing swing group in Illinois, were overwhelmingly anti slavery and diassfected with the Democrats, but feared the nativists and hated the prohibitionists. Even as old partisan lines dissolved, old partisan rancor heightened. Old Dems mistrusted old Whigs while third party Free Soilers still mistrusted men from both of the regular parties, Within the Abolitionist ranks, the Free Dems acted as an internal body hostile to pro Nebraska Dems but also to anti slavery Whigs. Anti-Douglas Dems despised Pro- Douglas Democrats while still loathing Whigs. Necessity would seem to have brought all those opposed to Douglas together, but the talk of fusion made them warily circle each other with mutual suspicion.
That Quote from Sidney Blumenthal second in his quartet on Lincoln, Wrestling with his Angels. Great Reading. We may talk about Douglas and Manifest Destiny and the Illinois Central this fall but right now lets focus on NE Bama political dispositions.
The kicker was in that election these 8 couples and Ryan had a strong inclination to stay status quo with an honorable democrat. These school teachers and politicians in a town of 1700--recent HS graduating classes have averaged in low 70s--were okay with a bluedog democrat. But the local preacher's fourth son who shoulda known better given his brothers were Duke and UVA grads was an operative for Jonathan Bell and that year's wonder pol state Senate Candidate Phil Williams, an ordained Baptist minister himself--big on abortion light on immigration justice in a sliced and diced gerrymandered state district--and the fourth preacher's son helped unseat the clear choice of his Daddy's congregation where my Momma was baptized in 1936.
And at the time Jason Barnett was still toward the tail end of his 16 years as a teacher and assistant principal at Collinsville school. Two years ago he was elected as a Republican to be School Supe for Dekalb County Schools. He is on record saying giving his 16 years experience in Collinsville, he is open to a conversation that would give the kind of undocumented Hispanics he has come to know citizenship upon graduation from HS after six years discipline and scholarship in the school system in communities where they have been well vetted!
So about five miles east of us now Mallory Kagan is vying to unseat 6 term or more US Congressman Mike Rogers who wants to get us out of the United Nations. And Bear Bryant's standout Danny Ford first cousin Craig Ford is running to be my next state Senator.
Most know Danny became head coach of Clemson and won it all in 81 with Gaffney's Tim Childers, nephew of Libby Mitchell, Furman grad and former LT gov of Maine. I think she may read this now that her name is in it. Steven Wash Too!!!!!
So read the Harper's Piece on Bama . Read Jon Meacham who was raised on Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga about fifty miles NW of here. Read Meacham's Soul of America and Lets stay in touch now through the midterms. I'm just getting started long as I'm welcome at Don Chico's on Thursday nights
posted by foxofbama | 2:16 PM
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