Well, it’s come down to this, Brock Osweiler started for the Denver Broncos against the Philadelphia Eagles… How about them Avs?! …Or them Rockies, or them Rapids, or – what’s the name of Denver’s Lacrosse team? Anyway, how about them?! Enough about sports already, right? I know that I have likely agitated, baffled, challenged, frustrated, harassed, irritated, mistreated (at least in your minds), obfuscated, pontificated, ubiquitoustated (I made that word up by adding ‘tated’ to it because I really wanted to have a ‘U’ word in my list) enough by venturing into sports when this is a political blog but… Oh, wait; let’s use the word ululated instead of “ubiquitoustated”. “Ululate” is a real word and four of the seven letters in it are also in my first name. Yeah, that’s a great reason to use that one!
Once again I must say, with all of the chaos and the way that things are in government now as a result of Mr. Trump’s rationale and well thought-out policies (kind of like the first paragraph in this article), for those who follow politics closely, it is important to find something to laugh about; whether it is just to keep from crying or to help us to maintain our sanity. Sorry teams whose names that I used to pursue that laughter…but not to you Brock; this apology does not apply to you! After all, you deserted us! …To go to Houston…and wound up in Cleveland… and only came back to us because…; well, I’m not sure why you came back to us. But the apology does not apply to you. I contemplated revisiting and perhaps revising the preceding sentence in the event that you won today so that it would also apply to you but…
The first paragraph of this article is not meant in any way to state or imply that I will never again delve into sports in this blog. But it was meant to gin up a short respite and laugh for me (and hopefully for you too). Maybe I was a little bit harsh toward Brock by not including him in my apology. But maybe he was a little bit harsh to us Broncos fans when he left the way that he did. So if some of you are upset with me, you might consider giving me a break. Anyway, the fact of the matter is that I am not going to talk any further about sports in this article. But I am going to talk about that young preacher again that I spoke about in my article entitled “Stay Focused Democratic, Republican, And Independent Voters” and posted to this site on October 10, 2017. I am going to talk about him because his latest message entitled “Yom Kippur”, while perhaps not purposely intended to contain political implications, had a political strand that ran throughout the entire sermon although the message was about the responsibilities of today’s church.
This sermon contained political implications because such implications were inevitable since this young pastor said that the church is responsible to speak out loud and clear and advocate for those who are in bondage with respect to equal justice for all. These political implications were unavoidable because unequal justice for some has long been winked at and accepted all the way from the lowest levels of the US government to its highest levels. And since the election of Mr. Trump, a glaring bright light has become focused on this problem because it has been dragged onto the public stage at the highest level of government and is quickly making its way to center stage. Some might argue that it is already there. Having said that, let’s visit our current helter-skelter world of politics.
It is my opinion that there has never before been anyone like Mr. Trump who has occupied the Oval Office. Sure, we have had bad presidents before but Mr. Trump has broken the mold. But this article is not intended to focus on Mr. Trump. Instead, it is intended to focus on our justice system and the unequal justice that has been dispensed by it for years. The fact that Mr. Trump is the catalyst that has instigated the keen focus of the aforementioned glaring bright light is about the best thing that I can say about his tenure so far. Although the reasons, which includes the scandal that he and the head of the Department of Justice is engulfed in, for this keen focus are unfortunate, it provides at least a spark of hope that our congressmen and other elected officials around the country will finally sincerely work to fix this problem.
The young pastor that I mentioned earlier in this article seems to be focused in like a laser beam on the responsibilities of his church; and he appears to be determined to carry forward a message that he believes in and to provide those in need with more than just lip service. His sincerity and candor has me convinced that he has no intention to be in any way political or to carry forward a political message for anyone or any party. However, I am just as convinced that he fully intends to carry forward the message that he has been given even if it does infringe on what some might consider to be political territory. And he intends to encourage his flock to understand, focus in on and – to the greatest degree possible – provide any required services (not just lip service) associated with that message, and carry that message forward as well. This young pastor is fiery and extremely self-confident! That is one among a number of reasons why I believe that he has a strong chance to succeed.
I would say “good luck” to that young pastor but I have no doubt that he would immediately challenge those words because I have no doubt that he believes that he has much more going for him than that. So I will just continue to observe and see where his efforts will take him. I said that I would not talk further about sports and I have not talked about it, right? But I have spent quite a lot of time talking about “this young pastor.” Some readers may believe that I have once again strayed from politics. They may believe that I have strayed into the church side of the realm of church and state, which has always been kept separate from politics. Well, I’m not sure that I have ever believed that church has really been kept completely separated from politics where “church and state” is concerned. But I certainly do not believe that to be the case now that we are living in the Trump era.
Many of the things that America and the world are expected to deal with now likely dance around the edges of, enter into the grey areas of, and perhaps even – at times- fully enter into the church territory of church and state. Surely, if the church is to do its job, there are bound to be times it will – at the least- blur the line of church and state; kind of like, to my thinking, this young pastor has, even if unintentionally. Be that as it may – if we and the rest of the world are to remain civil societies, it is extremely important that “state” does its job and it is just as important that “church” does its job. Although I believe that church and state must remain separated because it could create unspeakable problems if they did not, I fully expect that the line between the two will oftentimes be blurred and even crossed.
Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line