When All Else Fails, Bring Up Jesus

This is the Bible belt, I remind myself. When all else fails, bring up Jesus.

There's a good deal of debate on social media about Donald Trump's tax escapades. A friend posts that he did nothing but take advantage of the existing system, exactly as she herself has done, but that he does plan to overhaul the law to make it fair for everyone.

I ask her - nicely, once I get my gag reflex under control - what would be his motivation.

She tells me that any good CPA knows how to game the system, that everyone would like to pay less in taxes, and that she is pleased to know that Trump agrees with her that the entire tax structure should be made over.

I don't dispute this but feel compelled to say that she didn't answer my question. Again, I say, what would be his motivation.

Because it's the right thing to do, she finally says, It's what she'd do in his place.

I rack my memory but for the life of me can't come up with a single instance of Trump doing the right thing because it's the right thing. The man has the morals of an alley cat in heat and all the polish of pond scum.

So, I say, you think that the right thing trumps (as it were) self-interest?

She assures me she does than wanders off into a tangent about being a good tax paying Christian. Fairness, she tells me, is a Christian value.

I suggest that religion is irrelevant to the conversation.

She offers to pray for me.

Please don't trouble yourself, I reply.

I hate to bring up Jesus, she says, but He's the only path away from self-interest.

I would hope I can have christian values and beliefs without being a Christian, I say.  I don't expect her to get the distinction and I'm not disappointed.

You can't have a rational conversation with anyone who thinks Trump will do anything at all that goes against his self-interest or that Jesus belongs in the White House. I'm a small C christian at best. I unfollow her and move along.