Does the End Justify the Means?

I was in Mr. Don Chase's World Affairs class in 10th grade at Bloomington Jefferson High School in the '72-'73 school year. I was the quiet one, very seldom adding much to the discussion (like so many other classes of mine). Much of what we talked about held little interest for me at the time, but I do recall a question Mr. Chase posed to the class one day: Does the end justify the means? I can't recall the context for his question, if there was one, but it piqued my interest and it's a question that has stayed with me throughout my adult life—perhaps for a time such as now.

I've written in my blog numerous times about my disappointment with Christian conservatives and their cozying up to Trump in a most hypocritical way to advance their political agenda while undermining what I always felt was the main goal of evangelicals: to make disciples of men and advance God's kingdom. From a moral standpoint, it would seem that the end falls very short of justifying the means because if their true goal is to gain followers for Jesus, they have failed spectacularly. Yes, Christian fundamentalists now have their Supreme Court justices who they hope will yield to their Christian Nationalist desires, but it's going to come at a cost as more and more of us see the politicization of the church and abandon houses of worship, thereby losing even more of their flock. What have they gained?

Yesterday marked 3 years since insurrectionists assaulted our nation's Capitol in an attempt to thwart the will of the voters and keep Trump in office. It also marks the first time in our history that we didn't have a peaceful transfer of power. What's most shocking to many of us is how anyone can look at the events of that day and buy into the revisionist history lie being pedaled by Trump and conservative media that it was a peaceful event—"a beautiful day!" as described by Trump. What has caused these people to check out of reality and disregard the truth they saw with their eyes that day? I didn't realize until seeing this play out over the last few years how powerful propaganda can be to those not astute enough to see it. 

Political violence has now become commonplace in the U.S. as radicalized conservatives, hopped up on lies about a stolen election, show little restraint in making threats to those they see as standing in their way. And all the while their leader says not a word to try and reign them in. It's despicable. Oh, but he encouraged his insurrectionists to march peacefully to the Capitol on January 6th his supporters say. Yes, but that was before he instructed those in charge to remove the magnetometers used to detect weapons within the crowd because he was sure their weapons wouldn't be used against him and before he sat and watched for more than 3 hours as his insurrectionists assaulted the Capitol and threatened to hang his loyal VP Mike Pence—all the while watching gleefully as he replayed some of the more gruesome video footage over again and again as the violence played out. 

Is this the America you want, my conservative Trump-supporting friends? It appears to be because I have yet to hear even one of you admit that you were wrong to ever support such an evil, incompetent, and detestable man. Not one. 

I know how we got here: conservative media and the useful racist idiot they breathed life into. The much bigger question is how do we get out of this mess and get back to debating policy and coming together through compromise to move us forward the way our form of democracy was designed to function. 

Because this can't continue.

Recall how Republicans were fond of calling on Muslims to denounce the radical jihadists who attacked us on 9/11? When am I going to hear Christians stand up and voice their concern about what has become of a radicalized Republican Party?

If we want the end to our actions to justify our means, we would do well to realize that we're living in a society of people of varying beliefs and that we do best when we work together rather than pit ourselves against one another. It's really our only way forward if we want this grand experiment to continue because, in the end, that's really all it is. Nothing is guaranteed.

I'll close with this, a video of Trump's Truth Social ramblings a couple of nights ago. It's disturbing to think that this man has any sort of measurable following whatsoever to lead the country. Had Biden been saying this on a social media platform, I would denounce him without hesitation as someone unfit to lead the country or even a Taco Bell. 

Is this someone who inspires you?

That's all I've got.