God's Test for America

Dateline, Vancouver, December 2016

I sent off an essay about Donald Trump to the New York Times right after the election, but they didn't post it. It was an interesting story, explaining the outcome of the election from a wildly different perspective as other essays. This story is way out there, but I'm reposting it below for your reading pleasure anyhow.


God's Test for America

People everywhere are trying to figure out how the election came out the way it did. But I wanted to dig a little deeper and look at it from a different perspective. The U.S. has been in a sad moral decay for quite a while. It has a blind obsession with money where everything is legitimate as long as it generates plenty of income. It's overrun with epidemics of gambling, drugs, pornography, and violence. Politicians wave their bibles while promoting policies that crush the poor because the corporate executives aren't rich enough. "We are bringing god back to America", they tell us.

God isn't happy with what he sees and delivers a simple morality test to America. He has Satan produce an agent who is completely devoid of morals. The agent's life has been a public testament of cheating, lies, adultery and greed, in direct violation of half of the ten commandments. He campaigns for president on a platform of pure lies and hatred without substance. His sad attempts at substance are simply more examples of greed and hatred.

All of this is in plain view of everyone and he makes no attempt hide these facts. He openly brags about his corruption as he proclaims his exceptional greed will make us all great. And the people love him for it. They love his message of hatred, and the agent's lies are gospel in their minds.

This is how Satan works. He doesn't sneak around in darkness, he operates in plain sight for all to see, where everyone can make a conscious decision to follow him. And they follow him with a bloodthirsty passion. Religious leaders sign on to his temptations. A governor declares that the agent should declare himself a dictator. A senator declares that the opposing candidate needs to be executed. He creates a complete ecosystem of hatred, an open pit where we can all bask in the euphoria of our shared hatred.

This agent was a test of our morality from god. And we failed the test. America chose the shockingly open temptation of lies, greed and hatred. And now we will all enjoy blind greed as official government policy.