{"id":1639,"date":"2019-03-20T09:34:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T13:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=1639"},"modified":"2019-03-20T09:34:37","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T13:34:37","slug":"immorality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/","title":{"rendered":"Immorality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Immorality<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?  – Matthew 16:26 KJV<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a long conversation with a friend of mine, discussing the morality of the Trump Administration.\u00a0\u00a0I took what I thought was a \u201cpure\u201d view (who would have thought \u201cpure\u201d was in my vocabulary) that Donald Trump was an immoral man, creating an immoral time, and never had the moral standing to be President of the United States.\u00a0\u00a0My friend disagreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She started by giving Mr. Trump a \u201cpass\u201d on all personal immoral behavior prior to being President.\u00a0 Quoting scripture, Matthew 7:1, \u201cjudge not, that ye be not judged,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>she stated that judgment is between Mr. Trump and the Lord; and made the argument that we should evaluate the President only through his current acts, not by his past behavior.\u00a0\u00a0More than that, the personal morality of the President, even now, should not be an issue:\u00a0it is only the benefits he brings to the nation that we should examine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats aren\u2019t \u201cpure\u201d on this issue either.\u00a0\u00a0Bill Clinton was (and is) a man of questionable personal morality (the Epstein scandal might involve the former President as well.)\u00a0\u00a0He was impeached for having an affair with a twenty-one year old intern literally in the Oval Office, in our current #METOO era he makes Senator Al Franken\u2019s transgressions seem trivial.\u00a0\u00a0Yet many Democrats supported Clinton, taking the stand that his personal morality was not a political issue.\u00a0\u00a0 Democrats took several steps down a slippery slope that we are still struggling to climb today. (see an earlier essay on Trump World – Bill Clinton Should Have Resigned<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The argument about Trump\u2019s past immorality seemed insoluble, so we switched the conversation to his current actions.\u00a0\u00a0I brought two issues to the table that I thought were clearly immoral:\u00a0\u00a0the separation of children from their parents at the border, and the President\u2019s clear preference for world leaders who are brutal dictators.\u00a0\u00a0We argued back and forth about child separation.\u00a0\u00a0The issue was: were the migrants actions, crossing the border without permission and \u201crisking\u201d their children, \u201cimmoral\u201d acts that \u201ccancelled\u201d out the immorality of the government.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, did the government have a \u201cmoral duty\u201d to protect those children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, I didn\u2019t buy that argument.  Many of the migrant parents are faced with an awful choice; stay where they are and risk the lives of their children from the gangs and crime, or take almost equal risks to travel to the United States and try to find a safer life.   I failed to see how this could be a choice in morality; it must ultimately be moral to protect your child.  But the actions of the government, essentially kidnapping children from the parents they hold in custody, removing them far away and permanently separating some; this can be nothing but immoral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as far as the President\u2019s \u201cfriends\u201d from Mohammad bin Salman, to Kim Jong Un, to Vladimir Putin:\u00a0all have jailed, tortured and murdered to maintain their power.\u00a0\u00a0Mr. Trump has demonstrated an affinity for them, in my view a disturbing admiration for their ability to control their citizenry.\u00a0\u00a0He has abandoned a \u201cmoral\u201d view of American foreign policy, instead making deals with dictators to the detriment of their own people.\u00a0\u00a0My friend\u2019s argument, that the President\u2019s friendships are to the benefit of the United States and therefore are good for us, is reminiscent of Henry Kissinger\u2019s Real Politik theory of foreign diplomacy.\u00a0\u00a0It views diplomacy as a \u201czero sum\u201d game, with the United States either winning or losing. Trump, Kissinger, and my friend, would argue that it is an amoral stand, but that benefits to America are clearly moral. We have to be winning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I asked a final question: if we find that Mr. Trump is in fact compromised by the Russians, either financially or otherwise, and that he cooperated with them to get elected, can we finally determine he is unacceptable? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend refused to answer the hypothetical.  She demanded to \u201cwait for the facts\u201d before drawing any conclusion.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My concern:  in our current climate, where \u201ctruth\u201d is as malleable as a Facebook post; will we ever be able to find a consensus on \u201cthe facts.\u201d I worry that we will be left with cries of  \u201cfake news\u201d that leave us divided, not in a moral quandary, but in a struggle of conflicting views of the truth that cannot be resolved.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the revelation of audio tapes definitively showing his guilt, Richard Nixon resigned from office. 29% of Americans believed he should remain in office.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In our current age of moral convenience and differing facts where 69% of Christian Evangelicals still support the President, how many Americans would choose not to believe \u201cthe facts,\u201d regardless of what they concluded?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immorality For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?  – Matthew 16:26 KJV I had a long conversation with a friend of mine, discussing the morality of the Trump Administration.\u00a0\u00a0I took what I thought was … Continue reading “Immorality”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nImmorality : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Immorality : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Immorality For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?  – Matthew 16:26 KJV I had a long conversation with a friend of mine, discussing the morality of the Trump Administration.\u00a0\u00a0I took what I thought was … Continue reading "Immorality"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-20T13:34:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-03-20T13:34:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marty Dahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@martydahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@martydahlman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marty Dahlman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/20\\\/immorality\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/20\\\/immorality\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marty Dahlman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"headline\":\"Immorality\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-20T13:34:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-20T13:34:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/20\\\/immorality\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":842,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/20\\\/immorality\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/20\\\/immorality\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/20\\\/immorality\\\/\",\"name\":\"Immorality : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-20T13:34:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-20T13:34:37+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/20\\\/immorality\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/20\\\/immorality\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/20\\\/immorality\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Immorality\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/\",\"name\":\"Trump World - Essays on Politics and the Trump Administration\",\"description\":\"Essays on Politics and Life in Our America\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dahlman.online\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c\",\"name\":\"Marty Dahlman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/dahlman.online\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/dahlman.online\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/dahlman.online\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\",\"width\":480,\"height\":640,\"caption\":\"Marty Dahlman\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/dahlman.online\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1\"},\"description\":\"I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dahlman.online\",\"https:\\\/\\\/m.facebook.com\\\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/martydahlman\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Immorality : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Immorality : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life","og_description":"Immorality For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?  – Matthew 16:26 KJV I had a long conversation with a friend of mine, discussing the morality of the Trump Administration.\u00a0\u00a0I took what I thought was … Continue reading \"Immorality\"","og_url":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/","og_site_name":"Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life","article_publisher":"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/","article_author":"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/","article_published_time":"2019-03-20T13:34:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-03-20T13:34:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Marty Dahlman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@martydahlman","twitter_site":"@martydahlman","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Marty Dahlman","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/"},"author":{"name":"Marty Dahlman","@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/#\/schema\/person\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c"},"headline":"Immorality","datePublished":"2019-03-20T13:34:32+00:00","dateModified":"2019-03-20T13:34:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/"},"wordCount":842,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/#\/schema\/person\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/","url":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/","name":"Immorality : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-03-20T13:34:32+00:00","dateModified":"2019-03-20T13:34:37+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/immorality\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Immorality"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/","name":"Trump World - Essays on Politics and the Trump Administration","description":"Essays on Politics and Life in Our America","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/#\/schema\/person\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/#\/schema\/person\/5fa8c1b0305cf5f1f3633225843e621c","name":"Marty Dahlman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1","width":480,"height":640,"caption":"Marty Dahlman"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dahlman.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_3564-e1488996194684.jpg?fit=480%2C640&ssl=1"},"description":"I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.dahlman.online","https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/Dahlmanonline-610417212502642\/","https:\/\/x.com\/martydahlman"]}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}