In these hyperpartisan times, SC’s Trey Gowdy got it right on childless Americans

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In these hyperpartisan times, SC’s Trey Gowdy got it right on childless Americans

My despair about the faux outrage ************* Christians, near and far, expressed about the Olympics opening ceremony was ameliorated when I found a video clip of a ************* ********** speaking about ****** on Fox News, of all places.

It was a reminder that even during these hyperpartisan times, it’s still wise to listen to our opponents.

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Issac Bailey

That ************* ********** was former South Carolina prosecutor and legislator Trey Gowdy. He opened a segment of his show by

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and the complexity of humanity that must be respected no matter the politics. It was a lead-in to an interview with *********** vice presidential nominee JD Vance who has been heavily criticized for comments he made in 2021.

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Trey Gowdy

Vance

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: “We’re effectively run in this country … by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are ********** at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country **********, too. And it’s just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children, and how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

Gowdy didn’t do what I expected a ************* *********** to do. He didn’t condone those remarks or pretend they were taken out of context — because they weren’t. Instead, Gowdy gave an eloquent, even inspiring, two-minute monologue about what he had learned from a couple of ********* nuns in an airport. He reminded his audience that nuns don’t have children but are full of ******, just as there are numerous childless Americans who love this country and should not be mocked or discounted. You should

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while remembering that a top *********** figure from a red state spoke that way on Fox News.

It was a palate cleanser after hearing from

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about a 20-second scene in the nearly ffour hour show that kicked of the Olympics. Those ************* Christians wrongly assumed that the show’s creators were mocking ******. Had they done a little research, they would have quickly found that what turned into a fashion show was a

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. It wasn’t about Christianity. Everything isn’t about us. We don’t have to commit to the outrage posture before even knowing what’s going on.

The outrage was galling because much of it came from ************* Christians who passionately support

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. By any reasonable measure, Trump is one of the most immoral men in America. During the 2016 election cycle, ************* Christians with whom I shared a ******* at least admitted as such, though some claimed **** was using a flawed man to do good the way he has used flawed men in the ******.

Since then though, many ************* Christians have embraced Trump as a near-**** like figure who shouldn’t just be supported at the polls in November but essentially worshiped. That is despite the former president committing blasphemy by selling a “Trump ******” that intertwines secular-governmental power with Christianity itself.

Atlantic writer McKay Coppins has noted the same trend. He recently

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at dozens of Trump rallies, including one in Conway. S.C. during which the person praying called on **** this way: “Our enemies are trying to steal, ***** and ******** our America, so we need you to intervene.”

Bradley Onishi, a scholar and former evangelical minister, told Coppins that they aren’t praying “for Trump to do right; they pray that **** will do right by Trump.”

Political hypocrisy isn’t new. It’s standard fare for both parties. But for those of us who try to maintain some principled positions based in our ****** — as flawed as we are — mixing politics with Christianity is the kind of mockery of ****** we should worry about most.

I’m glad Gowdy showed us one way out of the morass. If only more of us followed his example.

Issac Bailey is a McClatchy Opinion writer in North and South Carolina.

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#hyperpartisan #times #SCs #Trey #Gowdy #childless #Americans

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