When I was a child of seven, my father lost his job as an advertising salesman and auctioneer for a large livestock-oriented magazine. So instead of working cattle auctions over the eastern half of the country, he decided to move his pregnant wife and family of five kids from town to his father’s run-down 160-acre farm about ten miles east of Marion, Indiana, and one mile from Oak Chapel Evangelical United Brethren Church where I was saved many times at revival meetings, required due to my constant backsliding. Things like swearing (only under my breath), wanting to watch The Beverly Hillbillies more than attend Wednesday night prayer meeting, and obsessively thinking about girls even though I was too shy to talk to them. Guilty as charged on each count.
Just so you know, there were many kind and good people at the Oak Chapel EUB. I hold them in high regard, but I have changed my thinking about the whole heaven/hades’ paradigm, and I am very comfortable with my choice of the Beverly Hillbillies, among many other such numerous sins. There is one question, however, from my kind and gentle Sunday School teacher that seems never to leave my consciousness. I am no biblical scholar, but it goes something like this: What if you gain the whole world, but lose your soul? Loosely translated: Try to do the right thing.
We had livestock on this financially disastrous agrarian experiment. Beef, hogs, sheep, chickens, and ponies just for fun. We butchered our own (not the ponies). It was normal to see headless chickens hanging upside down on the clothesline, waiting patiently to be doused in a boiling cauldron for defeathering while their unsuspecting siblings pecked the ground beneath them. Fresh sides of beef hung in the barn as I mostly watched dad and whatever neighbor came to help flash their knives.
I remember smells, the most wonderful in my life being the smell of mom’s yeast rolls coming from the oven just as we got off the school bus. But, on the other side, dad insisted to everyone’s horror on mom serving all parts of our butchered animals. We had chicken gizzards and livers, mutton, beef tongue, brains, beef heart, and the worst smelling dish of all time – liver and onions. Its odiferous preparation permeated the home and cast a fetid pall worthy of Poe’s House of Usher on all inhabitants. My stomach recoiled in dyspeptic response with reverse peristaltic contractions of my alimentary canal. In other words, I wanted to throw up.
Please forgive me for the circuitous path I have taken to get to the point of this essay. I think about this often, but I want to be careful in relaying my thoughts. When I hear or read of people professing to be Christian who suggest or outright claim that the demagogue who was POTUS 45 and who aspires to be POTUS 47 is a vessel of Christ, anointed to save a wayward world, or to prepare us for the apocalypse, I have the same response as I do in the face of liver and onions for dinner. I don’t know that I can explain it any more clearly than I did in the previous paragraph. It sickens me.
I am fully aware that three out of every four voters in Wells County, a place that has been good to me and my family, voted for him in 2020. However, I am genuinely concerned with my legacy as I have now turned 73 years of age. With the alleged Yogi Berra quote in mind, “Predictions are hard, especially about the future.”, I believe DT will lose the election in 2024 and that history will toss him and his supporters into the proverbial dust bin of history, there to be studied for their callous infamy. Of course, I may be wrong. I was wrong in 2016. My prediction is aspirational for sure.
I apologize if I have offended you, the reader, but I do not apologize for the harshness of my words. When my grandchildren ask, “Where did grandpa stand? What did grandpa say about DT in his time?” they will know I did not kiss the ring and I was not swayed by this serial liar for the sake of political expediency. That will be my legacy. That is what I want.
I will not list for you the perverse and various sins of this man who will soon take his place in the pantheon of menacing demagogues the world has known. These sins are well documented for the objective observers of history.
In my youth I was often warned about hanging out with bad people. They will define you; I was told. With this in mind, I would suggest that not all DT supporters are white nationalists. However, all white nationalist hate groups (Ku Klux Klan, Oathkeepers, Proud Boys, Three Percenters, etc.) are full-throated supporters of DT. That fact should make our Christian blood run cold. History will remind us of those who were ensnared by this cult of personality. I choose not to be among them. I think it is important to speak up.
Here’s the thing: Having read Liz Cheney’s book, “Oath and Honor,” I would highly recommend it to you. In the end, I agree with: General Kelly, General Mattis, General Milley, General McMaster, General McCaffrey, Admiral Stavridis, John Bolton, Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense, Mike Esper, Nikki Haley, Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, Mike Pence… and countless others who say he is incompetent, dangerous and a threat to our democracy. He has lost his soul.
ken.ballinger@yahoo.com
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Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of articles and opinions written by a group of retired and current teachers — LaNae Abnet, Ken Ballinger, Billy Kreigh, Kathy Schwartz, and Anna Spalding. Their intent is to spur discussions at the dinner table and elsewhere. You may also voice your thoughts and reactions via The News-Banner’s letters to editor.
