Opinion: ministers, politics and Trump

How can I express my opinion without starting a feud? Words matter, and they should be written and read carefully. I'm sorry Richard Debick did not understand my words in responding to Dave Carroll's Mountain Musings, so I will clarify here. Of course Mr. Carroll has a right to his opinions. I never said he did not, and I never said mine were more important than his. You missed the point, sir, and I have dozens of emails, notes, phone calls and folks grabbing me at the market to thank me for what I wrote. My point was that as a Christian minister, he does not have a right to spread his political opinions across the local newspaper. People look up to pastors and sometimes believe them outright without checking the facts; therefore, a man of God has more of a responsibility to withhold his opinions when they might affect trusting and perhaps gullible souls or stir up division among the flock. Here's an example: in one of Dave's columns he writes, "Well the world was roughly 4,000 years old when Jesus was born." I think God might be shaking his head at that opinion not based on fact. Dinosaurs were here 65,000,000 years ago, Horseshoe crabs 300 million years ago, and so on to the earth's beginning about 4.6 billion years ago! What a spectacular origin of everything God laid out for us and then gave humans the minds to measure it all and find evidence for his phenomenal creation! And why is holding Dave's "young earth" opinion so necessary or valuable anyway? If the earth is billions of years old, how does that prevent someone from embracing Jesus as one's personal savior? Why put that little false snippet about the age of the earth in his "musings" at all? My point is that a pastor should be held to more accurate journalism in a public newspaper.

Now, Mr. Debick, about your opinion that I lost my elections because voters didn't like my opinions. The first time, I lost to the Republican incumbent who was committing campaign fraud but was allowed to serve his term with a slap on the wrist! Nice. The second time, I lost to a younger, snappier woman than I, but she and I did share many of the same opinions (as voiced in a public debate). And for the record, I was a Republican most of my life and voted for Republicans until I moved to Montana and became aware of so many citizens whose rights were being violated. The problem with Trump is that he is not really a Republican. He thwarts Conservative principles and demeanor every waking moment, not to mention morals. Yes, there have been Presidents with momentary "glitches," but Trump seems bent on destroying all the past achievements of honorable Republicans and Democrats whose dream was to create a "kinder, gentler nation" and who sought to unite rather than divide our citizens and our institutions. And this is not just my opinion. All you have to do is turn the television on and see for yourself.

You say you don't care about these impediments because Trump "tells it like it is." It seems to me and many others that he tells it like it is for him, whether it is true or not. I accept that he doesn't always know what is true and just says whatever comes into his head and spins it around several ways later. Can you tell me what is admirable about a President who doesn't read or listen to advisors who do read and have years of experience in government, the military, and business that he will never possess? Can you defend Trump's firings or frequent resignations of advisors and cabinet members that he promised would be "the best minds" in the country? If you don't like my opinion that Trump is damaging our democracy, our allies, and the common man, just ask soybean farmers who have lost 80% of their sales to China. Just ask people living downstream from industries and mines who have to drink toxic water or breathe toxic air because of the loosening of EPA standards. Just ask the victims of drugs that have entered this country by boat and plane and tunnel, while Trump wants 5 billion dollars for a border WALL, ignoring the facts of the situation.

I could go on from now 'til next Christmas, but wait: I do APPLAUD THE PRESIDENT for signing the prison reform bill. I APPLAUD him for meeting with Kim Jong Un, even though the North Korean leader continues to ramp up his nuclear arsenal. I APPLAUD him for bringing Korean War soldiers' remains home. I, even to this day, think the man has potential. But he forgets that he works for all of us, not just his "base," and I can never forgive him for saying "the press is the enemy of the people" (first said by Benito Mussolini!).

But you are right, Richard. One has to be careful with one's opinions and probably even with one's facts. As a teacher, I should be cautious about letting politics or religion into my class discussions or lessons unless as examples of story-writing, metaphors, or the history of language. If all of us were more circumspect about the words we use to express our opinions and facts, our exchanges filled with more respect, maybe we could solve more problems than we create and validate each other's personal truths. Thank you for giving me a hearing.

Elizabeth Cain, Author

http://www.elizabethcainauthor.com; https://www.amazon.com/author/elizabethcain