The Rick Perry & #39;controversy& #39; sort of shows up the divide between actually religious Christians and our agnostic/atheist/skeptical media. It& #39;s a commonplace--an absolute commonplace--among believers that God often uses wicked or flawed people to achieve ends only known to Him.

This isn& #39;t just a Christian motif. It goes all way back to Daniel (remember the "writing on the wall?") and the overthrow of the Babylonians by the Persians. Far earlier than that, even. I totally understand that in this modern demystified age the concept seems alien to ppl.

Now, of course, the problem is that Trump-friendly-media orgs are going to spin this as "TRUMP IS BLESSED BY GOD."

No. No. In the Judeo-Christian tradition that is *NOT* the interpretation, though obviously the partisan temptation is there. It& #39;s just that God uses instruments.

The Old Testament is full (have you ever freakin& #39; read those prophetic books? It& #39;s full of this stuff!) of Jewish prophets pointing out that the civil wars, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, etc., are all working God& #39;s will, and there& #39;s a LONG lesson to be learned.

Well, you don& #39;t have to agree with this perspective, but what I& #39;m telling you is that there are millions of people out there who you don& #39;t interact with on Twitter (or maybe you do and they don& #39;t like to talk about it) who understand teleology this way.

Yeah, I& #39;m writing in my dead dog in Nov and pulling a Democratic ballot in the primary, so you don& #39;t need to warn me about & #39;worshiping Trump& #39;. But what I& #39;m saying is that Perry is speaking a language unfamiliar to the Twitterati but understood by millions. https://twitter.com/TeddyMcDougal/status/1198992501367066625">https://twitter.com/TeddyMcDo...