This article was emailed to me today. I think it makes a lot of sense.

Trump's neo-Puritan theology of us and them
By Mark Silk | November 6, 2017 (Religion News Service)

The Puritans who colonized Massachusetts possessed a Calvinist theology of "us and them." We were the saved whose society would be godly. They were those God had predestined to damnation.

It wasn't easy for the Puritans to keep their communities pure, but Lord knows they tried.

Dissenters like Ann Hutchinson and Roger Williams were run off to Rhode Island. Catholic priests were banned. And when a few Quakers showed up, they were hanged or whipped from town to town out of the colony.

Four centuries later, a neo-Puritan theology of "us and them" is how Donald Trump proposes to make America great again.

Hostility to those beyond the Judeo-Christian pale - Muslims - was central to his presidential campaign, and has motivated his successive travel bans. His signature campaign issue was a wall to keep out illegal immigrants, and he has ratcheted up efforts to expel those who are already here.

So when a Muslim immigrant drives a truck through a crowd in lower Manhattan, the president calls the man a degenerate animal, entertains the idea of shipping him to Guantanamo, tells prosecutors to seek the death penalty, and casts blame on weak immigration laws.

But when a white Air Force veteran shoots up a church in Texas with an assault rifle, there's no talk from the president of animals or demands for the death penalty or, God forbid, the need for stricter gun laws.

"This isn't a guns situation," Trump said at a news conference in Tokyo. "This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It's a very, very sad event."

When their children and grandchildren manifested less commitment to the religious program than their forebears, the Massachusetts Puritans devised a 'half-way covenant' to keep them in the fold. So too does our neo-Puritan president find a way to maintain the illusion of "us and them" against the evidence of our eyes.

And of course, Trump says it isn't an appropriate time to talk about gun control. I think there's no doubt the Texas killer had mental health problems. There's not much we could have done about those problems, but I believe his actions would have been far less tragic if he had not been able to buy an assault rifle.

-Joe-