Is Donald Trump Evil?
Season 2, Episode 214, Dec 05, 2019, 08:08 PM
Is Donald Trump evil?
What In God’s Name has, to this point, steered clear of directly addressing questions that arise from the character and leadership of our president. Today, we bring the tools of moral theology, in order to enter into a deeper consideration of the meaning of this presidency.
Shayna begins with a consideration of the creative power of words; we pivot to corrupt uses of words, especially lying words that manipulate and confuse. Chris then connects M. Scott Peck’s book “People of the Lie” to the conversation, pointing out that Peck connects lying with evil. From that point, it’s a conversation that weighs moral culpability against what might rise to the level of moral evil.
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What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:42 Shayna riffs on the beginning of the Christian gospel of John. In what ways is language powerful, and why is the wise use of language humanizing?
03:55 What In God’s Name has, to this point in its year of existence, steered clear of a direct reflection on our current president. What do we gain by steering clear? What is the moral hazard of steering clear?
09:00 What are the common psycho-spiritual characteristics of the sociopath/amoral or evil person? How does lying contribute to these characteristics? What happens when a group of people in a society embraces and perpetuates the lies of a leader?
15:22 Do you need to kill 6 million people in order to be a truly evil leader?
18:00 How does the realist vision of what is involved in statecraft make moral judgments about leaders more complex? Or do they?
20:30 “As long as one believes that the evil man wears horns, one will never find an evil man.” Discuss.
24:41 To what extent is a leader morally responsible for evil deeds committed by others, but inspired by the leader’s words?