I’m Not Better Than You and You…

by Errington C. Thompson, MD –

A lot of Christian nationals are trying to push their version of Christianity onto everyone else.

They are the same Christians who want the 10 Commandments in every classroom. I have no idea why they have not tried to pass a law requiring the posting of the 10 Commandments in every church. It would seem to me that, as a Christian, that is where you would want to start.

I have always wondered why these Christians haven’t spoken about the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are in the New Testament. Moreover, they are words attributed to Jesus. The 10 Commandments are from the Old Testament. They are the laws that God gave to Moses. The 10 Commandments do not really ask you to change yourself. They are, for lack of a better word, commandments.

The Beatitudes, on the other hand, really ask us to examine who we are and change how we approach our everyday life. The Beatitudes can be found in both Matthew and Luke. They are:

• “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
• “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
• “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
• “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”
• “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
• “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
• “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
• “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Nowhere did Jesus say, “Blessed are the rich, so let’s give them tax breaks.” As a matter of fact, Jesus said the very opposite: to take care of the poor.

We shouldn’t take healthcare away from Americans, as we did with the Big Budget Busting Bill that Congress just passed. We should be working to take care of one another, even immigrants. This is what Jesus has asked us to do.

Oh, there is a social media post going around of some pastor telling an interviewer that women should NOT have the power to vote. Our Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, doubled down on the post. This is what we have been warning America about. These Christian Nationalists have extreme beliefs. This guy is not some outlier of the Christian Right. He is the mainstream.

So what does the Bible tell us? Many of these Nationalists will point to 1 Timothy: “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.”

Remember that 1 Timothy was written by someone who was pretending to be the Apostle Paul. What Paul actually thought about women can be found in Corinthians. He talks about women praying and prophesying in church. But I would go further and point out that if women are supposed to be second-class citizens, then why did Jesus reveal himself to Mary Magdalene? Why did Jesus tell her to go and tell the disciples that he had risen? To me, this only makes sense if Mary is a disciple of Jesus, just like Paul and the others.

We must remember that the Bible is a wonderful book, but it does not speak with one voice. “An eye for an eye” does not sound like a Christ-like message. It is not. Jesus preached love and forgiveness, not retribution. So there are contradictions in the Bible.

As readers of the Bible and followers of Christ, we have to focus our moral compass. What do we believe? Personally, I believe in equality. I believe that all men (and women) were created equal. I think that the teachings of Christ support this stance. We also live in a secular world. Women have fought tooth and nail for hundreds of years for equality. Let’s say this together with one voice: all men and women are created equal and should be treated equally under the law.

Hulk Hogan

In the mid-1980s, wrestler Hulk Hogan made a name for himself. He became the face of the World Wrestling Federation as he tore off his shirt. He wore a bright yellow and red outfit. His muscles seem to have their own muscles. His act was to be over the top. You could never be too outrageous. You could never go too far.

Hulk Hogan died recently. Now, I am not here to trash his legacy. I am here to set the record straight. We should take a look at who he really was.

Hogan was a racist. He used the N-word repeatedly in a secret recording. Sure, he apologized and gave excuses for his language—as do most people who get caught revealing who they really are—but we need to understand that you don’t use the N-word just because you have had a bad day. If you are calling a Black man the N-word, racism is in your DNA.

Hogan used—or abused—steroids to get and maintain his massive physique. He admitted to this in a court of law, under oath.

Hogan was an entertainer, earning a substantial amount of money by entertaining millions of people. And he was a big supporter of Donald Trump. It is essential to understand how wrestling plays a big part in Donald Trump’s strategy, his schtick, if you will.

Professional wrestling can be viewed as an opera, with good and evil characters on opposing sides. Donald Trump casts himself as one of the good guys, and he portrays his political opponents as villains. In fact, he often uses the word “evil” to describe people who disagree with him.

But it’s not just characters, or real people. Donald Trump talks about nearly everything—every policy, law, cultural reality, business, history, education system, political party—everything he sees, in terms of good versus bad. And naturally, everything that he supports is good, and everything else is not just bad, but over-the-top awful. Trump learned at least some of this political theater from the entertainment world of “professional” wrestling and its avatar, Hulk Hogan.

Epstein Will Not Go Away

Jeffrey Epstein was a mega-rich financier who was accused—and later convicted—of sex trafficking. He was arrested. He was jailed in New York. He tried to commit suicide. He was found in his cell with a sheet around his neck. He was barely breathing. He was revived.

He was placed on suicide watch. He was supposed to be under constant surveillance. He was also supposed to have a cellmate who would help “watch him.” Several weeks later, he was found dead in his cell of a second apparent suicide attempt. There was no one present or anyone in his cell to watch him. The camera that was supposed to be watching him was not watching him.

MAGA has been told for years that there is an elite (liberal) cabal who are trafficking kids. The Jeffrey Epstein story plays right into this tale. Jeffrey Epstein was a wealthy man who had a network of people who seduced young women and girls to commit sexual acts with him. Kash Patel, current FBI director, was one of the prominent members in the MAGA community who was yelling at the top of his lungs that the Trump administration would release the Epstein files as soon as Donald Trump got into office.

Pam Bondi, the current United States Attorney General, also stated that the Epstein files needed to be opened and made public. She said that she had the files on her desk. These files are awaiting her approval to be released to the public.

Then, suddenly, there was a shift from the Trump administration. We were told that there was no client list. We were told that they could not and would not release the files.

Why the sudden about-face? According to many news reports, one reason might be that Trump’s name was found throughout the Epstein files. It’s reported that FBI agents—hundreds, or a thousand, though no one knows for sure—were put to work scouring the files and blacking out Trump’s name. MAGA, along with many influential conservatives, felt betrayed by the Trump administration.

Jeffrey Epstein rubbed elbows with the rich and famous. He had a long-time friendship with Donald Trump. He also had friendships with Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton. Epstein had a long list of famous people who were associated with him. The question is, who else was involved in his illegal activities? This is just one of many questions that remain unresolved.

In 2008, in Miami, Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor. He received a sentence that was so light that the punishment was laughable. He got 10 months in a Florida prison, but on work release, so he was at his office five or more days every week, doing business as usual.

As part of his plea deal, all the evidence gathered, which revealed his illegal activities, was permanently sealed and sequestered from the public. Exactly who signed off on this deal and why? Did they receive pressure to give Epstein such a lenient sentence? What exactly happened in that New York jail with Jeffrey Epstein? Why was Ghislaine Maxwell, his longtime girlfriend, business partner, and fellow sex trafficker, the only person to go to jail for Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes?

According to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of NY, Maxwell was “found guilty of a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade. She was previously found guilty on December 29, 2021, following a one-month jury trial, of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.”

And now, by the way, she is talking with the Department of Justice. For what? Is she providing the DOJ with meaningful information in exchange for a reduced sentence? Or is the DOJ buying her silence so she doesn’t incriminate Trump? Kevin Spacey, the actor, was accused of sexual misconduct with several men. He was later cleared in courts in the US and the UK, but he was also a friend of Epstein. What does he know? Anything?

Maybe we are looking at this ordeal all wrong. Three men formed the Elite Model Management agency (one of the premier modeling agencies in the world with such stars as Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell). They specialized in young girls from Eastern Europe, South America, and small-town USA. Trump formed the Trump Model Management agency in 1999. These agencies would bring these girls into the US illegally. They would be given food and clothing. They were given small paychecks. They accumulated debt. Some models were now informed about how to pay off their debt. They were trapped. Epstein and Maxwell targeted these women. They offered them a way out of their debt cycle. They offered them rich men, jets, and island life.

So, who has investigated the Trump Model Management agency? What did they find? What did Trump know? Why did Trump and Epstein have a falling out? Was their disagreement over Epstein “stealing” girls from his modeling agency? I don’t know. All I know is these questions deserve an answer.

I’m Not Better Than You

Trump would never say this. He will always present himself as better than others. Jesus teaches us to be humble. We are all God’s children. None of us is any better than the other.

When you approach life with love instead of hate, the world looks different. Your priorities are different. Now, instead of rounding up immigrants and locking them away in that detention center in Florida (the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” in the middle of the Everglades) or shipping them to some third-world country that can’t say no, how about we pass laws that give them a pathway to citizenship? We should build housing for the homeless instead of penalizing them for being homeless.

A group of researchers did a brilliant experiment on human behavior. They asked two groups of students to play a game of Monopoly. To start the game, one group was given twice as much cash as the other. The “superior” group was also given two dice, while the “inferior” group was allowed to roll with only one die. The “superior” group was given $400 every time they passed go instead of the $200 for the others.

So what did the researchers find? The “superior” group won the vast majority of the games. When the students in the “superior” group were asked to explain why they won, they stated that they had a better strategy and managed their money more effectively. Not a single student claimed that the game was rigged in their favor.

A separate group of researchers also gathered two identical groups of students. One group was to act as jailers, the other group as the incarcerated. What happened? Within hours, the guards began treating the prisoners as inferiors. They began to treat them rudely. They began to cuss at them and bring them food, not when the prisoners asked for it, but whenever they, the guards, got around to it. The treatment was getting so bad that some of the prisoners began showing signs of emotional distress. The experiment was stopped early.

So what do these two experiments tell us about human behavior?

First, these experiments shine a harsh light on law enforcement. If we are placed in a position of power over another human being, we do not tend to be merciful or kind. We tend to develop a slave-master relationship marked by cruelty. Police officers, ICE agents (without masks), and the like must understand that there is oversight. This will help prevent abuse.

The other experiment proves that if we’re placed (or born) into a position of privilege, human beings don’t see ourselves as “lucky” to be winning a clearly rigged game of life. Instead, we think of ourselves as deserving of that privilege, and worthy of the greater wealth and power it brings us.

That’s why it is so important for us, as “regular” citizens, to regulate the rich. They will not regulate themselves, because many of them think of themselves as “superior.”

Simply put, we are all God’s children. Now, we need to start acting like it.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here, as well as assertions of facts, are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.