To the Editor:

Martin, you and I can have fun sometime arguing the history of the Catholic Church, its profound effect on Western Civilization, its positive and negative contributions to the world and the faithful, and divine mysteries, but I don’t see the audience for that here.

Commitment to religious beliefs can only be measured by how we treat each other. You are attached to a version of Catholicism that is a mix of medieval mysticism and ardor for political inquisition which I do not share. We all struggle against making ourselves and our own needs and beliefs the center of the universe, or lulling ourselves with, “we good, they bad.”

If religious practice helps people to become the best version of themselves, it will also remind them that we are all human beings just trying to figure out why we exist and recognize and honor the pilgrimage of others. There are many religious people who unequivocally support our human experience, and many who don’t but invoke “God’s will” as if theirs are the ears into which the Almighty would choose to whisper.

Last week, you declined in deep weariness to respond to any of the raised real-world issues but were re-animated by mystical matters which can be a refuge from reality. We all exist here on Planet Earth, trying to experience and survive what it is to be human as best we can, but Marian prophecies are not, I think, a significant resource for most people.

I’d give Trump credit for any “good things” he has done, if they weren’t wildly outnumbered by the critical damage he is doing to America, average Americans, and our status in the eyes of other countries; by cozying up to Putin (“he fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden, but he didn’t fool me!!” a statement so ridiculous no other comment is needed; by handing a drug-addled, billionaire megalomaniac a license to destroy the government; by toying spasmodically with tariffs; and vilification of anyone who does not do his bidding in the Epstein coverup, including his own MAGA followers.

Trump whined that MAGA who won’t “let it go” are “stupid” and “weaklings,” and sneered that he “doesn’t want their support anymore.” What is Trump’s real reason for paving over the Epstein crimes and protecting pedophiles when he is willing to pay such a huge price for it?

Trump has believed since 2015 that he can sell MAGA anything, and has, but this Epstein matter was such a 2024 bonfire MAGA issue, so filled with political venom, perverted rumors, and avenging promises of “transparency,” that it can’t be ignored. More than one political writer has recalled deviant politician “Lonesome Rhodes” in the film, “A Face in the Crowd, “ who bragged about his constituents, “I can take chicken fertilizer and sell it to ’em for caviar.” Or Bibles, sneakers, steaks, or virtual cards depicting Trump as Atlas, Elvis, and Jesus. The 1950’s film is preternaturally prescient of our own time.

Now will come accusations against past Democratic operatives, the emergence of shiny things “over there,” and Trump insinuating himself into high profile issues to divert attention from Epstein. It’s his MO, and we’ll see if it still works when the issue is protecting pedophiles.

Kelly Scoles,

Fillmore, Ca