In Trump we trust: the accidentally good President.

The era of Trump has begun. 4 years of first-rate madness shall take the helm of the highest office of the land. I should therefore constantly remind myself to stop wishing for a morally sanitized president of the US of A. To borrow Romans 3:10: "There is no one righteous, not even one".

In fact, leaders at the highest office are the pick of the litter here. What the pariah democratic cat drags in should be the best we can hope for, for now, and let's make do with make do please. If you think about it, what is a 4-year short stint in the Oval Office? They come and go. Just pretend he is doing some internship in the White house. A small dent here, a quick fix there, and it's time's up. Before you know it, one term is done, good riddance right?

Well, I can think of another re-election surprise in 2020. But then, let's take one term at a time please. Life is too short for catastrophe prediction. Or maybe things might just surpass all our critical expectations? You never know.

Now, there's no denying that President Trump is what he is. He makes no apology for his buffoonery, even if half of the world thinks he is wrong (and the other half are practically brain dead to his antics). He is morally indefensible, incredulous even. He belittles, insults and mocks women. He is obnoxiously rude. He relishes in outrageous boast. He is as humble as that pharmaceutical mogul, Martin Shkreli, who raised the price of a vital drug used to treat Aids by 55-fold. He thinks he is the smartest man alive. He is filthy rich and makes sure you never forget about it. In fact, he took a journalist to court for questioning his net worth.

At most times, he is tactless, witless, shameless, and clueless. He lies. He misleads. He wants to bed a married woman. He backtracks. He defrauds. He pays no taxes. And oh yes, he gropes too with panache. But now, he is the President of the United States. So suck it all up please.

John Adams once said that "Public virtues cannot exists in a Nation without private Virtue." Well, obviously the 2^nd US President has not met the likes or equivalent of the 45^th US President in his time.

Nevertheless, at least for President Trump, his enduring virtue is that he's the least hypocritical of all the 44 presidents (playing with semantics here). His public and private lives differ little. Apart from his taxes and his close relationship with Putin, he hides nothing from the public. He is one with himself whether he's before the crowd or in his private room. He will tell you what's in his head – no filter whatsoever. Raw honesty. Mind you, what he reveals in public, however distasteful or detestable, is what he is in private, and that is what endears him to his supporters. One fan at the inauguration said: "I was always a big fan. I like how he is forward with people, tells it like it is."

Trump’s candidness, however annoying and brain-numbing, is his strongest suit next to his mindless, twitter-triggered, brutal honesty. This is the same Twitter-in-Chief who tweets this in 2013: "Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one of the highest - and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault."

You could almost hear this as the back-masking message in his inauguration speech yesterday. It is like what Bart Simpson would say: "Eat my shorts losers!"

I guess the only time his forthrightness falters a tad bit is when he gave his uncharacteristic inauguration speech where he extols the people more than himself. That's definitely a rare feat for the newly minted POTUS who is known to have singlehandedly elevated narcissism to a household virtue.  

Now, while Pastor John Piper calls President Trump "morally unqualified" and I do not disagree with him, I am stuck with a mirror reflecting my own image and telling myself to define what is morally unqualified. I guess John Piper had in mind a life that is unrepentant because it lacks self-reflection.

Yet, isn’t it all a matter of degree here from one person to the other? This reminds me of when Jesus admonished the anger crowd with these words: "Let those who are without sin cast the first stone."

Sure, Jesus is not telling us not to judge and I will shamelessly do so here (ah, a Trump moment!), but he is telling us to guard our hearts, for the straight and narrow way has many unexpected twists and turns that lead us astray too.

Even bearing that in mind, I’m further reminded of the many Commander-in-Chiefs before Trump who were morally questionable, if not ambiguous. An infamous example is Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon. And we all know about JFK's monstrous libidinal Presidency where he would "engage in extensive sexual activity, including visiting prostitutes and probably contracting venereal diseases." He is thus highly energetic, charming and hypersexual.

Along this promiscuous line, we have Bill Clinton and his sexcapades with his interns, the most famous one being Monica Lewinsky. And apart from sexual indiscretion, we also have past presidents and leaders who are neurotic, maniacal, egotistical, tyrannical and even suicidal. They also suffered from bipolar depression, terrible melancholy and borderline psychosis.

Every President therefore has a closet full of skeletons in the White House. They bring it with them at the start of their term and take it back with them when their term ends. That's the part of history that will never change. The difference here is that President Trump just needs a little closet space than his predecessors, that’s all. No biggie.

Martin Luther King once said that "human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted" and LKY rather be "unreasonable" than reasonable because the latter group of leaders shakes up and transforms the world. And let's not forget what Abe Lincoln said: "It's my experience that folks who have no vices have generally very few virtues."

I guess if we want a perfect government, we should consider theocracy instead of democracy? Just kidding…terrible joke I know.

My point however is captured in the plea of Trump's daughter, Ivanka. She said: "My father is an incredible unifier. For every critic, I would say give him time. Let him come into office. Let him prove you wrong. I say, give my father a chance."

Well, who can resist the earnest plea of a daughter for her dad right? Save for the "incredible unifier" part, maybe the anti-Trump in us should give him a chance to prove us wrong. Maybe President Trump is good for America at such unprecedented (or “unpresidented”) time. They say in time of crisis, we need a raving mad leader to shake things up and not a mentally sound one to mollycoddle the status quo. We therefore do not need a pat of the back in time of crisis, but a push off the cliff.

Professor in psychiatry, Nassir Ghaemi, once wrote that “the best crisis leaders are either mentally ill or mentally abnormal; the worst crisis leaders are mentally healthy.” I guess Americans got theirs just right. Are we then in his good stubby hands?

In the same way that Obama asked for a change 8 years ago, Trump is asking for his too. And while Obama's call for change tends to put a smile on your face, Trump's call for one is just in-your-face.

His obnoxious personality is mostly foisted on us by the sheer force of the ballot box of disillusionment. But it is obvious that the people are the least bothered by the alleged lurid sexual details in Moscow, the rape accusations from women (one as young as 13 who dropped the suit), his recent $25 million settlement of the Trump University fraud lawsuits, and his numerous bankruptcies filed on behalf of his casino empire since 1991. He in fact took pride in using the bankruptcy law to outwit, outsmart and outdo his lenders. He said, “These lenders aren’t babies. These are not the nice, sweet little people.”

The problem is that many small American businesses suffered because of the exploitative and predatory ways he did business with them. He simply refused to pay them. Over three decades, his companies were involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits, mostly from ordinary Americans.

Yet, despite all that, Trump still prevailed and got the coveted golden ticket to the White House. Just for that alone, I think he should be heartily congratulated – that’s worth more than a Nobel Prize that Obama got!

I guess what the people like about Trump is that he is a man of action, and action brings hope, and hope brings people together, and this rally of the spirit is what America desperately need right now. Whichever way you slice and dice it, we are suckers for novelty and anything new (rather than have another 4 years of "same o' same o'") feeds on our sense of thrills, excitement and adventure.

Now, it is obvious that people didn't vote for Trump on his moral strength. They voted for him on his promises concerning bread and butter issues like jobs, pay, security, equality and neutrality - he is not from the political establishment, full stop.

So, for the sake of this collective declaration of action and hope, maybe we should just forget about his character or the lack of it for the next 4 years.

Let me end with this. Roosevelt was once asked why he asked political opponents to serve in his administration and he said: "You know, a man will do a lot of right things for the wrong reasons." (this quote will come in handy as my conclusion).

I think Trump, who boasts about being the smartest man in the room, has met his match, that is, the Presidency. Before this, he was king of his castle, ruler of his business empire and imperial lord of the duff star (sorry, suffering from withdrawal symptoms of trumpititis). At that time, he was only accountable to himself and his bottom-line is profit, profit, profit.

Now, he faces a different test, his personal furnace of fire – that is, the Oval Office and everything sacrosanct about it. Unlike in a totalitarian regime, where dictators like Kim, Saddam and Gaddafi could do everything with impunity, all eyes will be watching Trump for the next 4 years in the democracy founded on a fortified constitution and based on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

He may be a real estate billionaire, but there is one estate he has yet to, and will never, conquer, that is, the fifth estate (the social media and the outlier press). They will be taking notes feverishly. They will be there for good or bad. And they will be asking difficult, tough questions.

So, instead of changing the world by riding high in golden tassels on the Office of the Presidency, Trump may just be humbled by the same Office he’d fought so hard for as it may now be demanding more from him over the next 4 years than he wishes to offer, accede and negotiate with.

Let’s just hope that the integrity of the Oval Office would be able to make an honest man out of Trump. Let’s just hope it would be a taming-of-the-shrew experience for him. And if it is not meant to be, well, I guess that Roosevelt's observation would come in handy as Plan B, that is, President Trump may just do a lot of right things for the wrong reasons. A consolation prize?

Alas, if we can't get a morally improved President at the expiry of his term, it is hoped that we can at least end up with an accidentally good one. Cheerz.

VK Rajah: A Freedom Fighter.

While the papers today describe VK Rajah as a "reluctant A-G", declining the offer to take up the appointment twice in 2007 and 2013, I think he is more a freedom fighter who takes every life and sentence seriously.

His idea of justice is simple. It's about discrimination, that is, every case is different and can be differentiated. No two actions and intentions are alike, and every criminal act deserves a second, even a third, look.

One example is the case where the banker father (Philippe Marcel Guy Graffart), then 42, had killed his five year old son last year. The charge was reduced from murder to culpable homicide as the father was suffering from a major depressive disorder arising from a custody fight.

VK Rajah said, "Where homicide takes place as a result of mental issues, it's unpremeditated, where there is momentary loss of control, we appraise the facts differently."

Mind you, it made a difference to the life of the father, who was sentenced to 5 years, instead of death or life.

Of course, when you do the crime, you do the time. But it has to be the right time for the right duration and reasons.

Considering the suffering of the victims and his/her loved ones, justice must also be tempered with compassion. And crimes that are committed by a mindless folly of the heart has to be distinguished from one committed by a heartless act of the mind.

So, in his role as the head prosecutor, to the best of his ability, he prosecuted with a human face. Imagine that, a freedom denier to a freedom fighter.

Another example is when the DPP himself appealed against a jail sentence of eight weeks for a 35-year-old who knocked over an elderly pedestrian while cycling on the pavement. The DPP argued that the sentence was not proportionate to his culpability in view of the fact that he pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

It reports that "Mr Rajah said his "obsessiveness for looking at things granularly" boiled down to a need to exercise the power of the prosecution carefully. Not all were on board at first with the decisions he made, including the move to appeal to have the cyclist's sentence reduced."

"My operating ethos in every ... office that I held is to ensure fairness. And fairness includes, apart from due process, proportionality. It's in no one's interest for individuals to be punished harshly," so said the retired A-G.

Lesson? Just one.

I always struggle with this question: How do you make the biggest difference in the smallest way?

Mother Teresa once said that we can't all do great things, but we can do small things with great love. I guess in VK Rajah's case, it is with compelling dedication and compassion that he makes the biggest difference. And mind you, it takes a lifetime most times to transform lives.

For a husband, it is about protecting the marital oath at all cost and for life. For a parent, it is about being there for your child in good or bad times. For a friend, it is about enduring friendships that don't change through time and circumstances. For a leader, it is about integrity, sacrifice and faithfulness to one's calling. And for a flawed human being, a truly repentant heart.

I always believe that the mother of all virtues is keeping at it day in and day out, over the years and decades. Things around you may change, temptations may rise up against you, and you may be fighting at it alone, but change does not come in one big ostentatious splash - it comes with consistent effort and passion.

In fact, a big watch-me-dive splash takes more water out than put in. However, it is the unfailing tiny drops over the years that add to the pool. It is the faithfulness of the unseen acts, the unfelt deeds and the unpublished commitment that make the lasting, deepest and biggest difference.

Let me end with this: "A seed grows with no sound, but a tree falls with huge noise. Destruction is loud but creation is silent." Cheerz.

5 inconvenient truths megachurch prosperity preachers (MP) rather not talk about.

Five inconvenient truths megachurch prosperity preachers (MP) rather not talk about.

1)          Being rich in God is not the same as being rich in the world. If I get a dollar every time a MP tells me that God wants to bless me with material wealth and unlimited success, I will have retired rich and living large before I hit 40 (and I am 46 now). Billy Graham once teased that the checkbook (cheque book) is a theological document, and it will tell you who and what you worship. Indeed, money has a powerful hold on religion just as it has on other aspects of public life. The corruption that money invites doesn’t just start with the love of it – most times, it comes with the over-exposure to it. In today’s money-driven religious world, serving two masters are no longer mutually exclusive. The promises of prosperity is the carrot that many MP use to spellbind their congregation and it is much easier to believe in a rich and faithful believer than a poor and faithful one. MP thus owes their congregation the pastoral obligation to present the full gospel of Christ here. Ours is not a one-dimensional gospel of success. It is much more than that. It is essentially the gospel of overcoming. More importantly, being rich in God is more about possessing those values which money cannot buy. A peace of mind, a spirit of resilience, a soul finding contentment, a fleshly desire subdued at times of temptation, and an enduring hope beyond this world are the first and last fruits of a rich believer in God.

2)      They (MP) don’t know everything. That’s the spoiler alert for their members. You see, MP may come up with books, DVDs, audio-recordings, and online sermons, all of which boast about their ability to explain all things, but there are still things or phenomena that escape them. Although no one expects them to know everything, the issue here is not that. On the contrary, it is about the image they project to their members. Every Sunday, standing before the crowd, the impression given is that there is an explanation for every unanswered prayer, every premature death or terminal illness, every unexpected misfortune, every undeserved crisis and every emotional betrayal. They will tell or hint to you that the problem is you, your lack of faith, your lack of belief, your lack of trust, your lack of love, your lack of truth, even your lack of bible knowledge. Well, there may be a little truth there I admit, but the point again is not that. The point is that the MP never falls short of making presumptuous explanations that seek to elevate their know-it-all status so as to preserve that superficial arm’s length respectability between them and their members. Somehow, being a leader, these MP feel that it is their sacred job to offer an explanation for everything. Alas, the last thing they want to disclose to their members is their ignorance. Yet, that is also in my view the main obstacle they face towards being an humble and respected leader.

3)     The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty. This third truth ties in with the 2^nd one above. And because ignorance is to be avoided at all costs, the MP demonizes doubts as a stumbling block of faith. For them, the expression of doubt is the admission of defeat. But the truth is that having doubt is part and parcel of being a believer because we are human after all. However, doubts need not drive us away from the faith. Where doubts flourish is when we apply it to question self-serving and misleading beliefs. Like faith, doubt compels us to seek the truth. Although we now only see the glass dimly, we are called to defend our faith with understanding of the gospel – and not with self-conceited presumptions. The search for biblical truths is a lifetime endeavor and having doubt can drive us to probe, dig and go deeper.

4)          There is a simple logic why most MP are wealthy. You seldom catch them in second-hand cars, living in average houses or traveling in economy class. Some even have private jets, large estate and mansions, and earthly investment in the millions. They are rich because they sit on top of the pyramid of devotion with a broad base of eager givers below. And the broader the base, the wealthier the MP gets. Imagine the money collected every week, every month and every year. Idling cash stashed aside for a rainy day. In their organization, they directly or indirectly control the offerings and tithes offered by members. They largely decide on what to do with it. Most of them amass the funds and remunerate themselves rather generously. Personal prosperity inevitably comes with the territory. That is just how it works. It is what they deserve or are entitled to – at least that is how their members and staff strongly feel.  The reality is that they don’t preach for free. Neither do they write books nor appear on worldwide broadcasts for free. However, I see two issues here. First, the socioeconomic gap between the congregation and the leadership widens as the latter’s pocket deepens. And second, at some point, there is always a risk that they may cross that invidious threshold where their faith becomes more aligned to their cheque book balances than to their first love or calling. And alas, even if some of them have crossed that threshold, they are scarce to admit to it, or at all, because it is just too much of an inconvenient truth to face before their devoted, if not already besotted, members.

And…

5)          They are human after all. After all is said and done, whether I offer five inconvenient truths here or two, the fact remains that they (MPs) are human – flaws and all. They may like to think that they are special, a spiritual cut above the rest, the one who has the favor and listening ear of the divine, or the one who knows, interprets and conducts themselves better than all, if not most. But the raw reality is that they are not. No doubt credit should be given where credit is due and some of them are amazing on stage, eloquent and delightful to watch, and some are flashy with charisma galore, but I believe they stand equal with all in the temptations they face, the emotional struggles they are embroiled in, and the distractions of the heart that seek to derail them. The reflective ones will not disagree with me on this. And if the many transgressions of MP past are anything to go by, with their fall from grace coming close at the heels of a self-driven pursuit for recognition or a belief in their own invulnerability, then MPs are no different from individuals (like you and me) struggling with their own humanity. Alas, some of these struggles are made complicated by the immense power, adoration and wealth they hold, wield or demand. And the other struggles come about as a result of their own belief that this time, it will be different – that is, this time, they are different. Cheerz.