Hi everyone.
I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was pretty busy, but I finally had a few spare minutes this evening, and figured I’d write about a couple things that are on my mind.
Good Riddance to Eric Swalwell
People who’ve read my work for a while know that I’ve been making fun of Eric Swalwell for quite some time. From his portrayal of himself as a bad-ass for not buying coffee at Trump Tower, to his argument that the U.S. government could nuke its own country to put down a domestic uprising over proposed gun-confiscation, to his hyper-feminized presidential run, to his possible affair with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, I’d long pegged Swalwell as a hopelessly unself-aware clown.
But as it turns out, he’s also a very creepy one — a sexual predator, if you believe the credible allegations that have recently come out against him (including the rape of a former staffer). Swalwell denies at least some of the claims, but there’s enough corroborating evidence backing them up that he ended his California gubernatorial campaign and resigned from the House of Representatives. The DOJ has appropriately launched an investigation into the allegations, as have state officials.
Since the controversy began, it’s been disturbing to hear a number of D.C. insiders describe rumors of Swalwell’s infidelities and womanizing as being well-known for some time. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) even said, “Every member in Congress knows not to let any young staffer get around Swalwell or Matt Gaetz. It’s not a secret there.”
If that was indeed true (and I believe it, based on how many people have now said as much), how did this not become an issue much earlier? Granted, there’s a difference between being a cad and sexual assault, but Swalwell, who’s married with children, ran successfully for Congress seven times. He even ran for President of the United States. One would think that his conduct with women would have set off career-damaging alarms a long time ago. Unfortunately for his apparent victims, it didn’t.
The good news is that, like Matt Gaetz and recently Tony Gonzales, he’s no longer in public service. That’s a start. I hope justice is served through our legal system.
An Unholy Troll
Last week, conservative New York Times columnist David French appeared on the “Relatable” podcast with host Allie Beth Stuckey. French and Stuckey are both Christians, and their commentary often delves into matters of faith and politics. The two have a number of disagreements, including whether Donald Trump, and the political-era he’s shaped, have been a net-positive or net-negative for the Christian church in America. Stuckey seems to believe the former. French believes the latter.
It was a decent enough conversation, with both individuals making good points. But in accordance with the online hatred that is routinely directed at David French by the MAGA-right (seemingly whenever he pens a column or opens his mouth to speak), the disparagement came hard and fast.
One social-media post that caught my eye pretty early in the feeding frenzy was by a guy named J. Chase Davis. It wasn’t directed at anything French said, but rather something Davis noticed, and felt inclined to publicly speculate on.
“No wedding ring,” Davis noted on X, posting a screen-capture from the episode showing French’s bare left hand. Davis also included a screen-capture of French’s profile-page, along with that of his wife Nancy, drawing attention to a discrepancy he found interesting. “Two different locations,” Davis wrote. “I can’t be the only one that has some questions.”
The clear suggestion was that David and Nancy were having marital problems, and were separated. The reality, as anyone familiar with the couple (or bothered to do a quick Google search) knows, is that the two split their time between Franklin, TN and Chicago, IL in order to live closer to their grandchildren. And as a number of people replying to Davis soon pointed out, lots of happily married individuals choose not to wear a wedding ring (mine comes off whenever I lose some weight, because I’m afraid it’s going to fall off my finger).
Of course, such garbage as Davis’s is pretty common online. Lots of trolls hound public figures across social-media platforms with gross accusations and demonstrably false statements.
But J. Chase Davis isn’t just some troll. He’s an evangelical pastor — a real one… at The Well Church in Boulder, CO.
The “core beliefs” of The Well Church, according to its website, are “based on the foundational truths taught in the bible. All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.”
Apparently, Davis’s copy of the Bible is missing the part about bearing false witness (which is fairly important, being that it’s the Ninth Commandment).
Davis later acknowledged that he now understands the nature of David and Nancy French’s living situation, but, as of the time I’m writing this, he has yet to delete his original post. He’s also dismissed the criticism he’s taken over it as “leftist discourse.”
Ironically, Davis is currently promoting his new book titled, “Offensive Christianity.”
No, I’m not joking. And its subtitle, “Restoring the Strength of Men in a Feminized Age,” would also seem ironic considering Davis’s gossip girl tendencies.
For the hat trick, if you Google Davis’s recent past, and browse through his other posts, it would seem he’s been finding ways to actually bolster French’s beliefs about the Trump Effect on the Christian church in America — unwittingly so, of course.
The good news for Davis is that his post has now been viewed by over a quarter of a million people, which can only help his book sales.
Let’s hope it was worth it for him, because it definitely didn’t do the Christian faith any good.
That’s all for now. Have a great week, everyone.