A Baptist Minister and a Supreme Court Justice Walk Into a Bar . . . October 31, 2018October 30, 2018 Paul Raushenbush, an ordained Baptist minister, is an interesting guy. Senior VP of the Auburn Theological Seminary, his great grandfather, Walter Rauschenbusch (somewhere along the line they dropped the c’s), was a big deal Baptist theologian whose work — despite his being a thoroughly white blue blood — influenced the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bishop Desmond Tutu. “. . . [Walter’s] view of Christianity was that its purpose was to spread the Kingdom of God, not through a ‘fire and brimstone’ style of preaching, but by the Christlike lives led by its members.” Another of Paul’s great grandfathers, Louis Brandeis, was our nation’s first Jewish Supreme Court Justice. In 1985, relatives of Paul were murdered in what up until Saturday is thought to have been the deadliest attack on Jews in our country’s history. Informed by that background, Paul yesterday posted America’s Choice: The Tree of life or White Supremacy. As it happens, we get to help make that choice Tuesday. (Or today, with early voting.) And I’d like to stress — and ask YOU to stress to people who may be embarrassed not to know the names of all the candidates (how could “normal” people with one or two jobs and kids to raise follow all this?) — You don’t need to know who the candidates are. You know which team you’re on.* Just vote! *If you favor affordable health care that covers pre-existing conditions, affordable college, overtime pay, clean air and water, equal rights — things like that . . . if you thought Obama was a pretty good President and you “believe in” science and worry about climate change . . . you’re a Democrat. Vote D. If you think the really big problem we face as a nation are desperately poor Hondurans walking thousands of miles to turn themselves in at the border in hopes of asylum to pick your tomatoes and clean your motel toilets . . . and you think it’s okay for Trump’s party to control all three branches of government with no checks and balances . . . vote R. You’re a Republican.