U.S. Rep. Mark Green
Well, well, well. We’ve finally learned the reason for Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Green’s pending divorce. To the surprise of no one, according to Green's wife, Satan is to blame.
There are children full of bullet holes and polio’s making a comeback and there are Nazis in the streets, but sure, Mark Green is so important that the devil turned away from gleefully laughing at the cries of distraught parents to shove Mark Green into a woman who is not his wife. I reached out to the King of Hell for comment, but as of this writing, he’s not responded.
Whatever. You get cheated on after 30 years of marriage, you’re bound to lose your mind a little. But there’s one part in Sarah Grace Taylor’s Nashville Banner story about this sordid mess that I can’t let pass without saying something.
The rest of the text — in which Camilla [Green] warns of “readily available ‘predators’” like the 32-year-old woman in question, and describes members of Congress “having affairs and getting divorces, drinking, parties, all while hosting a weekly Bible study in the basement of our home” — still feels true to the conservative family.
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“Over the last year-and-a-half, two years, we’ve really noticed a difference in him. So who knows if that’s just the toxic environment that is D.C., but something has changed,” [Green's daughter] Catherine says. “We’ve all had to basically grieve the loss of the person that we thought was our father.”
Family blames ‘toxic environment’ in D.C. for affair, but infidelity might not be enough for him to lose reelection bid
Having an affair on your wife of 30-some years is so cruel and cowardly that, if you think too much about it, it will take your breath away. But what I would posit is that Mark Green has been cruel all along.
In June 2017, he straight-up claimed that transgender women are a threat to cis women in bathrooms. That’s not true, and it’s cruel to attribute evil intentions to people who are just trying to pee in peace. In September 2016, according to The Tennessean, he “insinuated that permissive attitudes that legalized same-sex marriage could eventually open the door to using taxpayer dollars for infanticide.” Two grown adults making a loving commitment to each other is going to lead to killing babies? You have to be pretty low-down, mean as a wolverine, to say such cruel and untrue things. In that same Tennessean article, reporter Michael Collins writes, “Green claimed erroneously that Muslims don’t believe Jesus ‘was born from a virgin.’”
Please. Green graduated from West Point. He’s smart enough to graduate from medical school. He served in the Middle East as an officer in the Army. Did he “claim erroneously,” or did he just lie? Like he lied about gay marriage leading to infanticide. Like he lied about trans women. You know what kind of person lies in order to get his way? A cruel person. He doesn’t mind the suffering of others.
Just like how, recently, he didn’t mind how much his behavior would cause his wife to suffer when she found out.
Green’s wife, when she wrote to members of U.S. Congress to tell them about his misdeeds, said Green and his peers were all “having affairs and getting divorces, drinking, parties, all while [Green was] hosting a weekly Bible study in the basement of our home.” I guess we’re supposed to be shocked by the hypocrisy, but he was already a person who lied about innocent people even though it hurt them, so I can’t say I’m surprised.
I am, however, going to tell you what he was doing during those weekly Bible studies down in the basement. He’s been looking for loopholes. He’s been pouring over the Bible looking for justifications for the bad things he does.
"And as far as the religious argument goes, and this applies to the issue of Syrian refugees as well. There’s a big fuss about whether or not we should sue the federal government over having to take refugees from Syria into the state of Tennessee, I believe we should sue the federal government in that case, because Romans 13 is pretty doggone clear, this is the passage where it tells people to submit to the authorities — meaning, basically if you’re in the government, you should do what the government tells you to do. You know, don’t speed, all that kind of stuff. 'Obey the laws,' is basically what the passage says. But what it goes on to say is that because the government exists for two purposes.
"The government exists to honor those people who live honorably, who do good things — to reward people who behave well and to crush evil. So that means as a state senator, my responsibility very clearly in Romans 13 is to create an environment where people who do right are rewarded and the people who do wrong are crushed. Evil is crushed.
"So I’m going to protect women in their bathrooms, and I’m going to protect our state against potential infiltration from the Syrian ISIS people in the refugee program. And whoever wants to stand up and take me on that, I’m ready to fight."
Jesus was a refugee as a child. He had to flee political persecution and go to another country. Jesus says you have to love your enemies. Jesus says you should bless those who have cursed you and pray for those who mistreat you. He literally says, “Put your sword away,” because running around enacting violence against people you don’t like isn’t Jesus’ way. And we all know Mark Green knows all this. After all, he studies the Bible.
But when he was confronted with refugees who needed safety and trans women who needed to pee, rather than doing what Jesus said to do when you’re faced with something that scares you, he went and found some words from some other dude who never even met Jesus, and he found himself a loophole. Sure, Jesus says to turn the other cheek, but Paul says governments crush wrongdoers — so woo-hoo! Mark Green is clear to crush wrongdoers, because he’s in the government.
Incumbent Republican changes mind after call from Trump
So sure, Jesus says don’t get divorced, but unfortunately for Green’s wife, Jesus also points out the loophole for Mark Green to slip through: “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard.” (That’s Matthew 19:8 for those of you not raised by a minister.) If you listen to the way Mark Green talks, he sure has a hard heart, so he’s justified in divorcing his wife.
What’s happened to the Green family is what is called a category error. They thought Mark was a good conservative Christian, as if all three of those things — good, conservative and Christian — are all three facets of the same thing. If Green is conservative and he is a Christian, then he’s good.
So I think because his family assumed he was a good man, all the cruel positions he took against people who were not them failed to be the red flags they should have been. If a man is good — and we know he’s good because he’s a conservative Christian — then you don’t need to worry about how he lies about trans women or how he tries to turn away refugees, because those must be good positions to take, because he’s a conservative Christian. You don’t need to question whether those opinions are correct or whether he’s just being cruel for the fun of being cruel.
He's found his loopholes, and you’ve found your shortcuts in thinking in a way so that you don't have to understand how he uses his religion as a weapon against others. I’m not trying, myself, to be cruel here, but Mark Green repeatedly showed himself to be exactly who he is, and his family ignored it because he wasn’t doing it to them. Until now.
The truth is that those three things — “good,” “conservative” and “Christian” — are three separate things. A person can be good and Christian and not conservative. Or they can be good and conservative and not Christian. Or any other combination. Those are three categories independent of each other. And a lot of people get hurt, unfortunately, when they assume someone can’t be one without the others.
There’s an old saying about being a mistress — if he’ll do it with you, he’ll do it to you. But this is also true for cruelty. And Mark Green’s family is learning that the hard way.
Also, just as a side note: Mark Green, what the hell is wrong with you? You faced down Saddam Hussein but you’re too chickenshit to divorce your wife before you start seeing someone else? Your cowardice is repulsive.
