Trump accidentally tweeted an insult at a pastor. Here's how the pastor responded.

[FM123]

(Washington Post article via MSN to override firewall)

The Rev. Jonathan Carl glanced at Twitter and laughed out loud in disbelief.

The president of the United States had just tweeted at him, a Baptist pastor in Kentucky who up until now hadn’t had any reason to be the subject of national attention. And President Trump was, online, in public, out of the blue, insulting him.

The president had mixed up Jonathan Carl, the Kentucky minister with fewer than 375 Twitter followers, with Jonathan Karl, the ABC News reporter whose journalism had ruffled the feathers of the commander in chief.

Carl’s laughter soon turned into concern. Trump had called Carl a “lightweight reporter.” And some of Trump’s ardent fans weren’t happy with Jonathan Carl — not realizing that he wasn’t Jonathan Karl.

The “drive-by tweet” brought on “intense vitriol and hatred,” Carl said. He was suddenly experiencing what many of Trump’s intended Twitter targets go through almost daily: a barrage of infuriated tweets from Trump’s followers.

The pastor stopped laughing. And on Monday, a week after his evening as a sudden Twitter target, he published an open letter to Trump.

“Although I was an accidental casualty caught in the cross-fire of your ‘lightweight’ tweet, your attack was very purposeful and hurtful. Many others, whether American citizens or global citizens, feel wounded and hurt by the shrapnel and side-effects of your ongoing Twitter attacks,” Carl wrote in his letter.

He hurled the same insult back at Trump that Trump had mistakenly leveled at him — but then turned it into a theological point. “Let’s be honest, you are a lightweight too,” Carl wrote. “We all are. God is the only heavyweight who knows it all and gets it right all the time.”

He pleaded with the president: “Please don’t make the Twitter-universe such a dark and depressing place. It shouldn’t be a place to argue, fight, or jockey for position. We can disagree and debate without childish name-calling. You can make Twitter a better place.”


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-accidentally-tweeted-an-insult-at-a-pastor-heres-how-the-pastor-responded/ar-AAH2ONq?li=BBnbfcL

[2naSalit]

1. He'll be soundly attacked for that now....nt

[Jeffersons Ghost]

25. K&R good! He needs more attacks!

[Caliman73]

33. You want an innocent Pastor to have more attacks?

Why. I don't necessarily support his "heavyweight" comment but he responded well and turned it into a request for restraint by the president. We know Trump won't heed the request, but why should the Pastor "need more attacks".

[luvtheGWN]

36. You mis interpreted Jefferson's post.

He meant that trump needs more attacks, and I agree!

[Caliman73]

41. The post being responded to indicated the pastor would be attacked for his response.

Yes Trump needs to be held to account constantly for his abhorrent behavior, but that is not what the respondent was saying.

[2naSalit]

42. Thank you!

[erronis]

49. The thread of clarification to your post could have been avoided by using names instead of

generic pronouns ("he&quot . Or perhaps better some favorite epithet for the dotard peeResident.

Just sayin.

[pangaia]

2. "You can make Twitter a better place."

Oh come on. Dear God !

[Scarsdale]

12. Maybe not Twitter, but

tRump could certainly make the WH a better place. All he has to do is LEAVE. In fact every place he goes improves once he leaves.

[ChiTownDenny]

17. +1

BTW, Jonathan Karl only has his job because he's stupid. While I enjoy seeing him get under Trump's skin, he was equally stupid with Obama on many occasions.

[calimary]

30. Agreed.

I believe Jonathan Karl came to the forefront from conservative grooming outfits like the Collegiate Network, that supports the work of student journalists with an eye toward sending CON-leaning but articulate (and, of course, camera-ready - that is - pleasant-looking) young people up into jobs in the majors. Like, say, a young Jonathan Karl who eventually makes it to network television.

[pangaia]

38. I don't even know who he is... LOLOL

[brooklynite]

23. It's always a good idea to end with a joke...

[pangaia]

39. LOL

[cstanleytech]

28. Well just about anything is "possible" but the likelyhood of its is probably on par with

100 people on this forum buying separate megamillion lottery tickets and hitting the grand prize tonight.

[pangaia]

40. I once read an explanation of how you stand a better chance of winning the lottery

if you DON'T buy a ticket than if you do.

Sorry no link available..

[Lonestarblue]

32. Trump can make every place better--

just by disappearing into obscurity. May he be defeated in 2020 and never heard from again. Borrowing from the Alka Seltzer commercial, what a relief it would be.

[Martin Eden]

54. Trump CAN make Twitter a better place ...

... by leaving it.

Subtracting Trump from any situation makes it better.

[gordianot]

3. Imagine if Twitter had been available other times in human history.

This is a human problem going back to our early hominid ancestors being unable to handle technology. It started with sticks and stones, metals, the wheel, bows and arrows, electricity, hydrocarbons fire, printing press, up to the internet. Some specific technologies such as firearms and Twitter are especially dangerous and threaten our survival.

[smb]

4. Suggestion

You can make Twitter a better place.

Yeah -- he can delete his account.

[Perseus]

6. Hehe...right on...you have the perfect solution

[murielm99]

7. Who can delete his account?

I think the pastor did what a pastor is supposed to do.

[Fullduplexxx]

5. Words wasted on trump

[StarfishSaver]

8. He wasn't really talking to Trump

[Fullduplexxx]

11. Yes .. yes he was . He was deliberately talking specifically to Trump

He was replying to to trump's tweet about trump's behavior .

[StarfishSaver]

14. The letter was addressed to Trump, but it was for others' benefit

That was the point of releasing it publicly. He's trying to teach a lesson to a larger audience. That's something good ministers do.

[Fullduplexxx]

16. Offs

[intheflow]

50. Or, it was addressed to Trump and was intended for Trump.

AND ALSO meant to call-out bad behavior on the web, as well as cover his ass in the Twitterverse.
It doesn't have to be one or the other.

[gratuitous]

21. Pastor Carl posted his response as an open letter

That means that while it's addressed to a specific person, it's available to the public for everyone's perusal. The words may be (okay, almost certainly are) wasted on Trump, they're not directed exclusively to him.

[Fullduplexxx]

24. Yes everyone can take a look at the letter he wrote to trump

About trump's behavior ... And i understand what it means

[AZ8theist]

9. My thoughts exactly..

[wiggs]

47. that's right. He loves hurting people. Counts as a win for him. nt

[iscooterliberally]

10. Telling Trump that he can make twitter a better place is kind of like...

...telling a turd to go polish itself.

[RainCaster]

13. "Be Best" is the way to do it

We all know how well that is working for the Third Lady.

[Eyeball_Kid]

15. The letter was well-intended, but turned into drivel.

Trumpy CANNOT make Twitter a better place. He wants Twitter to be the vehicle for his evil practices. Without that vehicle, Trumpy would be nothing.

Imagine what would happen if Jack Dorsey banned Trumpy from tweeting. Imagine. Trumpy's world would fall apart instantly. There would be nothing left. AND, Dorsey would likely be assassinated.

[FakeNoose]

18. Why didn't he just ban the president?

"You have been banned" would have been an effective message to Donald J Chump.

[dlk]

19. Trump's Gaffe Adds to the Daily, Mounting Evidence He is Completely Incompetent

And his Republican enablers only further endanger our entire country and everyone in it with their spineless sycophancy.

[Botany]

29. +1 The Atlantic: Trump Is Not Well

Trump Is Not Well
Accepting the reality about the president’s disordered personality is important—even essential.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/donald-trump-not-well/597640/

During the 2016 campaign, I received a phone call from an influential political journalist and author, who was soliciting my thoughts on Donald Trump. Trump’s rise in the Republican Party was still something of a shock, and he wanted to know the things I felt he should keep in mind as he went about the task of covering Trump.

At the top of my list: Talk to psychologists and psychiatrists about the state of Trump’s mental health, since I considered that to be the most important thing when it came to understanding him. It was Trump’s Rosetta stone.

I wasn’t shy about making the same case publicly. During a July 14, 2016, appearance on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, for example, I responded to a pro-Trump caller who was upset that I opposed Trump despite my having been a Republican for my entire adult life and having served in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations and the George W. Bush White House.

[NewJeffCT]

20. he's gone @ the wrong person before as well

A month or two back, he meant to tag some Fox News personality and instead tagged this Spiritual Guru woman that hadn't tweeted in several years. He deleted it and then tagged the woman at Fox several minutes later, but I remember seeing the tweet and then finding the woman and wondering WTF?

[mgardener]

22. It was a very nice letter.

A teachable moment as they say.
But Trump has been this way for a very, very long time.
I'd be shocked if he could change. Why should he, nobody has ever stopped him.
But maybe it would resonate with some of his followers.

[IronLionZion]

26. "Your heart must be in a dangerous place to have such a consistent flow of defamation and disrespect

“Your heart must be in a dangerous place to have such a consistent flow of defamation and disrespect towards so many,”

[struggle4progress]

27. "I blame the National Weather Service"

[SayItLoud]

31. The last line is wrong

tRUMP can not make Twitter or any place a better place.

[Caliman73]

34. It wasn't a statement of fact, it was a request.

The pastor is asking Trump to make Twitter better by not using it as an attack tool.

Of course Trump isn't going to change and the pastor is definitely going to get more hate from Trump's supporters who are just as bad as Trump is. The pastor was just putting the words out there with hope, which is what pastors tend to do.

[Hotler]

35. There is another lesson here.

And that is; Be vigilant my friends. Chump supports are everywhere and can snap at any moment. These wackos have me looking at my neighbors in a different eye, especially the ones that are new and I haven't met yet. With the new polls out 38% of my neighbors could be trumpers.

[Xipe Totec]

37. Don't make the Twitter-universe such a dork and deplorable place... nt

[usaf-vet]

43. Seriously why doesn't Twitter cut of 45's account off for any number of abuses that 45 has ranted.

If you or I did 1/10th of what he does we would have been cut off thousand (no tens of thousands) of tweets ago. Is this another example of two sets of rules one for the masses and one for the super-rich and powerful.

If not they could give notice that effective on a date in the future the Twitter policies will change to NOT allow abusive threatening racist tweets.

One final point. Historians in the future will surely see and report that Twitter and other social media giants led to the hate discourse that has infected our country. And before you counter with the free speech meme please remember there are exceptions to the free speech amendment. For example, yelling fire in a crowded room. Hate speech. Threatening speech. To mention several.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

44. One more item to add to the list of stupid shit Trump has done.

[DavidDvorkin]

45. That pastor now has 746 followers

With more to come, I expect.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

46. A preacher reacting with compassion, offering suggestions and turning the other cheek.

Following old-fashioned Christian standards.......


Principles totally alien to tRump, yet millions of people claiming to be Christian embrace him.......

[JDC]

48. Twitter is a gutter.

[yuiyoshida]

51. Trump making Twitter a better place?

unlikely.

[Aussie105]

52. Twitter is a place for cowards.

A place where you can abuse others without fear of appropriate, immediate and direct retribution. (Like a punch in the mouth.)

Shut Trump's account down. Shut Twitter down. Shut the GOP down. Let something better grow in the emptiness.

(Hell, Trump is turning me into an anarchist ?!?
Then again, in my more thoughtful moments, I wish that the right hand of God would reach down, smack Trump across the back of the head, and tell him to grow up and behave!
Does that make me a religious anarchist?)

[Cha]

53. WOW.. And, in Kentucky!

Good on Pastor Carl!