I know better than to discuss religion or politics. But here goes. It is now the summer of 2025. We are escaping the Alabama heat once again in Brora, in the north of Scotland, chasing balls on the Scottish links with sweaters and turtlenecks in the cool North Sea breezes.

We are not just tourists. We have been doing this annually since 2018, and now, it is fair to say that we live here for six to eight weeks. We rent a tiny house near the North Sea. We can see the first tee at Brora Golf Club across the small harbor where fishing boats go in and out. We go to the grocery store, go to church, play golf with friends, and watch British TV.

For these few weeks, I observe British politics and religion. I thoroughly enjoy watching the British Parliament debate stuff that seems so important to the members of Labour or the Tories (Conservatives).

So………. all this is a prelude to a story which I started typing a year ago- literally- on July 5, 2024. It seems like an eternity but it was just a year ago that my head was spinning with one of the most intriguing summers for politics in my lifetime. Not since the Watergate summer of 1974 have I been so captivated by the daily news.

I started writing on the day after the British elections of July 4, 2024. I simply did not have the nerve to publish it.

Now, a year later, much water is over the dam. I probably should just ditch the old story….. but, here we go. I have not edited what you read below, so keep in mind it was all written long before Trump won the 2024 election.

The following words express what I was feeling in July 2024. And Below, you will find an audio of a speech/sermon/testimony of my message at a Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast in Brainerd, Minnesota on our return to the USA on August 14, 2024 which may be a better barometer than my written words.

Tim Philpot · 2024 - CBMC (Brainerd, Minnesota)

July 26, 2024, I know not to discuss politics or religion with strangers (or even friends and family for that matter). I know that IF I want people to like me, I should just keep quiet and shake my head in agreement with anyone and everyone who offers their opinion about certain politicians or preachers.

But I need to step out on a limb- offering some insight that seems to escape most people I know. I feel like an Old Testament prophet. Those guys were usually imprisoned and/or killed. Even the more modern prophets like John Bunyan (1670’s) were put in prison for religious opinions. My ancestor John Philpot was burned at the stake in 1555 by Queen Bloody Mary for daring to have opinions that were not in the majority. His story can be found in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, if you have interest.

So, I need to say a couple of things, now that I have some perspective from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In short, it may be worse than you think.

Sue and I arrived in Scotland on June 22, 2024- our annual respite from the humidity and heat of south Alabama. I successfully avoided TV completely for almost two weeks, but I caved in when all the talk around the golf club was about the excitement of football’s Euro2024, which for you uninformed Americans, is the biggest ‘soccer’ tournament in the world except for the World Cup. I am the odd American because I enjoy the games, even the “nil-nil” games which get decided on penalty kicks. It is mostly just the high drama and the realization that an entire nation will weep at the end, or if all the cards fall just right, rejoice all night.

As a sidenote, I learned that everyone in Scotland now loves Spain for defeating the hated English in the finals. My presumption that Scotland would pull for England after they were exited from the tournament was 100% wrong. I learned this very quickly in the bar at the golf club. If you find yourself in a bar in Scotland during an England football match, be sure to hate the English if you want to avoid abuse.

But, and here is the real purpose of this story, in addition to football, I also started watching some of the BBC news, which was all about the elections for a new Prime Minister, which happened to be on the American Independence Day. On July 4, 2024, I dove back into watching the news.

First, I learned that President Joe Biden had a bad night on June 27 in his debate with Donald Trump. I started to pay attention. Trump’s poll numbers went through the roof when the nation was able to see, up close and personal, the inability of our elderly President to answer simple questions. I could not bear to watch it, but I caught clips.

On July 5, Biden was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos, hoping to save his re-election bid. He said he was only pulling out if the “Lord God Almighty comes down and tells me to pull out”, or something like that. On July 11, poor Biden met with NATO leaders and proved his incompetence by forgetting the names of important leaders, continuing his habit of horrible gaffes in public.

And then, on July 14, we woke up on a Sunday morning to the news that Trump had been shot. The news cycle was moving faster than I could keep up. The Republican convention was coming up that week (July 15-18), and Trump appeared triumphantly with a bandage on his bloody right ear. He pronounced that God had saved him.

Then, on July 21, sure enough, Biden withdrew from the race. His friends threw him under the bus. Not even his wife Jill could save him this time.

In this summer of USA political intrigue and fast-breaking news cycles, if you snooze, you lose. Trump’s assassination attempt and the resurrection of Kamala Harris’ Presidential hopes had my head spinning. The Trump euphoria from the RNC convention has already dissipated into worry that he will lose again. Panic has set into both sides.

But first, I must back up just three weeks to July 4 and the election results here in the United Kingdom. I cannot find a single person who agrees with me on this—- but for me, the news coming from London was even more disturbing than the obvious debacles in America.

The expected landslide of Labour over the Torys happened and a new government was formed for the first time in fourteen years. The British elections on July 4 were between an openly avowed Atheist and a proud Hindu. Keir Starmer (Labour Party) defeated Rishi Sunak (Conservative Party) and is the new Prime Minister.

It is odd indeed since the atheist Starmer respects his wife’s Jewish roots enough to observe a Sabbath. In reality, he probably just likes people to leave him alone one day a week, proving that God’s laws make sense for even atheists. And the defeated Sunak was not just some nominal secular Hindu politician. He regularly performed Hindu rituals in public and private.

Truthfully, religion has been messed up in the United Kingdom for a long time. The old Kings of England and Scotland fought over whether the Protestant Reformers or the Popish Catholics would rule the day. Today it is the Atheists and the Hindus who rule the day. And don’t forget the Muslim mayor of London. Or the Muslim elected to lead Scotland in 2023.

I know you should not discuss politics or religion— especially here in Scotland— but … oh boy… I cannot seem to stop going into a world I know should be avoided. I have tried hard since opening this storytelling website in 2022 to avoid politics, but the odd mix of religion and politics in 2024 is more than I can stand. I have to say something. I may delete it later!

But.. nobody else seems to say it just the way I am thinking, so bear with me. Some of this conversation has started on the golf courses here in Scotland, with the locals wondering why America doesn’t have better candidates for President. They expect me to have rational answers, sort of hoping I will simply agree with them that America is a disgusting place full of greedy and stupid people. There are virtually no Trump lovers in Europe (I have met two), especially here in Scotland where Trump is the dirty old man who ruined Turnberry and the environment when he built his course in Aberdeen (where FYI we played last week). Indeed, the so-called Trump Derangement Syndrome is louder here than even America.

But my friends here are now truly befuddled because the Irish and Scots typically have somewhere to turn with their media-driven hero worship. They are accustomed to fawning over Clinton or Obama, and even in 2020, they didn’t know who this Joe Biden was, but at least he seemed like a reasonable enough guy, standing there in his blue suit and nice blue tie with a smile on his face and a wife by his side.

By all appearances, they had a place to go with their imaginary vote against Trump. I sense already that Kamala Harris seems perfectly fine to the uninformed Euros.

Honestly, I don’t think I have ever met anyone who actually voted FOR Biden. All his millions of votes were AGAINST Trump. Surely we can all agree on that one. Right?

The question is pervasive- “Is this all we have?” As I said before he pulled out, the Democrats have an 81-year-old man who should probably be in a nursing home. Certainly, he would never be hired by any corporation, large or small, to ‘run the business’. He cannot speak coherently, mumbles nonsense, and probably sleeps most of the day. My guess is that he wears diapers. He seems like a nice enough person, despite the corruption charges being investigated and well proven if anyone wants to view them objectively. Even though I don’t agree with Biden’s politics, I can see why people have liked him in times past. For just one example of how bad is Biden, watch his interview in the White House with an absolute nut-case transgender guy/gal. Biden calls people like me “immoral” for believing in the Bible and common sense . He is surely the most “un-catholic” Catholic in history.

And the Republicans also had some other good choices this year, or so I thought. There were at least five potential candidates who I could have voted for without holding my nose too high. But no, instead, somehow it was not even close and once again we have Trump, who isn’t far behind his rival in age, but at least seems like the same guy we already know all too well.

He is clearly a better politician and was even a better President than he is a husband or a saint. He’s a fighter and a do-something guy, but also the disgusting epidemy of narcissism and ego. He is a survivor, for sure. And now that he has actually been “saved” from the assassin’s bullet, we all hope that somehow he will understand the need someday to be “saved” for real, admitting he is a sinner in need of the Grace of God that his speechwriters seem to barely understand..

So, this story has been sitting on my computer for many days, and as I wrap it up on July 25, 2024, the internet tells me that Kamala Harris will now be the nominee, So, the craziness of religion and politics gets even crazier. The Dems have traded in their very liberal and confused Catholic nominee for a lady who is either Baptist or Hindu, depending on what day it is. Her Hindu mom, Shyamala Gopalan, named her Kamala Devi after a Hindu goddess. Kamala means ‘lotus’ and is another name for the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. She is proud of her culture “which worships goddesses that produce strong women.” Her Jamaican father divorced her mom when she was seven, and Kamala was raised by this single Hindu mom, attending both the Hindu temples and a black Baptist church. Oh well. And I thought I was confused.

I must add that J.D. Vance, the VP nominee of Trump, has been known to me for some time since his roots are really from Jackson, Kentucky, deep in the hillbilly mountains of my father. When I read “Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016, it was almost like reading about my own family.

So, I really like J.D. But having said that, I am trying to reconcile his newfound ‘religion’ of becoming Catholic in 2019 while celebrating his wife’s Hindu traditions. A Catholic hillbilly with a Hindu wife is even odder than a British Hindu Prime Minister.

So there you go. I am sure that every single person with an interest in politics or religion, whether the USA style or the UK style, has found something in this story to be offended about. I am sorry.

I think I have covered all the bases in proving that you should never discuss religion or politics.

But to be honest, you should forgive me because I am so confused. I am dazed by the news of the summer of 2024. Are you?