ONE SHOW. TWO MEN. NO RULES..

OVERVIEW:

There are many sources of information that people use to infer what might be true about God, including observation and revelation:

The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion.[1] A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God can be categorized as logical, empirical, metaphysical, subjective or scientific. In philosophical terms, the question of the existence of God involves the disciplines of epistemology (the nature and scope of knowledge) and ontology (study of the nature of being or existence) and the theory of value (since some definitions of God include "perfection").

The Western tradition of philosophical discussion of the existence of God began with Plato and Aristotle, who made arguments for the existence of a being responsible for fashioning the universe, referred to as the demiurge or the unmoved mover, that today would be categorized as cosmological arguments. Other arguments for the existence of God have been proposed by St. Anselm, who formulated the first ontological argument; Thomas Aquinas, who presented his own version of the cosmological argument (the first way); René Descartes, who said that the existence of a benevolent God is logically necessary for the evidence of the senses to be meaningful. John Calvin argued for a sensus divinitatis, which gives each human a knowledge of God's existence. Islamic philosophers who developed arguments for the existence of God comprise Averroes, who made arguments influenced by Aristotle's concept of the unmoved mover; Al-Ghazali and Al-Kindi, who presented the Kalam cosmological argument; Avicenna, who presented the Proof of the Truthful; and Al-Farabi, who made Neoplatonic arguments.

In philosophy, and more specifically in the philosophy of religion, atheism refers to the proposition that God does not exist.[2] Some religions, such as Jainism, reject the possibility of a creator deity. Philosophers who have provided arguments against the existence of God include David Hume, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Bertrand Russell.

Theism, the proposition that God exists, is the dominant view among philosophers of religion.[3] In a 2020 PhilPapers survey, 69.50% of philosophers of religion stated that they accept or lean towards theism, while 19.86% stated they accept or lean towards atheism.[4] Prominent contemporary philosophers of religion who defended theism include Alvin Plantinga, Yujin Nagasawa, John Hick, Richard Swinburne, and William Lane Craig, while those who defended atheism include Graham Oppy, Paul Draper, Quentin Smith, J. L. Mackie, and J. L. Schellenberg.

Traditional religious definition of God

In modern Western societies, the concepts of God typically entail a monotheistic, supreme, ultimate, and personal being, as found in the Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions. In monotheistic religions outside the Abrahamic traditions, the existence of God is discussed in similar terms. In these traditions, God is also identified as the author (either directly or by inspiration) of certain texts, or that certain texts describe specific historical events caused by the God in question or communications from God (whether in direct speech or via dreams or omens). Some traditions also believe that God is the entity which is currently answering prayers for intervention or information or opinions.

Moses ben Maimon, widely known as Maimonides, was a Jewish scholar who tried to logically prove the existence of God. Maimonides offered proofs for the existence of God, but he did not begin with defining God first, like many others do. Rather, he used the description of the earth and the universe to prove the existence of God. He talked about the Heavenly bodies and how they are committed to eternal motion. Maimonides argued that because every physical object is finite, it can only contain a finite amount of power. If everything in the universe, which includes all the planets and the stars, is finite, then there has to be an infinite power to push forth the motion of everything in the universe. Narrowing down to an infinite being, the only thing that can explain the motion is an infinite being (meaning God) which is neither a body nor a force in the body. Maimonides believed that this argument gives us a ground to believe that God is, not an idea of what God is. He believed that God cannot be understood or be compared.[10]

Non-personal definitions of God

Deism and panentheism assert that there is a God distinct from, or which extends beyond (either in time or in space or in some other way) the universe. These positions deny that God intervenes in the operation of the universe, including communicating with humans personally. The notion that God never intervenes or communicates with the universe, or may have evolved into the universe (as in pandeism), makes it difficult, if not by definition impossible, to distinguish between a universe with God and one without.

The Ethics of Baruch Spinoza gave two demonstrations of the existence of God.[11] The God of Spinoza is uncaused by any external force and has no free will, it is not personal and not anthropomorphic.

Debate about how theism should be argued

The argument that the existence of God can be known to all, even prior to exposure to any divine revelation, predates Christianity.[clarification needed] Paul the Apostle made this argument when he said that pagans were without excuse because "since the creation of the world God's invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made".[13] In this, Paul alludes to the proofs for a creator, later enunciated by Thomas Aquinas[14] and others, that had also been explored by the Greek philosophers.

Another apologetical school of thought, including Dutch and American Reformed thinkers (such as Abraham Kuyper, Benjamin Warfield, and Herman Dooyeweerd), emerged in the late 1920s. This school was instituted by Cornelius Van Til, and came to be popularly called presuppositional apologetics (though Van Til felt "transcendental" would be a more accurate title). The main distinction between this approach and the more classical evidentialist approach is that the presuppositionalist denies any common ground between the believer and the non-believer, except that which the non-believer denies, namely, the assumption of the truth of the theistic worldview. In other words, presuppositionalists do not believe that the existence of God can be proven by appeal to raw, uninterpreted, or "brute" facts, which have the same (theoretical) meaning to people with fundamentally different worldviews, because they deny that such a condition is even possible. They claim that the only possible proof for the existence of God is that the very same belief is the necessary condition to the intelligibility of all other human experience and action. They attempt to prove the existence of God by means of appeal to the transcendental necessity of the belief—indirectly (by appeal to the unavowed presuppositions of the non-believer's worldview) rather than directly (by appeal to some form of common factuality). In practice this school uses what have come to be known as transcendental arguments. These arguments claim to demonstrate that all human experience and action (even the condition of unbelief, itself) is a proof for the existence of God, because God's existence is the necessary condition of their intelligibility.

Protestant Christians note that the Christian faith teaches "salvation is by faith",[15] and that faith is reliance upon the faithfulness of God. The most extreme example of this position is called fideism, which holds that faith is simply the will to believe, and argues that if God's existence were rationally demonstrable, faith in its existence would become superfluous. Søren Kierkegaard argued that objective knowledge, such as 1+1=2, is unimportant to existence. If God could rationally be proven, his existence would be unimportant to humans.[citation needed] It is because God cannot rationally be proven that his existence is important to us. In The Justification of Knowledge, the Calvinist theologian Robert L. Reymond argues that believers should not attempt to prove the existence of God. Since he believes all such proofs are fundamentally unsound, believers should not place their confidence in them, much less resort to them in discussions with non-believers; rather, they should accept the content of revelation by faith. Reymond's position is similar to that of his mentor Gordon Clark, which holds that all worldviews are based on certain unprovable first premises (or, axioms), and therefore are ultimately unprovable. The Christian theist therefore must simply choose to start with Christianity rather than anything else, by a "leap of faith". This position is also sometimes called presuppositional apologetics, but should not be confused with the Van Tillian variety.

According to Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God as chronicled in the Bible's New Testament, and in most Christian denominations He is held to be God the Son, a prosopon (Person) of the Trinity of God.

Christians believe him to be the messiah, or a saviour (giving him the title Christ), who was prophesied in the Bible's Old Testament. Through Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection, Christians believe that God offers humans salvation and eternal life,[1] with Jesus's death atoning for all sin, thus making humanity right with God. The commonly held belief among Christians is the phrase, "Jesus died for your sins," and thus they accept that salvation is only possible through him.[2]

These teachings emphasize that as the Lamb of God, Jesus chose to suffer nailed to the cross at Calvary as a sign of his obedience to the will of God, as an "agent and servant of God".[3][4] Jesus's choice positions him as a man of obedience, in contrast to Adam's disobedience.[5] According to the New Testament, after God raised him from the dead,[6] Jesus ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father,[7] with his followers awaiting his return to Earth and God's subsequent Last Judgment.[8]

According to the gospel accounts, Jesus was born of a virgin, instructed other Jews how to follow God (sometimes using parables), performed miracles and gathered disciples. Christians generally believe that this narrative is historically true.

While there has been theological debate over the nature of Jesus, Trinitarian Christians believe that Jesus is the Logos, God incarnate (God in human form), God the Son, and "true God and true man"—fully divine and fully human. Jesus, having become fully human in all respects, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, yet he did not sin.

WHO WROTE THE BIBLE?

Over centuries, billions of people have read the Bible. Scholars have spent their lives studying it, while rabbis, ministers and priests have focused on interpreting, teaching and preaching from its pages.

As the sacred text for two of the world’s leading religions, Judaism and Christianity, as well as other faiths, the Bible has also had an unmatched influence on literature—particularly in the Western world. It has been translated into nearly 700 languages, and while exact sales figures are hard to come by, it’s widely considered to be the world’s best-selling book.

But despite the Bible’s undeniable influence, mysteries continue to linger over its origins. Even after nearly 2,000 years of its existence, and centuries of investigation by biblical scholars, we still don’t know with certainty who wrote its various texts, when they were written or under what circumstances.

The Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, narrates the history of the people of Israel over about a millennium, beginning with God’s creation of the world and humankind, and contains the stories, laws and moral lessons that form the basis of religious life for both Jews and Christians.

For at least 1,000 years, both Jewish and Christian tradition held that a single author wrote the first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—which together are known as the Torah (Hebrew for “instruction”) and the Pentateuch (Greek for “five scrolls”). That single author was believed to be Moses, the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and guided them across the Red Sea toward the Promised Land.

Yet nearly from the beginning, readers of the Bible observed that there were things in the so-called Five Books of Moses that Moses himself could not possibly have witnessed: His own death, for example, occurs near the end of Deuteronomy. A volume of the Talmud, the collection of Jewish laws recorded between the 3rd and 5th centuries A.D., dealt with this inconsistency by explaining that Joshua (Moses’ successor as leader of the Israelites) likely wrote the verses about Moses’ death.

“That's one opinion among many,” says Joel Baden, a professor at Yale Divinity School and author of The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis. “But they're already asking the question—was it possible or not possible for [Moses] to have written them?”

By the time the Enlightenment began in the 17th century, most religious scholars were more seriously questioning the idea of Moses’ authorship, as well as the idea that the Bible could possibly have been the work of any single author. Those first five books were filled with contradictory, repetitive material, and often seemed to tell different versions of the Israelites’ story even within a single section of text.

As Baden explains, the “classic example” of this confusion is the story of Noah and the flood (Genesis 6:9). “You read along and you say, I don’t know how many animals Noah took on the ark with him,” he says. “In this sentence it says two of every animal. In this sentence, he takes two of some animals and 14 of any animals.” Similarly, the text records the length of the flood as 40 days in one place, and 150 days in another.

To explain the Bible’s contradictions, repetitions and general idiosyncrasies, most scholars today agree that the stories and laws it contains were communicated orally, through prose and poetry, over centuries. Starting around the 7th century B.C., different groups, or schools, of authors wrote them down at different times, before they were at some point (probably during the first century B.C.) combined into the single, multi-layered work we know today.

Of the three major blocks of source material that scholars agree comprise the Bible’s first five books, the first was believed to have been written by a group of priests, or priestly authors, whose work scholars designate as “P.” A second block of source material is known as “D”—for Deuteronomist, meaning the author(s) of the vast majority of the book of Deuteronomy. “The two of them are not really related to each other in any significant way,” Baden explains, “except that they're both giving laws and telling a story of Israel's early history.”

According to some scholars, including Baden, the third major block of source material in the Torah can be divided into two different, equally coherent schools, named for the word that each uses for God: Yahweh and Elohim. The stories using the name Elohim are classified as “E,” while the others are called “J” (for Jawhe, the German translation of Yahweh). Other scholars don't agree on two complete sources for the non-priestly material. Instead, says Baden, they see a much more gradual process, in which material from numerous smaller sources was layered together over a longer period of time.

Just as the Old Testament chronicles the story of the Israelites in the millennium or so leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ, the New Testament records Jesus’s life, from his birth and teachings to his death and later resurrection, a narrative that forms the fundamental basis of Christianity. Beginning around A.D. 70, about four decades after Jesus’s crucifixion (according to the Bible), four anonymously written chronicles of his life emerged that would become central documents in the Christian faith. Named for Jesus’s most devoted earthly disciples, or apostles—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—the four canonical Gospels were traditionally thought to be eyewitness accounts of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection.

But for more than a century, scholars have generally agreed that the Gospels, like many of the books of the New Testament, were not actually written by the people to whom they are attributed. In fact, it seems clear that the stories that form the basis of Christianity were first communicated orally, and passed down from generation to generation, before they were collected and written down.

“Names are attached to the titles of the Gospels (‘the Gospel according to Matthew’),” writes Bible scholar Bart Ehrman in his book Jesus, Interrupted. “But these titles are later additions to the Gospels, provided by editors and scribes to inform readers who the editors thought were the authorities behind the different versions.”

Traditionally, 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament were attributed to Paul the Apostle, who famously converted to Christianity after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus and wrote a series of letters that helped spread the faith throughout the Mediterranean world. But scholars now agree on the authenticity of only seven of Paul’s epistles: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon. These are believed to have been written between A.D. 50-60, making them the earliest known evidence for Christianity. Authors of the later epistles may have been followers of Paul, who used his name to lend authenticity to the works.

By the 4th century A.D., Christianity had been established as the dominant religion in the Western world, and the New and Old Testaments as its most sacred texts. In the centuries to come, the Bible would only become more central to the lives and faiths of millions of people around the world, despite the mystery surrounding its origins and the ongoing, complex debate over its authorship. 

Mr. Schlatter is a veteran of over 60 years in network television. He produced the first 5 years of the Grammy Awards plus series and specials starring Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Eddie Murphy, Cher, Elton John, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Doris Day, Jonathan Winters, Richard Pryor, Shirley MacLaine, Bill Cosby, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, Nat King Cole, Placido Domingo and scores of others.

In 1987, George Schlatter created and for 15 years produced the American Comedy Awards, an annual televised event designed to acknowledge the contributions and achievements of comedic actors and performers. George says, “Of all the work I’ve done, I am perhaps most proud of my involvement in the early careers of performers like Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin, Roseanne, Robin Williams, Ellen DeGeneres, and others who have gone on to greater heights. Working with stars is rewarding, but helping to create stars is the most fulfilling of all accomplishments.”

In 1996, the Museum of Television & Radio did a special tribute to him for his contributions in the world of television.

In honor of Frank Sinatra’s milestone 80th birthday, George produced the Emmy-winning critically acclaimed special, Sinatra 80 Years: My Way.  Other credits include the Sammy Davis, Jr. 60th Anniversary Celebration, which also won an Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special in 1990, the Muhammad Ali 50th & 60th Birthday Celebrations, Welcome Home America, the USO 50th Anniversary, The People’s Choice Awards, the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award Salutes to Dustin Hoffman and Harrison Ford, and both the 54th and 55th Presidential Inaugural Opening Ceremonies of George W. Bush.

In 2013, Pepperdine University presented Still Laugh-In, A Toast to George Schlatter acknowledging his innovative contributions to television over many decades and in December, 2014, George was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pepperdine in recognition of his lifelong achievements.

Most recently he produced a comedy collection for Sirius Radio and Still Laugh-In: The Stars Celebrate for Netflix.

Besides his work in television, George has been honored for his showmanship and involvement in many charitable causes including Finding a Cure… Nancy Reagan: A Love Story (for Juvenile Diabetes Research) and the Los Angeles Opera on Stage Gala starring Placido Domingo. Since 1990 he has produced every Carousel of Hope Ball for the Children’s Diabetes Foundation, which has built and benefits the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes in Denver, Colorado.

To further his support of comedy and the people who perform it, George has become an active supporter and Board Member of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York. He has donated much of his material to them and they have named their theater The George and Jolene Brand Schlatter Theater in his honor.

George’s book, Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy was released in July, 2023. In it he shares many of the hilarious adventures he had in his early years of television.

George is married to former actress Jolene Brand who was a regular on the Ernie Kovacs Show and they have two daughters. Maria is an Emmy award winning television producer and is now writing for the theater. Andrea Justine is a champion equestrian rider and trainer.

Footage of the incident showed Trump clasping his right ear before taking cover on the floor behind the podium, where he was surrounded by Secret Service personnel. After agents helped him to his feet, photographer Evan Vucci of the Associated Press captured images of a bloodied Trump pumping his fist in the air, with an American flag in the background, that went viral on social media and have been widely praised as iconic and historically important. Trump mouthed,[11][12] or shouted,[13] the words "Fight! Fight! Fight!" as he was escorted off-stage to his motorcade.[6][14] Taken to a nearby hospital, he was released a few hours later in stable condition. He made his first public appearance after the shooting two days later at the 2024 Republican National Convention.[15]

Following the shooting, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers expressed concerns about security arrangements at the event, including the failure to secure access to the roof from which Crooks had fired the shots. Public figures called for increased security for the major candidates in the election.[16] Crooks, who had borrowed the legally purchased rifle from his father, had no criminal record and his motive for the shooting is unknown. No ideology is indicated in his social media posts or other writings,[17] and authorities have stated that it is unknown whether the assassination attempt was related to his political views.[18] Experts considered the shooting a sign of political polarization in the United States, and political figures called for a reduction in tensions.[19][20] Soon after the shooting, misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories quickly spread on social media.[21]

At the time of the incident, Donald Trump was the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election.[22] The shooting occurred two days before the July 15 start of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[23] This was the second attempt at violence toward Trump during one of his rallies; the first was in 2016, when a man attempted to grab a security officer's gun at a rally outside of Las Vegas.[24]

On July 3, 2024,[25] it was announced that Trump would hold a rally on July 13 at the Butler Farm Show Grounds in Connoquenessing Township and Meridian, near Butler, Pennsylvania.[26][27][28][29] On July 10, an advance team began setting up for the rally, including the installation of generators in a large open field.[30] The rally was part of the Trump campaign's attempts to garner votes in Pennsylvania, which polling indicates is a swing state;[31] the state has 19 votes in the Electoral College.[23] David McCormick, the Republican nominee in the state's concurrent U.S. Senate election, was invited to appear onstage during the rally to increase support for his campaign.[32] U.S. Representative Mike Kelly said he had contacted the Trump campaign to recommend holding the rally in an area that could handle a larger crowd than the Butler Farm Show Grounds, and that their response was, "We appreciate your input but we've already made up our minds".[23]

Attendees at Trump's rallies are screened for prohibited items, including weapons.[33] The Secret Service routinely screens and monitors nearby buildings and businesses, including structures outside security perimeters.[34] Four separate counter-sniper teams were assigned to the event, two from the Secret Service and two from local law enforcement.[35] The Pennsylvania State Police, which serves as the law enforcement agency for Connoquenessing Township, were also involved in security matters. Butler Township police were given traffic duties.[29] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had no information about any particular threats before the event.[36] The Secret Service had increased Trump's security detail in prior weeks due to intelligence indicating that Iran was plotting to assassinate Trump.[37][38]

When President Ronald Reagan was shot by an attention-seeking drifter in 1981, the country united behind its injured leader. The teary-eyed Democratic speaker of the House, Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., went to the hospital room of the Republican president, held his hands, kissed his head and got on his knees to pray for him.

But the assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump seems more likely to tear America further apart than to bring it together. Within minutes of the shooting, the air was filled with anger, bitterness, suspicion and recrimination. Fingers were pointed, conspiracy theories advanced and a country already bristling with animosity fractured even more.

The fact that the shooting in Butler, Pa., on Saturday night was two days before Republicans were set to gather in Milwaukee for their nominating convention invariably put the event in a partisan context. While Democrats bemoaned political violence, which they have long faulted Mr. Trump for encouraging, Republicans instantly blamed President Biden and his allies for the attack, which they argued stemmed from incendiary language labeling the former president a proto-fascist who would destroy democracy.

Mr. Trump’s eldest son, his campaign strategist and a running mate finalist all attacked the political left within hours of the shooting even before the gunman was identified or his motive determined. “Well of course they tried to keep him off the ballot, they tried to put him in jail and now you see this,” wrote Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the former president.

But the Trump campaign seemed to think better of it, and the post was deleted. A memo sent out on Sunday by Mr. LaCivita and Susie Wiles, another senior adviser, instructed Trump team members not to comment on the shooting.

Either way, the episode could fuel Mr. Trump’s narrative about being the victim of persecution by Democrats. Impeached, indicted, sued and convicted, Mr. Trump even before Saturday had accused Democrats of seeking to have him shot by F.B.I. agents or even executed for crimes that do not carry the death penalty.

After being wounded at the rally, Mr. Trump, with blood staining his face, pumped his fist at the crowd and shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

What exactly drove the gunman, who was quickly killed by Secret Service counter snipers, remained a matter of speculation. Identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, Pa., he was a registered Republican but had also given $15 to a progressive group on Mr. Biden’s Inauguration Day, more than three years ago. The authorities said they were still investigating his motive.

The shooting came at a time when the United States was already deeply polarized along ideological, cultural and partisan lines — split, it often seems, into two countries, even two realities. More than at any time in generations, Americans do not see themselves in a collective enterprise but perceive themselves on opposite sides of modern ramparts.

The divisions have grown so stark that a Marist poll in May found that 47 percent of Americans considered a second civil war likely or very likely in their lifetime, a notion that prompted Hollywood to release a movie imagining what that could look like.

The propulsive crescendo of disruptive events lately has led many to compare 2024 to 1968, a year of racial strife, riots in the cities and the assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Protests over the Vietnam War helped prompt President Lyndon B. Johnson to drop out of his race for re-election that year.

Until now, there had been one important difference. “Of all the similarities between 1968 and 2024, the lack of political violence this year has been one of the key areas where the years diverge,” said Luke A. Nichter, a historian at Chapman University and the author of “The Year That Broke Politics,” a history of 1968. “That is no more.”

Michael Kazin, a historian at Georgetown University, said political violence had a long history in America. “As in 1968 — or 1919 or 1886 or 1861 — the violence that just occurred is rather inevitable in a society as bitterly divided as ours,” he said. “And of course there’s actually less violence in politics now than there was in those other years.”

Republicans turned the tables on Democrats this weekend, arguing that if Mr. Trump was responsible for provocative rhetoric, then Mr. Biden should be as well. Speaking with donors on Monday, the president said he wanted to stop talking about his poor debate performance and instead “put Trump in a bull’s-eye.” He described his strategy as “attack, attack, attack.”

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio and a front-runner to be named Mr. Trump’s running mate, wrote on social media two hours after the attack on Saturday. “That rhetoric directly led to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

One of the most downloaded songs in America is about the book of Revelation. John Rich says he channeled the entire thing from God.

Watch more here: https://watchtcn.co/49CDF2t

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Chapters:

00:00 Intro

02:41 John Rich’s Song Inspired by God

06:23 Eminem and the dark side of the mainstream music industry

19:37 The Mark of the Beast

23:42 The Attempt on Trump’s Life

31:35 The Attacks on Christianity

49:06 Reacting to the dismissal of Trump’s classified documents case

1:15:55 John Rich’s Dad Preaching in Prisons

When President Ronald Reagan was shot by an attention-seeking drifter in 1981, the country united behind its injured leader. The teary-eyed Democratic speaker of the House, Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., went to the hospital room of the Republican president, held his hands, kissed his head and got on his knees to pray for him.

But the assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump seems more likely to tear America further apart than to bring it together. Within minutes of the shooting, the air was filled with anger, bitterness, suspicion and recrimination. Fingers were pointed, conspiracy theories advanced and a country already bristling with animosity fractured even more.

The fact that the shooting in Butler, Pa., on Saturday night was two days before Republicans were set to gather in Milwaukee for their nominating convention invariably put the event in a partisan context. While Democrats bemoaned political violence, which they have long faulted Mr. Trump for encouraging, Republicans instantly blamed President Biden and his allies for the attack, which they argued stemmed from incendiary language labeling the former president a proto-fascist who would destroy democracy.

Mr. Trump’s eldest son, his campaign strategist and a running mate finalist all attacked the political left within hours of the shooting even before the gunman was identified or his motive determined. “Well of course they tried to keep him off the ballot, they tried to put him in jail and now you see this,” wrote Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the former president.

But the Trump campaign seemed to think better of it, and the post was deleted. A memo sent out on Sunday by Mr. LaCivita and Susie Wiles, another senior adviser, instructed Trump team members not to comment on the shooting.

Either way, the episode could fuel Mr. Trump’s narrative about being the victim of persecution by Democrats. Impeached, indicted, sued and convicted, Mr. Trump even before Saturday had accused Democrats of seeking to have him shot by F.B.I. agents or even executed for crimes that do not carry the death penalty.

After being wounded at the rally, Mr. Trump, with blood staining his face, pumped his fist at the crowd and shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

What exactly drove the gunman, who was quickly killed by Secret Service counter snipers, remained a matter of speculation. Identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, Pa., he was a registered Republican but had also given $15 to a progressive group on Mr. Biden’s Inauguration Day, more than three years ago. The authorities said they were still investigating his motive.

The shooting came at a time when the United States was already deeply polarized along ideological, cultural and partisan lines — split, it often seems, into two countries, even two realities. More than at any time in generations, Americans do not see themselves in a collective enterprise but perceive themselves on opposite sides of modern ramparts.

The divisions have grown so stark that a Marist poll in May found that 47 percent of Americans considered a second civil war likely or very likely in their lifetime, a notion that prompted Hollywood to release a movie imagining what that could look like.

The propulsive crescendo of disruptive events lately has led many to compare 2024 to 1968, a year of racial strife, riots in the cities and the assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Protests over the Vietnam War helped prompt President Lyndon B. Johnson to drop out of his race for re-election that year.

Until now, there had been one important difference. “Of all the similarities between 1968 and 2024, the lack of political violence this year has been one of the key areas where the years diverge,” said Luke A. Nichter, a historian at Chapman University and the author of “The Year That Broke Politics,” a history of 1968. “That is no more.”

Michael Kazin, a historian at Georgetown University, said political violence had a long history in America. “As in 1968 — or 1919 or 1886 or 1861 — the violence that just occurred is rather inevitable in a society as bitterly divided as ours,” he said. “And of course there’s actually less violence in politics now than there was in those other years.”

Republicans turned the tables on Democrats this weekend, arguing that if Mr. Trump was responsible for provocative rhetoric, then Mr. Biden should be as well. Speaking with donors on Monday, the president said he wanted to stop talking about his poor debate performance and instead “put Trump in a bull’s-eye.” He described his strategy as “attack, attack, attack.”

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio and a front-runner to be named Mr. Trump’s running mate, wrote on social media two hours after the attack on Saturday. “That rhetoric directly led to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

BOMBSHELL: Jerry Lewis’ second daughter, born March 23, 1992, was a blessing that brought much joy to Jerry and his wife, and rightly so. Finally, having a daughter he could love and publically call his own was very important to the man who had been previously denied that privilege. Sadly, a legal question arose during the planning stages of the adoption, causing dissension which resulted in a bitter breakup between the comedian and a close lifelong friend, one who had been instrumental in Jerry Lewis’ entrance into show business and his rise to fame. Author Rick Saphire was well acquainted with both parties in this matter and was unwittingly thrust into the middle of the firestorm. The author will discuss his personal observations in the book.

The REAL Jerry Lewis Story is not a biography of the famous American comedian but serves as an addendum to all that has been written about entertainer Jerry Lewis in the past. It offers corrections to the myriad of misinformation in past publications, media reports, and legal documents dating back to the day Jerry Lewis was born. The book exposes never-before-revealed details about Jerry Lewis' family, career, and life.

For clarity, Jerry Lewis is the alias, stage name, professional name, and theatrical name of entertainer Jerome Levitch. This book will explain, with the aid of court documentation, that Jerome Levitch’s name was never legally changed to Jerry Lewis, despite the fact that he signed that name on legal documents, including his draft card and his final will.

The REAL Jerry Lewis Story is scheduled to be officially announced on March 16, 2024, with a release date shortly thereafter. the author is entertainer and celebrity representative Rick Saphire, who first met Lewis in 1953. As a young performer, Rick Saphire was often referred to in the media as "Jerry Lewis’ protégé." Saphire appeared on network TV with Jerry Lewis in the 1960s and was his theatrical representative in the 2000s. The author also had the unique advantage of being close to Jerry Lewis' family, friends, and business acquaintances. Rick Saphire’s uncle and mentor, Ernest D. Glucksman, was the executive TV producer and director for Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis during their peak period in movies, and on television. when Jerry Lewis went solo, Glucksman remained Lewis’ executive producer while serving as the star’s personal manager.

As a child, Rick Saphire was the proverbial “fly on the wall,” witnessing much of the private interactions behind the scenes between Martin & Lewis and with Jerry Lewis himself. Saphire has also represented Jerry and Patti Lewis’ oldest son, the rock ’n’ roll legend Gary Lewis of Gary Lewis & the Playboys. He has shared his insights with Rick Saphire in preparation for this book.

BREAKING NEWS: The Forward for The REAL Jerry Lewis Story is written by Gary Lewis, who, for the first time, has authorized a frank discussion of family matters, some of which are pretty revealing and surprising.

NOTICE: A special chapter in The REAL Jerry Lewis Story is dedicated to Rick Saphire’s attempts to reunite Suzan Minoret with her biological father, Jerry Lewis. Minoret, who called herself Suzan Lewis, contacted the author by phone while she was homeless and living in her car in the State of Florida. She described herself as disabled and desperate to be acknowledged by the man she knew as her birth father. The author’s disturbing story of Suzan “Lewis” Minoret is told in-depth for the first time in chilling detail. It is a book within a book with exclusive photographs.

From beginning to end, the story of Jerome Levitch is that of a lonely child from Newark, New Jersey, who spent much of his youth hiding from himself. It’s the sad account of a man who portrayed some of the most beloved screen characters of all time, yet he spent much of his life trying to convince his fans that he was much more intelligent and far more sophisticated than the clown they loved. Although temporarily satisfying, Jerry Lewis knew that laughter and applause were no substitute for the safe, warm, and loving childhood Jerome Levitch craved but never knew.

eBOOK LAUNCH IS JULY 4, 2024 ON AMAZON

Pre-Order eBook Now. CLICK HERE

THE PHYSICAL BOOK DEBUTS LABOR DAY WEEKEND 2024

York Publications: Phone/Text: 856-424-1064

Email: [email protected]

Mail: Post Office Box 2903, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034

BOMBSHELL: Jerry Lewis’ second daughter, born March 23, 1992, was a blessing that brought much joy to Jerry and his wife, and rightly so. Finally, having a daughter he could love and publically call his own was very important to the man who had been previously denied that privilege. Sadly, a legal question arose during the planning stages of the adoption, causing dissension which resulted in a bitter breakup between the comedian and a close lifelong friend, one who had been instrumental in Jerry Lewis’ entrance into show business and his rise to fame. Author Rick Saphire was well acquainted with both parties in this matter and was unwittingly thrust into the middle of the firestorm. The author will discuss his personal observations in the book.

The REAL Jerry Lewis Story is not a biography of the famous American comedian but serves as an addendum to all that has been written about entertainer Jerry Lewis in the past. It offers corrections to the myriad of misinformation in past publications, media reports, and legal documents dating back to the day Jerry Lewis was born. The book exposes never-before-revealed details about Jerry Lewis' family, career, and life.

For clarity, Jerry Lewis is the alias, stage name, professional name, and theatrical name of entertainer Jerome Levitch. This book will explain, with the aid of court documentation, that Jerome Levitch’s name was never legally changed to Jerry Lewis, despite the fact that he signed that name on legal documents, including his draft card and his final will.

The REAL Jerry Lewis Story is scheduled to be officially announced on March 16, 2024, with a release date shortly thereafter. the author is entertainer and celebrity representative Rick Saphire, who first met Lewis in 1953. As a young performer, Rick Saphire was often referred to in the media as "Jerry Lewis’ protégé." Saphire appeared on network TV with Jerry Lewis in the 1960s and was his theatrical representative in the 2000s. The author also had the unique advantage of being close to Jerry Lewis' family, friends, and business acquaintances. Rick Saphire’s uncle and mentor, Ernest D. Glucksman, was the executive TV producer and director for Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis during their peak period in movies, and on television. when Jerry Lewis went solo, Glucksman remained Lewis’ executive producer while serving as the star’s personal manager.

As a child, Rick Saphire was the proverbial “fly on the wall,” witnessing much of the private interactions behind the scenes between Martin & Lewis and with Jerry Lewis himself. Saphire has also represented Jerry and Patti Lewis’ oldest son, the rock ’n’ roll legend Gary Lewis of Gary Lewis & the Playboys. He has shared his insights with Rick Saphire in preparation for this book.

BREAKING NEWS: The Forward for The REAL Jerry Lewis Story is written by Gary Lewis, who, for the first time, has authorized a frank discussion of family matters, some of which are pretty revealing and surprising.

NOTICE: A special chapter in The REAL Jerry Lewis Story is dedicated to Rick Saphire’s attempts to reunite Suzan Minoret with her biological father, Jerry Lewis. Minoret, who called herself Suzan Lewis, contacted the author by phone while she was homeless and living in her car in the State of Florida. She described herself as disabled and desperate to be acknowledged by the man she knew as her birth father. The author’s disturbing story of Suzan “Lewis” Minoret is told in-depth for the first time in chilling detail. It is a book within a book with exclusive photographs.

From beginning to end, the story of Jerome Levitch is that of a lonely child from Newark, New Jersey, who spent much of his youth hiding from himself. It’s the sad account of a man who portrayed some of the most beloved screen characters of all time, yet he spent much of his life trying to convince his fans that he was much more intelligent and far more sophisticated than the clown they loved. Although temporarily satisfying, Jerry Lewis knew that laughter and applause were no substitute for the safe, warm, and loving childhood Jerome Levitch craved but never knew.

eBOOK LAUNCH IS JULY 4, 2024 ON AMAZON

Pre-Order eBook Now. CLICK HERE

THE PHYSICAL BOOK DEBUTS LABOR DAY WEEKEND 2024

York Publications: Phone/Text: 856-424-1064

Email: [email protected]

Mail: Post Office Box 2903, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034