Hillary Clinton deserves oblivion in November for comments she made at a fundraiser in New York City last Friday.  Her "basket of deplorables" characterization of Trump supporters should be enough to persuade voters that she is unfit to be president.  After all, the presidency would require her to represent all Americans, not just those who voted for her, including millions of Trump supporters.  We have had enough divisiveness in this country after eight years of Obama.

As revolting as her "basket of deplorables" characterization undoubtedly is, what she said a few sentences later is far worse.  Here is the passage taken from a Time transcript:  

We are living in a volatile political environment. You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now how 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks – they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.

The last sentence claims that people allegedly guilty of "racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamaphobia" and of "offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric" are, as Clinton put it, "irredeemable."

Now, never mind that these alleged transgressions are by no means equally serious from a moral point of view.  Common sense says racism is far more serious than the other alleged offenses.  It is perfectly rational to fear Muslims bent on murder and not at all "xenophobic" to vet carefully anyone seeking to enter our country.  As to "offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric," it describes Clinton's "basked of deplorables."

Well, never mind.

When an educated native speaker uses a word of English, we may assume that the dictionary meaning is what is intended.  Webster's Unabridged lists four meanings of "irredeemable":

1. that cannot be brought back.

2. that cannot be converted into coin, as certain kinds of paper money.

3. that cannot be changed; hopeless.

4. that cannot be reformed; beyond redemption.

The first two do not apply.  The third is clear enough.  The last one before the semicolon is also clear.

For the rest we need a definition of "redemption," of which Webster's provides five, of which the fifth is relevant.  It is in two parts:

5a. in theology, the purchase of God's favor by the death and suffering of Christ.

5b. in theology, the ransom or deliverance of sinners from the bondage of sin and the penalties of God's violated law.

"hopeless," "cannot be reformed"

Clinton described as "irredeemable" some of the 11 million Trump supporters tweeting "offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric."  How many is "some" we don't know.  We also don't know how she would decide whether this or that tweet qualifies as "offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric."  If you think this smacks of Big Brother and the Star Chamber, so do I.

More importantly, the question is what a Clinton administration would do about the "hopeless" part of these 11 million, people who allegedly "cannot be reformed," a group that may well grow much larger by Election Day.  After all, they are presumably American citizens, entitled to all of their constitutional rights.

It's not as if a windowless van can pull up to the house of a citizen deemed "hopeless" who "cannot be reformed" and drag that person away, never to be seen again.  This isn't Stalin's Russia during the Great Terror, when this sort of thing happened routinely to anyone considered an "enemy of the state."     

As an attorney – though she failed the bar exam in the District of Columbia – Hillary Clinton knows, or should know, that her characterizations are just hot air.  They have no practical, enforceable meaning.  A U.S. president even trying to jail citizens deemed "enemies of the state" would soon face a national insurrection.  Such a stunt would go way, way beyond Obama's "pen and phone" lawlessness.

"beyond redemption"

Keep in mind that the language Clinton used was not improvised in front of the cameras.  She read a prepared text off a teleprompter.  Someone wrote that text; Clinton and others on her staff read and approved it.  It was a staged event.

Many Christians must have been shocked to hear Clinton use language that has clear and serious theological meaning.  An American politician has no business sitting in religious judgment and declaring millions of people anathema.  The very idea is...well, crazy.

Make no mistake about it: Hillary Clinton stood before cameras and told millions of Christians they are damned to hell for all eternity for supporting Donald Trump.  I hope Trump brings up this issue during the upcoming debates.  Christian leaders should speak out in the meantime.