Last week we saw clips of the Congressional Prayer Breakfast. What most of us didn’t see were the remarks in context and in their entirety. As with snatches of incomplete news that are so prevalent these days, it led to people calling our President to the carpet for holding up a newspaper telling of the Senate’s vote and saying he didn’t like it when someone used their religion as an excuse to do something they know is wrong or who said, “I’m praying for you” when they really aren’t doing any such thing. Someone claimed the President’s words were a “missed opportunity”.
Arthur Brooks spoke before him with a theme of Jesus teaching us to love our enemies. He noted that marriages can be saved but for one thing: contempt by one partner. I refer you to the last State Of The Union Address.
President Trump, a relatively new Christian, remarked, I don’t know if I agree with you. . . I’m sorry. I apologize. I’m trying to learn. It’s not easy. When they impeach you for nothing and then you’re suppose to actually like them? I don’t think it’s that easy, folks. I’m doing my best. I find such honesty refreshing! For tucked into his honesty is confrontation of wrong.
That’s what we, as Christians, have been stumbling over for nearly half a century now. Keeping our mouths shut, thinking it’s better to ignore evil. (Perhaps if we don’t say anything the other person will realize the error of their ways on their own.) Thinking evil will be overcome with silence. (No harm, no foul.) Closing our eyes and saying love wins. I agree. Love wins, but, to borrow from Inigo Montoya, You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. It certainly doesn’t mean sidling up to workers of evil and pretending all is well. Thank heavens there’s finally a leader who calls out hypocrisy no matter where it lies. I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they (don’t). Is it possible the new Christian in the White House is doing what the rest of us should have been doing all along and haven’t? I don’t know about you, but it puts me to shame. Blame for the moral mess of our nation lies at the feet of the church.
And instead of encouraging this courageous man, some Christians find it easier to back bite him. Maybe, they think, if I criticize something, it will show I’m fair-minded. It relieves them of having his six. Of doing their best to fight for this country on the brink. All in the name of . . . what? When you’re in a battle is not the time to find fault with the guy fighting next to you.
The U.S.Army Creed says: I am an American Soldier. I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values. I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself. I am an expert and I am a professional. I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
We might not all be soldiers, but we must be warriors of another kind or this country will continue to descend into a hell the likes of which none of us has imagined. Is that the Christian’s job? You bet your salt and light it is.
Today’s political left doesn’t stand on scripture, it exploits it. It uses scripture to promote a twisted sort of love that accepts evil. And over the years, some Christians have not only not said anything, they’ve encouraged it. Jeremiah 23 has something to say about that. Read it if you dare, and weep if you must.
Christians who don’t recognize the difference between good and evil, can’t draw the important line at hypocrisy. Evil isn’t something to love, but to expose. Jesus looks for repentance from sin. (Not to continue sinning that grace may abound. – Romans 6:1) Scripture confronts us with this question: What communion does light have with darkness? (II Corinthians 6:14)
We also read in the scriptures of how God commanded kings to completely annihilate the enemy. When I was young, that seemed pretty extreme to me. Then I learned about things like cancer.
In fact, we bear witness to plenty of situations during the early life of Israel where things get pretty brutal. I think of the time Gideon told his son, Jether, to kill the two kings who were in front of them. They had killed much of Gideon’s family. But Jether was only a boy and was afraid, so Gideon carried out the judgment. You can read about it in Judges 8.
Is it possible (gasp) that God’s love does not tolerate evil?
Besides telling us to be forgiving and loving, Jesus also says, So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Rev. 3:16) That’s right. If we don’t stand on the side of truth and righteousness we’re as good as spit.
The President of our nation has been bullied for over three years without even one day off. Over. Three. Years. That wounds.
Maybe the new Christian in our midst, the one people love to hate and criticize because he defends what is good and fights like a street-fighter, has something to teach the rest of us.